Scott Brown’s in, mate, at the Asylum
By Gayle Fee & Laura Raposa | Tuesday, February 9, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | The Inside Track
Rehearsals begin next week on the Improv Asylum’s musical spoof “You’re a Good Man, Scott Brown,” a send-up of the historical senatorial election and the political madhouse that ensued.
“We will follow our hero’s path from obscurity to winning the election, but the goal is to poke fun at everybody,” head inmate Norm Laviolette told the Track. “There’s more than enough material to go around.”
Besides Brown, the Asylum will poke fun at Scott’s rivals, Attorney General Martha Coakley and the man the inmates call “ Joe Kennedy No Relation,” as well as Gov. Deval Patrick and the Ghost of Ted Kennedy . Scott’s daughters, Ayla and Arianna, also will get the Asylum treatment.
“With the whole Brown family being so hot, it’s like a gift from the comic gods,” said Norm, adding that they are working in a singing pick-up truck.
Massachusetts - from a political satire standpoint - was “dead and dry” before Scott came into our lives, said the comedian.
“No offense to anybody, but really, how many new ways can you work a Menino or Kennedy joke?” he said. “And no one really cares about Kerry . And then . . . this happened.”
Apparently, Brown is a big fan of the North End improv theater and popped in on New Year’s Day with the fam to catch a show. So Norm expects the Bay State’s new junior senator will be in the audience at some point during the two-act musical comedy’s six-week run beginning March 21.
“We already sent him an invite,” said the funnyman.
Jeremy Brothers still is working on the script and lyrics and his partner, Jim Zaroulis, is responsible for the tunes.
“It will be a living and breathing script, so there will be changes throughout the run,” he said. “In fact, we may take this show on the road because we’re getting a lot of interest from other parts of the state.”
Sen. Scott has always been a big hit at the Kowloon, Normie . And maybe even Barbara Walters will show up like the last time Brown stopped in.
“Don’t think I won’t reach out to the Kowloon,” laughed Laviolette.
File Under: Political Asylum
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/track/inside_track/view.bg?articleid=1231586
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
World's largest passenger plane visits Logan
World’s largest passenger plane touches down at Logan
By Donna Goodison | Tuesday, February 9, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Business & Markets
A double-deck Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger aircraft, made a first-ever stop at Logan International Airport today, arriving from Germany for airport compatibility checks.
The landing was smooth for the 239-foot plane, which carried large equipment for a Boston-area company, and flight and ground-handling crews.
Logan declined comment on whether it’s in talks with any airlines interested in eventually flying the Airbus A380 in and out of Boston, which is a diversionary airport for Airbus A380 flights to New York.
“This is a good opportunity for Airbus and Logan folks to run the new aircraft type through its paces at the airport to determine if, once the aircraft type starts serving Logan, anything needs to be done at the airport to accommodate the larger size of the plane,” Airbus spokeswoman Maryanne Greczyn said. “When the aicraft type starts serving Logan is a choice of the airlines who have purchased the plane.”
The Airbus 380 leaves for France tomorrow morning.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1231522
By Donna Goodison | Tuesday, February 9, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Business & Markets
A double-deck Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger aircraft, made a first-ever stop at Logan International Airport today, arriving from Germany for airport compatibility checks.
The landing was smooth for the 239-foot plane, which carried large equipment for a Boston-area company, and flight and ground-handling crews.
Logan declined comment on whether it’s in talks with any airlines interested in eventually flying the Airbus A380 in and out of Boston, which is a diversionary airport for Airbus A380 flights to New York.
“This is a good opportunity for Airbus and Logan folks to run the new aircraft type through its paces at the airport to determine if, once the aircraft type starts serving Logan, anything needs to be done at the airport to accommodate the larger size of the plane,” Airbus spokeswoman Maryanne Greczyn said. “When the aicraft type starts serving Logan is a choice of the airlines who have purchased the plane.”
The Airbus 380 leaves for France tomorrow morning.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1231522
New Convention Center food vendor will honor union contract
Union unhappy with convention center food deal
Plan says new vendor will honor old pact
By Katie Johnston Chase, Globe Staff | February 9, 2010
The Massachusetts Convention Center Authority plans to bring in a new food and beverage provider to replace longtime vendor Aramark Corp., a move that is upsetting union officials who worry that the new company may not honor a hard-won labor agreement.
