Debts, threats, and ravioli: A beloved Las Vegas eatery gone

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — “How many dining today?”

It’s a question the hosts at Bella Vita asked customers waiting to be seated for an entertaining and fine dining Italian experience, but in the last year creditors and former employees demanding their paychecks would line up behind unseated patrons leading the hosts to ask, “How much does he owe you?”

Sergio Montegrande, owner of Bella Vita, said he doesn’t blame the employees for asking for their money as the local restaurant chain overextended to a third location and quickly formed debt with food vendors.

“I don’t blame anybody,” he said. “I blame it on that guy who I see in the mirror everyday, which is me.”

Montegrande said he wants to pay his employees, but his account is frozen after declaring bankruptcy— however that fails to explain alleged intimidation tactics and wage complaints filed to the Office of the Nevada Labor Commissioner which date back two years.

On Oct. 26, 2015, Bella Vita’s first location opened its doors at the pedestrian heavy area of The District at Green Valley Ranch to the delight of the community.

Vow renewals, fashion shows and fundraisers for suicide prevention were among the many community events held to bring residents in to enjoy the veal parmigiana and good company.

“It was just the most fun, most exciting restaurant that you could probably work at,” Vinny Mattielo, a former Bella Vita waiter, said. “It was just a great environment, and everyone was really cool.”

“They had so many people, all the politicians,” Mattielo said. “Everyone went there.”

State and city politicians frequented the restaurant for events hosted for veterans, firefighters, and yoga.

Advertisements for patio entertainment show all flavors of live entertainment, trumpet players, DJs, and keyboard music ensembles lined up on the Bella Vita performance calendar to entertain the esteemed guests.

Amid COVID-19 lockdown Bella Vita supplied penne alla vodka and rigatoni Bolognese to frontline workers at Henderson Hospital.

“They had so many people, all the politicians, everyone went there.”

Nevada State Governor Steve Sisolak, Henderson Mayor Debra March, Las Vegas Councilwoman Victoria Seaman, Las Vegas Mayor Pro Tem Michelle Fiore all stopping by during a single weekend to show their support during the business’s reopening after the COVID-19 lockdown.

Amid the 2020 mask mandate, Montegrande rushed to defend Sisolak after a photo he published on the restaurant’s Facebook page showed the governor not wearing a mask.

Montegrande later posted a second photo showing Sisolak in a mask.

“We would like to reassure everyone that proper social distancing was put in place,” the post read. “He was also wearing a mask, except for when he was eating and taking a picture.”

In October 2020, The City of Henderson awarded Bella Vita the “Key To The City” as Montegrande thanked City of Henderson police captains, councilmen and representatives of the local chamber of commerce.

When Bella Vita opened its Blue Diamond location Clark County Commissioner Justin Jones stood alongside the regular political crowd for a ribbon cutting.

After the second location opening, Montegrande could be seen snapping photos with other nearby restaurants encouraging his customers to support other businesses like Carnitas King.

Mattielo remembered Montegrande as a boss who would treat “everyone like gold” handing out $100 bills as tips to staff.

“He was that charismatic,” he said. “He would treat you super good for that split second and then he’s onto the next person.”

Fundraisers were held to draw support for Trish Nash’s Henderson City Council campaign in December 2021 and for Kevin McMahill’s sheriff’s campaign in February 2022.

“He would treat you super good for that split second and then he’s onto the next person.”

Henderson Mayor Elect Michelle Romero attended an Indigo Moon Yoga patio event focusing on mental health awareness, according to one pamphlet.

Popular local social media influencers like Greg Chin were tagged in wine and paint events at the new Blue Diamond location and Tedd Florendo, 8 News Now Meteorologist, judged one Halloween costume contests during his weather report.

After the Best in Las Vegas results were released, Montegrande stood outside the restaurant holding the announcement for Best Italian restaurant, best Henderson restaurant, best specialty cocktails, best outdoor dining, and best happy hour.

American Dream TV and Pursue Las Vegas, two digital television shows, stopped by to capture the tarantella music and bruschetta enjoyed by the crowd of “regulars.”

Las Vegas Strip performers like Terry Fator and Gene Simmons both were celebrated as guests of honor before gelato was served.

Even Chance, the Golden Knights mascot, and Marc-Andre Fleury posed alongside Montegrande, where during game nights free shots were handed out every time a knight scored a goal.

Montegrande was heard frequently stressing to customers, politicians, and local celebrities the importance of family, but now his employees want to know why they were let go, allegedly intimidated, and never paid.

“We were so supposed to be a family,” Mattielo said.

Bad economy

Montegrande said his restaurant had no problem with employees, finances or food vendors for nine years, but in 2023 he took a risk with expanding his restaurant to two new locations in the Blue Diamond and Boca Park areas.

“We were in a situation in 2023 where The District was doing less, we were paying for Blue Diamond, we were paying for Boca Park,” he said. “We never had a problem before.”

