Monterey's Coastal Luxury sells Faith & Flower restaurant it fought fiercely over.

For many familiar with the capital-D Drama surrounding celebrated downtown Los Angeles restaurant Faith & Flower, the first reaction to word Coastal Luxury Management sold it—to their despised former partners—would have to be…

Really? After all that?

CLM, which has offices on Cannery Row above its Cannery Row Brewing Company and also owns Restaurant1833, PebbleBeachFood & Wine and L.A. Food & Wine, went through quite a bit to claim ownership.

At one point the fight over the L.A. restaurant got so nasty fraud accusations flew, CLM stationed private security guards outside the restaurant, and the fallout contributed notably to a split between CLM co-founders and longtime besties RobWeakley and DavidBernahl. 

Get all the intense details with the Jan. 7 piece "Looking for hope in the dramatic David Benahl-Rob Weakley-Coastal Luxury Management breakdown" and the March followup "David Bernahl and Coastal Luxury Management win big breakthrough in battle for L.A. restaurant."

It's a bizarre and crazy tale.

And now, stunningly enough, CLM has actually sold its ownership back to Cindy and Jeff Troesh. 

Sources requesting anonymity report CLM had its final payment to buy out the Troeshsin order earlier this month but due to a clerical error filed it a day late, allowing the Troeshs to trigger a clause in the payment contract allowing them to buy out CLM.

CLM and the Troeshs went to arbitration over the error, and the Troeshs came out on top.

Bernahl had this comment on the transaction, prefaced by the fact that the clerical misstep came as a complete surprise.

"Big moments like this are always a little bittersweet," he says. "On one hand it was one of the more successful restaurant transactions I could have hoped for."

By that he means CLM profited nicely, though details of the sale are private.

"On the other," he continues. "It's hard to walk away from any team like the one we've had at Faith & Flower. While we are obviously proud of the countless accolades we've received over the past two years, it's the people in that restaurant that I and everyone at CLM will miss the most in the near term. One thing I can promise: We love Los Angeles, we won't be out of L.A. for more than a minute."

He says the freed-up bandwidth will allow CLM to concentrate more resources on taking its catering/party consulting outfit, which already operates in the Monterey and L.A. markets, national.

Some of the F&F team will also migrate north to help out at 1833.

From the Troeshs' side comes this: 

"After over a year of legal arguments, L.A.-based Cindy Troesch, one of the founding members and original owner of Faith & Flower, has purchased CLM's 50 percent interest. StephaneBombet and the Troeschs have been partners since the opening and they are looking forward to operating the restaurant again. Bombet Hospitality Group will run the day to day business. No major changes will happen since the restaurant is incredibly busy and successful since it opened in April 2014."