Readers on my old Seattle P-I blog have been asking about rumors that Culinary Communion, a lightning rod for commentary in recent weeks, has shut down.

Here’s what I know:

1. Chef Tom Black, who had taught classes at the cooking school for the past seven months, said yesterday that CC owner Gabriel Claycamp told him March 10 that the business was closed. Black is now looking for a new job. That doesn’t seem to leave much room for debate.

2. I had called Claycamp March 13, though, before hearing such first-hand information, and asked him if there was anything to the rumors. He said no. I asked him to tell me more. He made a reference to the last time we spoke, when he had asked for a favor he did not receive, and said he would therefore not talk to me. Then he repeated that it was not true that CC had shut down. Then he hung up. (Claycamp had, politely, asked for P-I staff to remove or shut down comments on the heated thread on his Swinery business. The P-I declined, though the New Media staff did remove posts that violated the paper’s terms of service.)

3. A lawsuit was filed in King County Superior Court March 9 against Culinary Communion/The Swinery, suing the business for breach of contract. In the complaint, Complete Restaurant Repair, a Kent-based business, claimed that its final invoice for improvements to The Swinery space was unpaid, and asked the court to foreclose on the property to pay its $3,588.66 bill.

4. Culinary Communion’s web site is still up, and is still advertising “Chef Tom Black’s Restaurant School.” The calendar still lists a full roster of classes, including some naming Black as the instructor. If you try to sign up, though, every individual class on the March and April calendars is listed as full, with no available seats. CC’s new restaurant venture, Lunch Counter, is still listed as opening April 1. (The lunch-time restaurant already had a “soft opening,” for a few days a week, earlier this month.)

Now you know what I know. I’ll update if there’s more.

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