Is Frog Club in Hot Water?

Or is the former Chumley’s space simply cursed?

Rumors have been circulating that Frog Club — the amphibian-themed tavern that opened behind a smokescreen of doormen and an opaque reservations-by-email-request-only policy inside the old Chumley’s space — may be on the verge of closing after just five months in business. They are, it turns out, likely overstated, and chef and owner Liz Johnson appears committed to keeping things afloat. Still, a handful of former employees say all is not necessarily well behind the near-windowless facade.

“The whole exclusivity thing backfired, because they couldn’t fill the room,” said one former cook. Another recent worker estimated that the number of covers has been as low as several dozen per night in a space that she speculated could accommodate more than 100. Still another adds, “Current excuse is ‘the West Village is slow in the summer,’ which is true but for the amount of hype I think people expected full books every night.” That expectation may hold true for investors. At least one has written expressing his discontent; in an email to the lawyer of Johnson’s former partner Will Aghajanian, he wrote: “I, and I am guessing, the vast majority of investors feel utterly deceived.” (Neither he nor another investor, Somebody Feed Phil star Phil Rosenthal, responded with a comment.)

Employee churn could be another concern. “A small, core group has remained since the beginning, but the other staff has turned over, especially in the front of house,” said one of the recent employees (who, like everyone else, spoke on the condition of anonymity to allow for candor without harming their future hiring prospects), who estimated that at peak, there were roughly 25 employees between the front and back of house. That same employee speculated that eight to ten had left or been fired within the span of several weeks.

“Liz is not an asshole, she’s not overbearing, but there’s more than one way to create bad blood in the kitchen,” said one cook, who remembers disagreements over recipes. (The disgruntled investor, in the same email, had noted the food “was burnt and tasteless.”)

Johnson seems to be making moves to turn things around — former employees say she has added the popular Caesar salad from Horses to the menu, as well as a happy hour and weekend parties designed to attract an influential art crowd — but if you want to experience the restaurant’s eccentricities for yourself (a ceiling covered in bondage-inflected chains, a penny-stamping machine), or to see whether we are at the precipice of a great restaurant comeback story, tables are available on Resy.