Levy Restaurants, based in Chicago, will retain the approximately 500 workers currently employed by Aramark under the same union contract, according to James Rooney, the authority’s executive director. But officials from Unite Here Local 26 said there is no agreement between Levy and the union to rehire the workers or uphold the terms of the contract.
The convention center authority board will hold an official vote Thursday, at which point there will be a signed agreement with Levy, the convention center authority, and Unite Here Local 26, Rooney said. The pact would take effect June 1 and last seven years. Levy would provide food and beverage service for both the Hynes and the Boston Convention & Exhibition centers.
“No one’s going to lose their job, and it’s the same contract that they just signed,’’ Rooney said, adding that Levy was demonstrating good faith by accepting an agreement that was reached with another company.
But the union, which is planning to picket in front of the State House tomorrow, insists that an agreement between Levy and Unite Here needs to be signed before the vote occurs.
“The MCCA has kept the union completely in the dark about this process,’’ said Janice Loux, president of Unite Here Local 26.
Levy Restaurants serves six convention centers around the country and more than 100 arenas, ballparks, and stadiums, such as the Staples Center in Los Angeles, Wrigley Field in Chicago, and Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis. Levy also owns nine restaurants, including Spiaggia in Chicago, a date night favorite of President Obama and his wife, Michelle.
Levy officials did not comment last night about Unite Here’s concerns. The Boston convention center contract would be Levy’s first foray into the region.
Aramark, which has been the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority’s food and beverage provider since 1987, competed for the new contract but did not make the final cut. The authority has had an admittedly rocky history with Aramark, Rooney said, citing inconsistent quality of food and service.
“We had a wonderful relationship with the MCCA and were thrilled to be at the facility through the years,’’ said Dan Smith, Aramark spokesman. “We’re sorry to see our partnership come to an end.’’
Unite Here Local 26 and Aramark, which serves Fenway Park and Boston University, have also had a contentious past. The union and the food services company engaged in bitter contract negotiations for more than a year - a standoff that included the union picketing outside the convention centers - before an agreement was reached in December 2008.
Unite Here has a good relationship with Levy nationally, Loux said, but until there is a signed agreement, “nobody’s word is good enough.’’
Katie Johnston Chase can be reached at johnstonchase@globe.com.
© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
Plan says new vendor will honor old pact
By Katie Johnston Chase, Globe Staff | February 9, 2010
The Massachusetts Convention Center Authority plans to bring in a new food and beverage provider to replace longtime vendor Aramark Corp., a move that is upsetting union officials who worry that the new company may not honor a hard-won labor agreement.
Levy Restaurants, based in Chicago, will retain the approximately 500 workers currently employed by Aramark under the same union contract, according to James Rooney, the authority’s executive director. But officials from Unite Here Local 26 said there is no agreement between Levy and the union to rehire the workers or uphold the terms of the contract.
The convention center authority board will hold an official vote Thursday, at which point there will be a signed agreement with Levy, the convention center authority, and Unite Here Local 26, Rooney said. The pact would take effect June 1 and last seven years. Levy would provide food and beverage service for both the Hynes and the Boston Convention & Exhibition centers.
“No one’s going to lose their job, and it’s the same contract that they just signed,’’ Rooney said, adding that Levy was demonstrating good faith by accepting an agreement that was reached with another company.
But the union, which is planning to picket in front of the State House tomorrow, insists that an agreement between Levy and Unite Here needs to be signed before the vote occurs.
“The MCCA has kept the union completely in the dark about this process,’’ said Janice Loux, president of Unite Here Local 26.
Levy Restaurants serves six convention centers around the country and more than 100 arenas, ballparks, and stadiums, such as the Staples Center in Los Angeles, Wrigley Field in Chicago, and Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis. Levy also owns nine restaurants, including Spiaggia in Chicago, a date night favorite of President Obama and his wife, Michelle.
Levy officials did not comment last night about Unite Here’s concerns. The Boston convention center contract would be Levy’s first foray into the region.
Aramark, which has been the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority’s food and beverage provider since 1987, competed for the new contract but did not make the final cut. The authority has had an admittedly rocky history with Aramark, Rooney said, citing inconsistent quality of food and service.
