(Photo by Josh Novikoff)

Mike Isabella, whose 2018 has included sexual assault allegations, restaurant closures, and rumors of deep financial turmoil, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for his restaurant group, Mike Isabella Concepts.

The celebrity chef made the filing Thursday in federal court, the Washington Post reported, just a day ahead of a Friday hearing in Prince George’s County Circuit Court. The landlord of Isabella’s College Park outpost of Kapnos Taverna is attempting to evict the chef, after suing him in May for $60,000 in unpaid rent.

Filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy puts that eviction on hold. Such filings include an automatic stay period, in which all judgments, closures, and repossessions are suspended to give the company time to reorganize.

The Kapnos dispute is far from Isabella’s only legal and financial trouble this year. The “Top Chef” alum was sued in May by a former manager at one of his restaurants for “extraordinary sexual harassment.” Isabella denied the allegations and settled the suit for undisclosed financial terms. He told the Washington Post this week that “bad press” was responsible for the collapse of his businesses (Isabella is legally barred from speaking explicitly about the suit).

“Unfortunately, I had some negative press toward me. I lost a lot of that business that carries me through the summer, in all my restaurants,” he told the Post. “With that being said, I went into a slow season, a slow summer.”

Following the news of the suit, four of Isabella’s restaurants closed in as many months: Graffiato locations in Richmond and D.C., Requin in the Mosaic District, and, most recently, the Isabella Eatery food hall in Tysons Galleria just last month. Additionally, the Washington Nationals removed his food stands from Nationals Park; Eater and the Washington Post have omitted his restaurants from their dining guides; and colleagues, including his longtime publicist and the chef at two of his restaurants, have severed ties.

Nine Isabella restaurants remain open. The chef told the Post that Kapnos Kouzina in Bethesda and Requin at The Wharf are excluded from the bankruptcy filings, saying that those “successful” restaurants are “the anchors to keep us afloat.”

He also said that the bankruptcy filing is meant to stop the closure of more restaurants and restructure the company amid its growing financial woes, including checks to employees that have bounced. As he put it: “We want to stop the bleeding.”

“I want to stabilize what’s going on in my company, and, obviously, once I go through this, set a path for the future to get me back to where I was,” Isabella told the Post. “The bankruptcy is a tool for me to basically restructure my finances and have an opportunity for a fresh start.”