The grand reopening of iconic Italian eatery Babbo erupted in chaos when a giant, inflatable rat stationed outside got stabbed — sparking an NYPD raid of the posh restaurant as cops searched in vain for the perpetrator, The Post has learned.
“Scabby the Rat” — the towering mascot long used by unions to protest businesses that don’t use organized labor — was brought to crash the Greenwich Village hotspot on Monday night by Unite Here Local 25 to protest the new owner’s worker policies.
That was while the restaurant’s new owner, celebrity restaurateur Stephen Starr, was inside welcoming guests to celebrate his revival of the legendary pasta destination, which shuttered years ago after its founder Mario Batali got mired in sexual misconduct allegations in 2017.
“I got there around 6:45, unpacked the rat and inflated it,” Mike Haack, a senior researcher at the union, told The Post. “Very quickly, someone came out from the restaurant from ‘corporate’ and said, ‘You aren’t allowed to do this.’
“I said, ‘Yes, I am,’” Haack continued. “He said he’d call the police, and I assumed he did.”
Just moments later, while Haack said he was looking in the other direction, he heard a ‘hissing sound” and observed a second man who had just emerged from the restaurant wearing a dark suit — similar to what the wait staff were wearing.
“As I turned, he’s walking and he is holding a knife — a little paring knife,” Haack said. “Then the man holding the knife immediately walks back into the restaurant.”
Then Haack said he turned to his rat and saw where the hissing sound was coming from: a fresh, 8-inch gaping hole on its right thigh.
“The man who approached me is still outside and some others and they kind of chuckle, acknowledging what just happened,” Haack said. “I’m sure they at least found it funny.”
Haack called 911. Within five minutes, up to 10 NYPD officer arrived at the restaurant’s Waverly Place address in squad cars with their lights and sirens blaring.
While diners noshed on $76 osso buco and $100 lasagna in the two-story eatery, Haack and a posse of officers marched through the dining rooms looking for the man with the knife.
Management initially tried to stop the union organizer from entering.
“He can’t come in,” a manager told NYPD. But the officers insisted on it because Haack was the only witness who could identify the man with the knife, he told The Post.
The rat’s alleged assailant escaped and likely slipped into the kitchen — which was the only space the officers didn’t search, according to Haack.
Meanwhile, “Scabby” was slowly deflating outside and Haack was concerned about “leaving him alone on the sidewalk” for the 15 minutes it took to search for the suspect.
As he and the NYPD left the building, one of the officers asked Babbo management for CCTV security footage, according to Haack.
“He was told that it was company policy only to turn it over if it was subpoenaed,” according to Haack.
Neither Starr Restaurants, which runs Babbo, nor the NYPD responded to requests for comment.
It’s not clear whether “Scabby,” which cost $7,000, can be repaired, a union spokesman said. It’s been a decade since Local 25’s rat has been punctured, he added.
Monday was supposed to be the eatery’s shining moment in the Big Apple as it reopened under Starr – who bought Babbo from Batali’s business partner Joe Bastianich.
Batali was found not guilty of alleged sexual misconduct in a criminal trial, but he and his company later settled sex-harassment allegations in a separate investigation by the New York Attorney General’s office for $600,000.
Starr — whose restaurant empire includes Buddakan, Morimoto and Pastis — is also being targeted by Local 25 in Washington, DC, where several of his biggest restaurants are the focus of an organizing campaign.
“Scabby” may have won the battle despite his wounds, said Zane Tankel, a veteran restaurateur who sold his Applebee’s franchise last year and was once the target of the rat at his Times Square store.
“They literally want you to do that because it can create an incident,” Tankel said. “The purpose of the rat is a headline and you’ve helped them accomplish what they want to get.”
Still, some New Yorkers might take a bit of satisfaction at the thought of “Scabby” in tatters.
A former prominent restaurateur who’d once been the target of the rat said, “I’m sure any business owner would get pleasure in seeing the rat deflate.”
