Gary Rulli has based his Bay Area baking empire on Christmas panettone bread for more than 30 years. But for the last five, he has shunned the yearly obligations that come up on tax day, according to a lawsuit.
San Francisco’s city attorney says Rulli owes more than $150,000 in unpaid taxes and penalties for his Chestnut Street bistro, Ristobar, according to a claim filed Friday in Superior Court.
Rulli owes $125,994.18 in unpaid property taxes from 2020 to 2024, the suit says. Combined with penalties and interest, the bill hits $152,980.31, according to the city attorney’s office.
The cake boss, whom Forbes Italia called “the ambassador of Italian pastry in America,” did not respond to requests for comment.
The website for his Marin County cafe boasts that Rulli is “the only Italian American” in a vaunted Italian pastry academy, and his traditional Milanese panettone is “sent worldwide.”
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The Larkspur Chamber of Commerce in 1997 named Rulli its Business Citizen of the Year. The San Francisco Chronicle in 2003 dubbed him the “stealthiest operator in the Bay Area” as he began construction on his Chestnut Street restaurant. His breadwinning empire once included locations at the San Francisco and Oakland airports, as well as a Union Square cafe.
But like a flaky pastry, his reach has crumbled, leaving only Ristobar and his original Larkspur bakery, Emporio Rulli.
Disputes over allegedly unpaid bills have dragged Rulli into court before, records show. In 2015, the city issued a lien against him for nearly $20,000; the city attorney’s office could not immediately explain how the lien was resolved. Two years later, a repairman sued in small claims court, alleging Rulli refused to pay him more than $3,000 for fixing an espresso machine.
Rulli owns a four-bedroom, 3,100-square-foot home in San Rafael that’s worth $2.8 million, according to Zillow. Public records show he bought the house for $1.75 million in 2007.