Following last month’s announcement that she would close and sell her remaining restaurants, chef Barbara Lynch is now being sued by the city of Boston for nearly $1.7 million in unpaid property taxes.

According to a complaint filed Wednesday in Suffolk Superior Court, the famous but embattled chef has racked up a “considerable amount of unpaid taxes” from his seven restaurants in Fort Point, South End and Beacon Hill that have gone unaddressed for more than ‘a decade. .

The lawsuit claims Lynch owes Park #9 $589,430 in back taxes. and $156,188 to B&G oysters which date back to 2011; $515,107 to Menton and $134,714 to Drink unpaid since 2015; $148,269 to the Butchery unpaid since 2013; $124,995 at Sportello dating back to 2012; and $8,003 in Stir taxes accumulated since 2017.

“With the exception of one tax payment for each entity in August 2021,” the suit alleges that Lynch continually failed to pay property taxes, which are assessed on equipment, fixtures and other commercial materials. These taxes continue to increase at a rate of $366.94 per day. The city sent final notices to the chef’s seven restaurants in January of this year; In the months that followed, several Lynch restaurants accumulated more than $20,000 more in back taxes.

Lynch, a South Boston girl whose journey from public housing to the upper echelons of fine dining placed her among an elite class of celebrity chefs, has, in recent years, faced a series of debilitating difficulties that upended his career and his hometown. restaurant empire.

In March 2023, two former employees of filed a class action lawsuit against the James Beard Award-winning chef, claiming it did not tip staff after its restaurants reopened following the pandemic-era shutdown. Like many restaurants, Lynch’s group applied for federal Paycheck Protection Plan loans to help keep the business afloat in 2020, with South End seafood restaurant B&G Oysters receiving approximately $888,974 in PPP loans, and Lynch’s Fort Point Drink cocktail bar receiving more than $1.3 million, according to the lawsuit, which is still pending.

A month later, more than a dozen former employees came forward with long-standing problems in Lynch’s kitchens, reporting that the chef’s inappropriate behavior and hostile actions led to a toxic work culture. Lynch, herself a sexual assault survivor who wrote in her memoir about her past problems with alcohol, denied the allegations, calling them “fantastic.”

“I expressly reject the various false accusations made against me that I have behaved inappropriately with employees or that I have exceeded professional guidelines that are close to my heart,” she said in a statement at the time . “I cannot put out all the fires that break out in this very stressful environment and my very humble roots allow me to recognize that I am far from blameless.”

But all the controversies had harmful consequences. In the months that followed, Lynch withdrew from her Boston restaurants, and in September, The South End butcher’s shop had gone dark.

In January of this year, Lynch announced that she close its three restaurants in Fort Point — Menton, Sportello and Drink — and selling The Butcher Shop and Stir to former employees, a move that resulted in the layoffs of 100 workers. At the time, she said she intended to focus her efforts on running her new business, The rudder, a waterfront seafood restaurant in Gloucester, where she lived upstairs.

Six days later, the city filed its final notices to the chief for unpaid taxes.

Then last month, Lynch shared in a Instagram post that she would close The Rudder. By the end of the day, she announced that her remaining Boston restaurants, No. 9 Park and B&G Oysters, would also close their doors. In an announcement she released regarding the closures, Lynch said the financial challenges of running restaurants contributed to her decision.

“The harsh realities of the global pandemic and the many difficulties encountered require significant investments, which neither I nor my fellow shareholders are able to make,” Lynch wrote. “We are working hard to finalize sales that will ensure these much-loved entities continue, in some capacity.”

In the court filing, the requested city filed a temporary restraining order against Lynch to preserve its assets, ensuring that if a sale of the restaurants was completed, all back taxes would be paid.

A representative for Lynch did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday evening.

Sean Cotter of Globe Staff contributed to this report.

Read the full text of the lawsuit below.

Janelle Nanos can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow her @janellenanos.