“We had a wonderful relationship with the MCCA and were thrilled to be at the facility through the years,’’ said Dan Smith, Aramark spokesman. “We’re sorry to see our partnership come to an end.’’
Unite Here Local 26 and Aramark, which serves Fenway Park and Boston University, have also had a contentious past. The union and the food services company engaged in bitter contract negotiations for more than a year - a standoff that included the union picketing outside the convention centers - before an agreement was reached in December 2008.
Unite Here has a good relationship with Levy nationally, Loux said, but until there is a signed agreement, “nobody’s word is good enough.’’
Katie Johnston Chase can be reached at johnstonchase@globe.com.
© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Interesting take on waiting in line
Read below for an interesting take on something we all have to deal with in the hospitality industry from time to time. Adam
LET US NOW PRAISE...
Standing in line
The case for our least-favorite activity
By James Parker | February 7, 2010
How do you handle yourself while you’re waiting in line? And I’m not talking about a nice line, a dainty little three- or four-person affair such as might be found at Trader Joe’s on a Wednesday afternoon: I’m talking about a straggling, misshapen, hostile, sclerotic, old-school DMV-style, inch-by-inch marathon of a line - a real life-sucker. How do you deal with a line like that? Do you fidget, sweat, curse under your breath? Flash homicidal glances at the person in front of you? Or do you smile upon your brother and inwardly wish him well?
If the latter, I congratulate you on being splendidly atypical and/or overmedicated. Because the fact is that humans hate lines. We hate lines, we hate waiting in them, and although we do not necessarily hate the entity at whose behest the line has come into being - the cashier or bureaucrat or receptionist or bouncer or ticket agent - we reserve a most intimate loathing for our fellow liners-up, who are of course blameless in every respect but one: They are ahead of us.
The British were once (long ago, long ago) famed for their patience and politeness in queues. The Russians made a metaphysic out of them: If you saw a line forming in the Soviet Union, it was a good idea to join it, just in case. If you need something in Israel, you must bustle and barge to get it - they have little respect for a line over there. And as for the American... “How much of human life is lost in waiting!” sighed Ralph Waldo Emerson, as he stood by for his doppio venti caramel macchiato with soy milk.
The spectacle of a line is particularly offensive these days. It is a standing (literally) affront to the Age of Information: Why wait, with swelling feet, when you could be flying along the data stream in your Staples office chair? About the only good thing to be said for a line in 2010 is that it gives the average Twitterer, the man in the tweet, the opportunity for a spot of “twaiting.”
But consider this: Queuing is what separates us from the beasts (assuming, that is, that we want to be separated from the beasts). Man is not just “the only animal that blushes,” as Mark Twain had it, he is the only animal that waits in line. And if he waits long enough, he may find that it is actually good for him.
What more definingly human activity could there be? Our ability to wait in line, to not squabble and bite each other as we approach the desk or counter or velvet rope, is a triumph of what anthropologists call “stable cooperative equilibrium” - something that we, alone among the species, have achieved. Other animals will cooperate sporadically, family member to family member, but only man will stand there meekly with a bunch of total strangers and wait his turn. If he steps out of line he’ll get hissed at - or as professors Robert Boyd and Joseph Henrich put it in the title of a 2000 paper, “Weak Conformist Transmission can Stabilize Costly Enforcement of Norms in Cooperative Dilemmas.” It might not look very noble or evolved, but it is.
You need more, though, I can tell. So what, you say, if the line is a masterpiece of social cohesion and a civilizational building-block? It obstructs my life. And as absorbing as the various schools of “queuing theory” and “flow management” might be, the models they produce - within which the human unit behaves with more-or-less total docility and predictability - are depressing as hell. What’s that? You want to know why several short lines might not be faster than a single long one? Haven’t you heard of Braess’s Paradox, named for the German mathematician Dietrich Braess, who discovered that building additional connector roads did not ease the traffic between two cities but in some cases worsened it?
So allow me to propose another function for the line: a moral one, if I may. What if the purpose of waiting miserably in single file were not to make some footling purchase, or obtain some service or other, but to purge from your immortal soul the grosser taints of the age? Entitlement, lack of manners, everyday violence, and now-now-nowness, all that we deplore in contemporary life confronts us in our reactions to the line.
