Hamptons Restaurant Owner Sets Fire to Table Where Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein Sat
Zach Erdem, owner of 75 Main in Southampton, New York, said that Jeffrey Epstein would come to the restaurant "with three or four girls"
The owner of a Southampton, New York restaurant did what he felt was needed to wipe out the "bad energy" that came from the table once regularly occupied by Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein.
Zach Erdem, the owner of 75 Main, chopped up and burned Table 1 with a large crowd gathered around him in order to erase the memories of the disgraced moguls' from the restaurant's history.
"When I thought about it, like Jeffrey Epstein used to sit at this table, all I could think was I need to burn this f----ing table and make sure nothing is going to stain my restaurant," he told CNN.
Epstein was awaiting trial on federal charges of sexually abusing underage girls when he was found dead in his jail cell last August. Weinstein, meanwhile, is serving a 23-year sentence after being found guilty in February of first-degree criminal sexual act and third-degree rape. He is also facing multiple sexual assault charges in California (Weinstein, 68, has denied all allegations against him).
According to Erdem, both men used to sit at Table 1 when visiting the Southampton eatery.
“Every single time, every week or two, he came with three or four girls,” Erdem recalled to the New York Post of Epstein, whom he said last visited the restaurant in 2015.
Surrounded by local residents and waitstaff, Erdem smashed the table with an ax and a sledgehammer before dousing it in lighter fluid and lighting it on fire. As Erdem destroyed the table, those gathered around him chanted, "Burn, Epstein, burn!"
"I got my hammer and my fuel and I broke it, burned it, and threw it in the garbage," Erdem told CNN. "It felt so good actually. Now I don't have to think about these guys anymore."
Erdem said that along with "getting rid of their bad energy," he wanted the public display to send a clear message to anyone that visits his restaurant: "People who abuse women are not welcome here."
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to online.rainn.org.