SHORT TAKES : Sardi’s Foreclosure Right Upheld

NEW YORK — Vincent Sardi can take back the legendary theater district restaurant he sold to a Broadway producer in 1986, a judge has ruled.

The new owner, Sardi’s Inc., and its president, Ivan Bloch, failed to make the monthly purchase payments and Sardi can foreclose on the note he holds, said trial-level state Supreme Court Justice Burton Sherman.

Sardi sold his West 44th Street restaurant to Bloch and his group for $6.2 million with $1 million cash down. Monthly payments were to include the remaining principal plus interest, a consulting fee for Sardi and a fee to keep him from opening another restaurant within five years.

After one default in April, the debt was restructured. In July, Bloch’s group failed to make a required monthly payment of $136,262.38 and Sardi sued.

Bloch’s group opposed the foreclosure, saying Sardi should have renegotiated with them since he was aware of financial setbacks stemming from a decline in the Broadway theater industry, Sherman said.