"I'm going to keep cooking until they shut me down," Timothy Dean just told me. Sure enough, Prime is open for business tonight.

And it's open entirely notwithstanding a setback earlier this week in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maryland. Well, more like a knockout than a setback.

As reported earlier today in the Batlimore Business Journal, the bankruptcy court on December 14 issed an order converting Dean's Chapter 11 bankruptcy case to Chapter 7. Chapter 7 is like LDL cholesterol -- it's the bad one, and it amounts usually to an order of liquidation, or in this case, the ability of Adams National Bank, M & T.D.'s creditor, to foreclose upon 1719 Eastern Avenue. Prime is located at that address.

But Dean thinks it's more like a setback than a knockout. "The judge will have to reconsider his motion." Dean told me that the bank appraisal used in this case was made eight months ago, critically, that is, before a positive turn-around in business at Prime, one that he credits wholly to  "Groupon, Groupon, Groupon." Dean says that marketing Prime with Groupon has been instrumental in bringing new customers through his doors.

The whole process will have to "start from scratch," Dean said, who spoke to me contrary to the wishes of his lawyer. "Now, I’m gong to go butcher a couple hundred pounds of meat."