Louisiana Tax Payers Paid $3 Million For Bankrupt Dinner Lab

The tale of Dinner Lab, the Nola-based supper club start-up that expanded to 30+ cities and blew through $10 million of investors money before shutting down in April 2016, keeps getting uglier by the minute.

This week Todd Price reports that the company has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy with money owed to 284 creditors in 26 states. What's more, Ian McNulty reports that Dinner Lab actually received state tax credits to the tune of $3 million, or rather its investors did, thanks to the Louisiana Economic Development's tax incentive program The Angel Investor Tax Credit:

In 2013, when Dinner Lab received nearly $2 million in private investment, the state issued those investors $672,786 in tax credits. The following year, when private investment exceeded $2 million, the credits totaled $717,326. And in 2015, when private investment peaked at $5.6 million, the state issued another $1,675,885 in credits.

Yes, that means Louisiana residents actually helped pay for Dinner Lab. You'll be happy to know that since the state budget is now in crisis mode, legislators have now made the Angel Investor incentive program a tad less generous— "Investors in approved companies now qualify for tax credits of up to 25.2 percent of their investment" rather than 35%.

CEO Brian Bordainick has also filed Chapter 11 for DL Labs, which has developed Brooklyn FoodWorks, an affordable kitchen rental start-up for food entrepreneurs, in partnership with New York City Economic Development Corp. and the Brooklyn Borough President's Office.  He plans to focus on the project and bringing DL Labs out of bankruptcy.