Celebrity chef fires back after he is accused of leaving Faneuil Hall eatery a mess

Celebrity Chef Todd English is firing back at those who say he left Kingfish Hall in disarray after allegedly abandoning the restaurant space.

English left a bad taste in the mouths of merchants at Faneuil Hall when he closed the seafood restaurant several weeks ago.

"We were very happy when Todd moved in. He did a great business there and he's a very talented chef so we don't understand why it would look like that," says Carol Troxwell of the Fanueil Hall Marchants Association.

Troxwell claims English left a lot of duct work and other areas of the restaurant in bad shape. She tells FOX 25 the space looks, "pretty un-leasable."

According to the Boston Globe, when English was a tenant, he failed to pay the former operator of Faneuil Hall over $1 million in rent and other charges. The paper says General Growth Properties began eviction procedures in 2011 after Kingfish fell behind on payments.

Troxwell says English owes about $200,000 in back dues to the merchants association.

Meanwhile, English is firing back at the Globe via social media. English posted a photo of the space on Twitter along with a Tweet reading, "Get your facts right @bostonglobe. A clean construction site! BG u r better than this!"

A spokesperson for English gave FOX 25 a statement on the matter Saturday night:

"Kingfish Hall is a clean space. We had a cleaning crew in for the past week ensuring that the restaurant was back in order. Earlier this year during lease re-negotiations, we were in the process of renovating the space which the landlord was aware of. Unfortunately, we weren't able to come to an agreement on a lease renewal and some of the work was already under way, hence the past state of the site. This was already being rectified before the Globe article came out and the space has been clean for several days."

Cox Media Group