liars and thieves

the restaurant industry is rife with both, often combined in the same person. it attracts the unstable, those who struggle with drink, drugs or gambling, so they're often short on dough. there is cash-handling mischief, the potential for credit card fraud and identity theft and simpler stealing of product. this is true on the low end like dishwashers, and also managers.

i know people who have been fired for regularly adjusting their tips upward. i worked in a place where the safe was unbolted from the floor and disappeared, along with over $30k in cash from the weekend's receipts. a 40" plasma tv walked itself down 6 flights of stairs and out the door. large format bottles of expensive wine, like massive 6-liters, went poof. guys i know ran a gift card scam for at least 6 months before getting bounced.

more than once i have been on the short end of a tip pool. one new years' eve, the owner and gm decided to pool all the waitstaff tips and share it with everybody else. including themselves. completely 100% against the law. we knew we would get screwed. we all waited for our envelopes and added up what we had collected. they took 60% of what we made and passed it around. it was 2000, the check averages were staggering, we worked a 12-hour shift and made less than on a dead monday. imagine my joy when that gm's jacket, with his envelope, got stolen in the after-hours party. share my delayed gratification the next year when we all refused to work new years if they pulled the same stunt.

an early, but short, escapade in my career was in a splashy place that turned out to be owned by the mob. guidos in and out, up and down, all day and night. something about the gm rubbed me wrong. besides the capacity my breasts had for hypnotizing him and his staggering misogyny, i mean. one of the soft opening nights a wine salesman pulled his car up front to unload product his company was donating that we were supposed to serve gratis. that gm pulled his car right up behind and loaded all 3 cases right into his own trunk. i was there only a few weeks and this was not the only time i saw him do this.

it's a small town and i have seen this bad penny turn up over and over. servers who have suffered under him and salespeople who have had to deal all know he is a thief. like the sky is blue kind of general consensus.

a few weeks back, i nearly spat my tea reading he is now the OWNER of his own place. which means he has investors. some rich dudes wrote checks to a guy who rarely stayed anywhere more than a few months. in the short bit in the globe, 1/4 of a column, maybe, he said, "it's a scene, man," three times.

he appropriated an iconic name, will have live music every night (a dearth here, admittedly) and hired a chef from a place famous for sticky sweet cocktails and hook-ups -- not food.

because i am not a nice person, imagine my glee at the craptastic reviews this place is getting. the food, the drinks, the service all suck. i am happy he is unlikely to succeed. however, i feel a bit badly for his dupes. then again offering start-up cash to a restaurant is only done with money you plan never to see again. this guy is such a small-time sleaze and yet people were amazed at a silky-smooth op like bernie madoff.

barnum was right.