Financial documents provided by Montegrande show The District location was profitable bringing in $901,100 in 2014, to $3.8 million in the six years following.

In 2022, Bella Vita saw a drop of nearly 50 percent of restaurant profits from $324,000 a month to $170,000.

Montegrande said he had a choice to make when his restaurants started to buckle under inflation and backpay from food vendors in 2020: to pay the rent or to pay his employees.

“If you don’t pay the rent, they’re all going to lose their jobs,” he said. “I had a tough decision to make but honestly it broke my heart.”

“I had a tough decision to make but honestly it broke my heart.”

Employees were allegedly told their paychecks would come late due to increased restaurants costs and the add expenses of two new expansions.

In total 19 wage board complaints were filed by Bella Vita employees, but that’s a number Montegrande said should be higher.

“It should be more than 19,” Montegrande said. “Because we had like 40 people at The District you know.”

Montegrande provided 8 News Now with documents from the Office of the Nevada Labor Commissioner showing four wage complaints have been closed, leaving 15 employees with outstanding complaints still open.

“We’re out of pasta”

Lea Kohberger, former Bella Vita bartender, said she knew something was wrong as soon as she was hired and saw the restaurant from behind the bar.

“They were going to Walmart to buy Barefoot Wine for our house wine for happy hour,” she said. “Canola oil blend for olive oil service.”

Concerns began to grow as specialty food and beverage vendors, which bring non-store brand goods to fine dining establishments, stopped showing up to supply the restaurants.

According to three food vendor lawsuits against Bella Vita, gourmet food and alcohol for the specialty cocktails began to wane once suppliers stopped receiving payment from Montegrande.

Three food distributors Ocean Express Seafood, Bellissimo Food Distribution and World Variety Produce allege that from August to October of 2022, Montegrande stopped making payments for their products, totaling to over $75,000.

Daniel Esslinger, former Bella Vita general manager, saw the vendors stop arriving at The District location and began to see the red flags.

“We weren’t able to get alcohol from our vendors because they weren’t being paid,” he said. “Me and my management team would have to go to Costco and Lee’s Liquor to purchase alcohol.”

Esslinger says he was directed to use Kirkland-brand alcohol in more expensive liquor bottles due to the absence of vendors providing top grade goods.

“We would use it to fill bottles of Tito’s and Grey Goose,” he said.

The same order came for food according to Esslinger who would go to grocery stores around town with his management team to supply the restaurant.

“They were going to Walmart to buy Barefoot Wine for our house wine for happy hour.”

Montegrande disagreed with the allegation of any direct order to use different brands of alcohol under other labels.

“That’s so disgusting man,” Montegrande said. “That’s a serious allegation man, what he is doing is illegal.”

One customer told 8 News Now she noticed the quality of food started to sag when the branzino, which is meant to be served with linguini pasta, was served with store-brand home fries.

“’We’re out of pasta,’ is what they told me,” The customer said. “What kind of Italian restaurant runs out of pasta?”

Then the electronic payment system for guest billing turned off, and the delayed paychecks for employees soon began.

“I was told money was withheld because our [point of sale] systems were being shut down,” Esslinger said. “I was told by Sergio that he hadn’t paid that company in six months.”

Employees were then allegedly told payments would not be made on time due to the system issue, but many more reasons would begin to pile up.

Documents filed in court show Sergio and his wife Alex Montegrande started to allegedly delay food vendors who were calling for payments with several excuses.

• Defendants claimed they could not access their operating bank accounts.
• Defendants feigned for months that they were insolvent.
• Defendants claimed for months that the Internal Revenue Service had frozen their assets
• Defendants claimed for months that they were the victims of criminal activity
• Defendants claimed for months that their funds were stuck in a merchant account

“I’m from Sicily, I don’t f— around”

Employees began to feel the strain of the restaurant’s faults as paychecks were delayed for days, then weeks, then months.

Iryna Berezhna, a former Bella Vita barback, said she didn’t notice any red flags at first because she had no bartending experience and was just happy to have a job.

“We had an amazing team of bartenders, servers and everyone was very friendly,” she said. “But then two weeks later I started wondering when was my paycheck coming and I didn’t get any clear answer.”

Berezhna said the manager assured her it was coming but all she had to do was wait.

“After the first two weeks of my employment I realized my paycheck was not coming on time,” she said. “It was like this for my whole employment from May until December.”

As more employees started to receive paychecks months late, word started to spread around community.

Documents from the Nevada Labor Board Commission show a total of $75,354 dollars’ worth of unpaid wage complaints filed against Bella Vita.

“I worked for this company for three months and never got paid,” one wage complaint reads.

Another complaint alleges months of bounced checks from Bella Vita resulted in the employee’s Well’s Fargo bank account to close due to possible fraudulent activity.

