Sommelier charged for 3 NYC arson attacks, including rival restaurants
A one-time “sommelier of the year” was apparently far too obsessed with fiery reds — getting charged this week in connection to a trio of Manhattan arson attacks, authorities said.
Caleb Ganzer, the 35-year-old managing partner of La Compagnie des Vins Surnaturels and even a quirky 2020 presidential candidate, was allegedly busted starting a fire at Prince Street Pizza’s outdoor dining shed in Nolita in the early hours of July 13, FDNY fire marshals said.
Pizzeria manager Tony Soza said Thursday that he had just gotten home shortly before 3 a.m. when he got a call about the fire.
“My neighbors called me, ‘Your place is on fire,'” Soza recalled. “I said, ‘How?’ When I came down, the fire was shut down by my neighbors. One of my friends who owns a bar saw a fire and stopped by the deli down the block.
“They ran with buckets of water used for the flowers to stop the fire and they came with a fire extinguisher,” he said. “This wood was on fire. It could’ve been bad because there is an electric wire connection to the building. People could have died.”
Surveillance footage shows a shorts-wearing man casually using a lighter to start a small blaze in one corner, doing the same to the other end of the outdoor area as he strolls off.
Photographs showed the structure was badly charred by the blaze.
After a “thorough investigation” and arrest of Ganzer — who has worked at some of Manhattan’s most exclusive restaurants, including Eleven Madison Park — investigators tied him to two other Lower Manhattan attacks that “fit the same pattern,” the marshals said.
The first was from late on Jan. 8 at another outdoor dining structure, this time at Forsythia Restaurant on Stanton Street on the Lower East Side, close to where Ganzer appears to live.
Owner Jacob Siwak told the New York Times that someone had tried to light a fire at least four times over nine days that month — saying it cost $3,500 to repair the shed after both ends burned down completely.
One sparked flames at least two stories high that threatened to spread to the restaurant and even the rest of the building, he said.
Siwak told the paper he “was expecting it to be a guy that flicked a cigarette butt in the trash or a homeless man trying to keep warm.”
Instead, his security cameras showed a nattily dressed man who had even unpacked kindling from his backpack to start fires.
Siwak told The Post on Thursday that he was stunned Ganzer was busted.
“It was surprising because he was in the hospitality industry,” he said. “I really hope he gets the mental health help he needs.”
Investigators also tied Ganzer to a trash fire on the corner of Broome and Centre streets, close to his own establishment.
Ganzer — who was Food & Wine magazine’s “sommelier of the year” in 2017 — was hit with a slew of charges.
They included two counts of third-degree arson, two counts of third-degree criminal mischief and three counts of second-degree reckless endangerment, the FDNY said.
Ganzer was released on a desk appearance ticket pending a future court date, sources said. The case will be prosecuted by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
“Every act of arson has the potential to spread rapidly, endangering the lives of New Yorkers and FDNY members,” Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said. “Thankfully in these incidents there were no injuries and the suspect has been apprehended before another fire could be set.”
Ganzer was not immediately available for comment, and his social media has been deleted since his arrest.
“We as the company are aware of the incident, and Mr. Ganzer is on a leave of absence,” La Compagnie des Vins Surnaturels told The Post, refusing to comment further.
Originally from Illinois, Ganzer 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 to mark his “Food and Wine” honor.
“New York’s become home,” he told the paper at the time.
However, in a recent interview with Sommelier Business, he complained about the “sort of existentially crippling” pressure of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s been a roller coaster, for sure,” he said of the “different waves of emotion” that hit during the lockdown.
“In the very beginning, there was denial, bordering on feeling personally attacked,” he told the outlet.
A bio on Great Sommeliers noted that he has worked at several restaurants owned by chef Daniel Boulud, including Daniel and DBGB.
The site also features a video of him using a blowtorch to prepare port wine while he was the sommelier at Eleven Madison Park.
With a big smile, he says, “This is the most dramatic aspect of it — it’s the fire.”
Regularly a go-to wine expert in the Big Apple, Ganzer also appeared to have aspirations for a loftier role — running for president in the 2020 elections as a Democrat.
“I’ve been thinking about this ever since I was in third grade,” Ganzer told WCBS 880 last January.
“It’s actually surprisingly easy, you just have to fill something out online,” he said, claiming his platform was fixing the broken food system, investing in community colleges and getting back to civility in politics.
He did not appear to take his political ambitions as seriously as his wine, however — with Federal Election Commission records showing he neither raised nor spent any money on his candidacy.
