Maybe he needed a hug.
A loveless loon trashed a trendy West Side steakhouse in the wee hours of Valentine’s Day — chugging a $50 bottle of gin before going on his violent rampage, police and sources said Sunday.
The suspect then ended his heartless spree by allegedly punching someone in the face a couple blocks away.
Jonathan Jones, 36, first busted into Uncle Jack’s Steakhouse on Ninth Avenue near West 35th Street in Manhattan around 2:30 a.m. Saturday, smashing through a front window, grabbing a bottle of pricey Botanist gin, taking a healthy swig — and then wrecking a small fortune in booze at the bar, cops and sources said.
“It was a lot of damage,” restaurant manager Muhammed Yaseen told The Post. “He was passing by. He had a shopping bag in his hand. He put his shopping bag down and it’s like, ‘Let me just break in here.’
“He was just going on and on until he broke a really good hole [in the door],” he said, with security video capturing the intruder busting into the restaurant.
Yaseen said the thief then drank the gin and hurled the bottle at the bar, shattering bottles of tequila, wine and Chivas Regal Scotch — causing about $4,000 in damages.
“He took a really good sip [of the gin],” Yaseen said. “He got taste.
“At least he didn’t go for the meat,” the manager said.
“There was a huge meat display. We were worried that he was going to go there and grab meat. There’s a lot of expensive Kobe and Waygu there.”
Bizarrely, the culprit pulled the fire alarm after busting in, Yaseen said.
The criminal escaped — but only for awhile.
Jones was busted in the caper as a result of another incident minutes later, when he punched a victim in the face on Eighth Avenue near West 28th Street, cops said.
The victim in that case pointed Jones out as the culprit, and police eventually linked him to the Uncle Jack’s break-in, too, authorities said.
Jones was charged with raps including burglary, robbery and criminal mischief.
The steakhouse boarded up its broken window, cleaned up the smashed glass and was able to open for Valentine’s Day, one of the eatery’s busiest days with couple’s celebrating the holiday.
Jones was meanwhile arraigned, although the outcome of the hearing was not immediately clear.
Additional reporting by David DeTurris
