Investors Continue To Raise Money To Save Mickey Mantle's Restaurant

Mickey Mantle's 24-year-old Manhattan restaurant has two weeks to raise $400,000 to pay back rent, or its doors will shut for good, according to NY1.com.

The threat of eviction seems imminent, as the restaurant filed for bankruptcy months ago and has not been able to pay rent since. 

A farewell party was held Monday night at the Central Park South restaurant, which offers typical bar food such as steak burgers and fries, as well as pastas and fish. However, investors (including former baseball players and current fans) ended up raising $71,000 at the party, enough to give the restaurant two weeks to raise the rest of the money.

Mickey Mantle's original business partner, Bill Liederman, left the restaurant seven years ago but has returned to help save it. 

"We had an investor who believed in the project and put up one month's rent," Liederman says, referring to the $71,000.

The restaurant had until this morning to get the rent in, buying them two weeks to get the rest of the rent paid off.

"I thought I was cooked," Liederman says. "We had a staff party, and we were all getting ready to jump off the ship." 

The landlord was on the verge of signing a deal with another restaurant when the investors stepped in to help. 

"It was kind of like being on death row and then the governor called," Liederman says.

Many other athletes have opened restaurants that have not fallen on such hard times. Check out these other restaurants from sports stars.