Bartenders charged with arson in New York City, including competing restaurants

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Authorities said a one-time “leg of the year” was apparently so obsessed with fiery red – he was charged this week in connection with three of the arson attacks in Manhattan.

Caleb Ganzer, 35-year-old managing partner of La Compagnie des Vins Surnaturels on Center Street, has been arrested for the first time after a fire broke out in a dining shack on Nolita’s Prince Street Pizza in the early hours of July 13. FDNY guards said.

Surveillance footage shows a man in shorts using a lighter to light a small fire in one corner, doing the same to the other end of the outside area as he descends.

Pictures showed that the fire burned the structure badly.

After a “thorough investigation” and the arrest of Ganzer — who worked at some of Manhattan’s most exclusive restaurants — investigators linked him to two other attacks in lower Manhattan that “fit the same pattern,” guards said.

Caleb Ganzer was first arrested after he caught fire in the outdoor dining shack at Prince Street Pizza in the early hours of July 13.

The first was late on Jan. 8 in another outdoor dining building, this time at Forsythia Restaurant on Stanton Street on the Lower East Side, near where Ganzer lives.

Owner Jacob Siwak told the New York Times that someone tried to light the fire at least four times over the course of nine days that month — saying it cost $3,500 to repair the shed after both ends were completely burnt out.

Caleb Ganzer lit up a rival restaurant

He pointed out that one of them set the flames at least two stories high, which threatened to spread to the restaurant and even the rest of the building.

Siwak told the newspaper he “expected it to be a man flicking a cigarette butt in the trash or a homeless man trying to keep warm.”

Instead, his security cameras showed a well-dressed man even unloading his suitcase from his suitcase to start fires.

Investigators also linked Ganzer to a dumpster fire at the corner of Broome and Center Streets, near his private establishment.

Ganzer – who was Food & Wine magazine’s “Barman of the Year” for 2017 – has been hit with a slew of charges.

The New York Department of National Defense said it included two counts of third-degree arson, two counts of third-degree criminal acts and three counts of second-degree reckless endangerment. The case will be brought by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

Caleb Ganzer’s arson set fire to three restaurants, and set fire to the FDNY Prince Street Pizza’s outdoor dining venue.

“Every act of arson has the potential to spread rapidly, endangering the lives of New Yorkers and FDNY members,” said Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro. “Fortunately, there were no casualties in these incidents and the suspect was apprehended before another fire was started.”

Ganzer was not immediately available for comment, and his social media appears to have gone private since his arrest.

“We as a company are aware of the incident, and Mr. Ganzer is on leave,” La Compagnie des Vins Surnaturels told The Post, declining to comment further.

Ganzer is originally from Illinois, and lived for a time in Paris before settling in New York about a dozen years ago, according to a 2017 article in the Daily Journal celebrating the honor of “food and wine.”

“New York has become her home,” he told the newspaper at the time.

However, in a recent interview with Sommelier Business, he complained of the “existentially crippling” stress of the COVID-19 pandemic.

One bio on Great Sommeliers noted that he worked at several restaurants owned by Chef Daniel Boulud, including Daniel and DBGB.

The site also shows a video of him using a blowtorch to prepare Port wine while the sommelier was at Eleven Madison Park.

He says with a big smile, “That’s the most dramatic aspect of it—it’s the fire.”

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