“These owners feel they are above the law and need to be stopped,” another wage complaint reads. “Cease their expansion at once until they can correct what they are doing.”

Signage was installed in September 2022 for the new third location at Boca Park but the wage complaints and concerns in the back of house would continue to heat up.

Daniel Esslinger said Montegrande began to get angry with him every time Esslinger would tell employees they would not be paid on time, again.

“Sergio lashed out at me personally,” Esslinger said. “Threatening to come to my residence [and] he wanted to fight me ‘like a man.’”

“This was a tactic he would use to get you to bow down to him,” he said. “He would puff his chest out and threaten you with threats that basically never came to fruition.”

In one instance, Montegrande requested a 20-year-old employee to meet him alone outside the nearby REI parking lot after a disagreement about the treatment of Esslinger.

“Let’s meet 8 [sic] behind REI im coming along do [the] same!” Sergio wrote in the text to the employee. “Let’s meet somewhere where no one is there actually if its later at night dark better so we don’t worry about anything.”

“This was a 20-year-old kid and Sergio is a grown man,” Esslinger said. “I just want to say thank you to that young man, you know who you are.”

“Let’s meet somewhere where no one is there actually if its later at night dark better so we don’t worry about anything.”

In another text sent to 8 News Now, Sergio wrote he went to an employee’s house amid employment concerns at The District location.

“I went to his house bro do not talk to me like this,” Montegrande wrote in a text. “I am from Sicily I don’t f— around he didn’t open the door he want call the police.”

Esslinger said when he told Montegrande he’d call the police if he came to his house, the restaurant owner replied.

“I told him I’d call the cops if he came over,” he wrote in a text, “He just replied, ‘Your going to call my friends.’”

8 News Now showed the texts from the Bella Vita employee WhatsApp group to Montegrande and asked him to respond to allegations of setting up a meeting with an employee.

“Did I make a mistake by sending ‘let’s meet at the parking lot,’ yeah,” he said.

Montegrande said the employee started the argument which initially centered around an offensive remark toward the employee’s girlfriend, which led to his response.

“I offended the girlfriend,” he said. “I swear on my grandmother’s grave that he said, ‘why don’t you want to meet man to man with me?’”

Montegrande denied any allegation he went to any employee’s house to intimidate them but agreed he sent texts saying he went to an employee’s home whom he had a disagreement with regarding wages.

“I did, I was f—— with them, ‘I’m outside your house, open the door,’” he said. “But on my grandmother’s grave, I didn’t know where he lives.”

Montegrande disagreed he ever intimidated an employee by saying he was ‘friends with the police’ and provided an explanation for the alleged statement.

“But on my grandmother’s grave, I didn’t know where he lives.”

“Obviously I know more police than he does but remember one thing when you call the police that is 4,000 police—do you think the guy who’s gonna come is going to know you?” he said. “I’m nobody man.”

Montegrande said all of the texts given to 8 News Now by employees were taken out of context.

8 News Now asked Montegrande to supply texts to provide more context for this report. Although he did send texts which showed callous statements made about him and his restaurant, none were provided regarding the three incidents.

Homemade protest

Kohberger, former Bella Vita bartender, said she had enough of Montegrande bullying employees and threatening them for asking for their paychecks.

“How did the management of the Green Valley [Ranch] let this go on for so long,” she said.

On March 3, 2024, Kohberger and several others created picket signs and protested outside of Bella Vita, encouraging customers to boycott the restaurant.

“I did my protest, I got escorted off the property,” she said.

Montegrande disputed Kohberger’s allegations and extent of employment at Bella Vita, adding he will not pay her.

“I’d rather have the three root canals and learn Chinese before I give her the money,” he said.

The crowd of former employees protesting began to grow as the Boca Park and Blue Diamond locations closed without explanation months prior.

Parents of young employees began to stream into the restaurant asking why their children were not getting paid, but the hosts did not have an answer, according to Berezhna.

In three months, all three Bella Vita locations would close, and the Bella Vita company would declare bankruptcy following another lawsuit from GCM Capital alleging $389,791 in damages.

A March bankruptcy filing of Bella Vita LLC. Indicated a total of 53 creditors are seeking $914,684 in total claims.

8 News Now asked the group of employees what their thoughts were on a beloved restaurant going away without an initial explanation to its regular customers.

“I just don’t want to believe it happened,” Mattielo said.

Following a two-and-a-half-hour interview with Montegrande, 8 News Now received a statement from a spokesperson for the former restaurant owner:

“As we all navigate through the challenges and successes of our lives, I want to take this moment to offer an apology to anyone I have disappointed or hurt in any way. I acknowledge and accept full responsibility for my actions and decisions that have fallen short of the mark, causing frustration and confusion. Please know I am committed to learning from these experiences and making things right no matter how long it may take. I humbly ask for your patience and forgiveness moving forward.” -Sergio Montegrande, CEO and Founder, Bella Vita

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