The giant, inflatable rat that was stabbed outside the upscale Babbo restaurant in Manhattan this week is getting patched up — and its injuries were even worse than previously thought, The Post has learned.
On Thursday, the union that staged the ill-fated Monday protest at the grand reopening of the posh Italian eatery bought a patch from Home Depot to repair an 8-inch gash on the right thigh of “Scabby the Rat” that was allegedly cut by a knife-wielding assailant.
Members of Unite Here Local 25 brought the rat back to its headquarters in Washington, DC, for the procedure, union reps said. During inspection, they said they found yet another gash that was apparently inflicted Monday night — on the other side of the same leg, and even bigger than the first slash.
“It’s near the first one, a bit bigger, about 10 inches,” Benjy Cannon, a rep for Unite Here Local 25, told The Post. “Can’t say for sure that it was inflicted on the same night … but it’s close to the first one and we hadn’t noticed it before.”
Late Thursday afternoon, the rat — which the union said cost $7,000 — was inflated to its full height of 12 feet. It wasn’t immediately clear, however, whether the rat would be able to stay inflated.
The inflatable vermin came to woe after a man who appeared to be a Babbo employee punctured it with a paring knife, according to Mike Haack, a union organizer who had brought “Scabby” to New York City for the Monday protest, as The Post reported exclusively.
Haack said he realized what had happened when he was in the middle of a verbal altercation with another employee and suddenly heard a “hissing sound.” He saw a man with a knife run into the restaurant and called 911. Some 10 NYPD officers showed up, he said.
The cops and Haack marched through a ritzy dining room filled with startled guests, searching for the slasher, but they didn’t find him, the union organizer said. He noted that police briefly huddled in the dining room before apparently deciding not to search the kitchen.
The NYPD did not respond for comment on whether it is actively investigating the incident. Starr Restaurant Group, which runs Babbo, did not return a call requesting comment.
Meanwhile, Local 25 is gearing up for “Scabby’s” return to Babbo on Nov. 18, when the mascot will have a posse of supporters to greet diners and passersby.
“We are discussing enhanced security measures to protect ‘Scabby’ and the attendees,” Cannon told The Post. “We will be doing everything we can to make sure ‘Scabby’ is safe this time.”
“Despite the attack on ‘Scabby,’ our fight for restaurant workers will march on,” Cannon added, vowing that ‘Scabby’s’ struggle against Babbo’s owner, restaurateur Stephen Starr, is not over.
The union is spearheading an organizing campaign at three Starr Restaurant Group eateries in DC and brought its fight to the Big Apple on Babbo’s opening night.
Starr – whose restaurant empire includes Buddakan, Morimoto and Pastis — bought Babbo this year with grand plans recapture the buzz it once enjoyed as one of the most iconic Italian eateries in the city – without the drama.
The iconic restaurant founded by celebrity chef Mario Batali closed about seven years ago, after Batali got mired in sexual misconduct allegations in 2017.
The Babbo boycott is an expansion of a months-long boycott of Starr-operated restaurants in Washington, DC – Le Diplomate, The Occidental and Osteria Mozza — over the company’s alleged union-busting.
Starr Restaurant Group claims that its employees don’t want to be organized, according to a website it launched attempting to debunk Local 25’s campaign.
