A swanky Upper East Side hotel repeatedly served alcohol to minors to offset significant losses during the pandemic, an explosive court filing claims.
And a video provided by the father of one teen purportedly shows his then-16-year-old son “grossly intoxicated” at The Mark Hotel.
Theodore Weintraub, now 19, claims The Mark on East 77th Street preyed on teens like him in a bid to fend off foreclosure. “The Mark engaged in a scheme to prioritize revenue collection by serving alcohol to underage teenagers,” Weintraub’s attorney Leo Esses writes in the counterclaim, filed last month in Manhattan Supreme Court.
The five-star hotel — a favorite of celebrities including Meghan Markle and Gigi Hadid — has been known among Upper East Side teens as a place to get served since staff “either failed to verify” their age or “overlooked” counterfeit IDs, the filing alleges.
“It was a well known fact to Theo and his circle of friends that the Mark Restaurant was a go-to spot to get served alcohol as long as one had a ‘fake’ ID,” his father, Park Avenue cardiologist Dr. Philip Weintraub, told The Post.
The teen was first sued by The Mark in July, accused of initiating a smear campaign against the luxury hotel after he was banned for repeatedly trying to order alcohol.
That complaint alleged Weintraub hired protesters to chant and hold signs outside the hotel alleging The Mark denied the Holocaust and supported convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. The teen also accosted guests and employees, according to a motion filed Monday on behalf of the hotel seeking to dismiss Weintraub’s counterclaims.
“The latest twist in the troubled Defendant’s behavior is to attempt to defend his behavior by slinging more smears at his victim,” attorney Alexander Klein wrote in the new motion, which denied Weintraub’s accusations that The Mark targeted underage drinkers.
Dr. Weintraub provided The Post a nine-second video showing, he claims, his then-16-year-old son in The Mark’s restaurant “visibly, grossly, intoxicated” and playing with food. An unfinished Champagne cocktail, said to be the hotel’s signature drink, sits nearby.
“Judging by this video, it should have been an obvious indicator to any and all the servers and managers at the restaurant that he was behaving inappropriately: a baby-faced drunk … ,” Dr. Weintraub said.
The hotel’s lawsuit claimed that the teen had been banned from the premises because he was upset over not being served alcohol — and that his parents found out about it when the family showed up for dinner in September 2021 and the boy was forbidden entry, promoting him to begin “accusing the hotel of being antisemitic and spitting in people’s food.”
However, Dr. Weintraub now says the story is different.
“The truth … is that Theo was not banned from the Mark because he was angry that they wouldn’t serve him alcohol, he was banned on a night of heavy drinking at the Mark which led to an altercation with their security guard,” the father claimed.
Dr. Weintraub added that his son has been sober since Jan. 7, 2023, but “what is most upsetting and disgusting is the volume of hate mail and hate phone calls that Theo and our family have had to endure on a daily basis.”
One message derided Weintraub as a “Zionist scumbag” while threatening retribution for his alleged acts.
“I hope The Mark sues your fat ass and you go to jail, you arrogant f–k!” the note obtained by The Post reads. “Make sure you bring lube + condoms for when you become Bubba’s bitch + he f–ks you up the a–!”
Weintraub, who seeks unspecified damages in his counterclaim, could not be reached for comment.
Klein, who represents The Mark Hotel, declined to comment.