That discomfort, shifting from foot to foot, that fine cellular seethe of indignation, is a consuming fire: Let it burn! You can’t slow down, but you must slow down. You are irritated by people you don’t know, people in the way, who trespass upon the magnificent urgency of your needs - but here you are, stuck with them. If it doesn’t drive you insane, the line - eventually - will straighten you out. I have a problem, you have a problem, we all have a big problem, and within this homely and rather stagnant arrangement of persons is the cure for it. Get in line, baby.
James Parker writes regularly for Ideas and is a contributing editor at The Atlantic.
© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
LET US NOW PRAISE...
Standing in line
The case for our least-favorite activity
By James Parker | February 7, 2010
How do you handle yourself while you’re waiting in line? And I’m not talking about a nice line, a dainty little three- or four-person affair such as might be found at Trader Joe’s on a Wednesday afternoon: I’m talking about a straggling, misshapen, hostile, sclerotic, old-school DMV-style, inch-by-inch marathon of a line - a real life-sucker. How do you deal with a line like that? Do you fidget, sweat, curse under your breath? Flash homicidal glances at the person in front of you? Or do you smile upon your brother and inwardly wish him well?
If the latter, I congratulate you on being splendidly atypical and/or overmedicated. Because the fact is that humans hate lines. We hate lines, we hate waiting in them, and although we do not necessarily hate the entity at whose behest the line has come into being - the cashier or bureaucrat or receptionist or bouncer or ticket agent - we reserve a most intimate loathing for our fellow liners-up, who are of course blameless in every respect but one: They are ahead of us.
The British were once (long ago, long ago) famed for their patience and politeness in queues. The Russians made a metaphysic out of them: If you saw a line forming in the Soviet Union, it was a good idea to join it, just in case. If you need something in Israel, you must bustle and barge to get it - they have little respect for a line over there. And as for the American... “How much of human life is lost in waiting!” sighed Ralph Waldo Emerson, as he stood by for his doppio venti caramel macchiato with soy milk.
The spectacle of a line is particularly offensive these days. It is a standing (literally) affront to the Age of Information: Why wait, with swelling feet, when you could be flying along the data stream in your Staples office chair? About the only good thing to be said for a line in 2010 is that it gives the average Twitterer, the man in the tweet, the opportunity for a spot of “twaiting.”
But consider this: Queuing is what separates us from the beasts (assuming, that is, that we want to be separated from the beasts). Man is not just “the only animal that blushes,” as Mark Twain had it, he is the only animal that waits in line. And if he waits long enough, he may find that it is actually good for him.
What more definingly human activity could there be? Our ability to wait in line, to not squabble and bite each other as we approach the desk or counter or velvet rope, is a triumph of what anthropologists call “stable cooperative equilibrium” - something that we, alone among the species, have achieved. Other animals will cooperate sporadically, family member to family member, but only man will stand there meekly with a bunch of total strangers and wait his turn. If he steps out of line he’ll get hissed at - or as professors Robert Boyd and Joseph Henrich put it in the title of a 2000 paper, “Weak Conformist Transmission can Stabilize Costly Enforcement of Norms in Cooperative Dilemmas.” It might not look very noble or evolved, but it is.
You need more, though, I can tell. So what, you say, if the line is a masterpiece of social cohesion and a civilizational building-block? It obstructs my life. And as absorbing as the various schools of “queuing theory” and “flow management” might be, the models they produce - within which the human unit behaves with more-or-less total docility and predictability - are depressing as hell. What’s that? You want to know why several short lines might not be faster than a single long one? Haven’t you heard of Braess’s Paradox, named for the German mathematician Dietrich Braess, who discovered that building additional connector roads did not ease the traffic between two cities but in some cases worsened it?
So allow me to propose another function for the line: a moral one, if I may. What if the purpose of waiting miserably in single file were not to make some footling purchase, or obtain some service or other, but to purge from your immortal soul the grosser taints of the age? Entitlement, lack of manners, everyday violence, and now-now-nowness, all that we deplore in contemporary life confronts us in our reactions to the line.
That discomfort, shifting from foot to foot, that fine cellular seethe of indignation, is a consuming fire: Let it burn! You can’t slow down, but you must slow down. You are irritated by people you don’t know, people in the way, who trespass upon the magnificent urgency of your needs - but here you are, stuck with them. If it doesn’t drive you insane, the line - eventually - will straighten you out. I have a problem, you have a problem, we all have a big problem, and within this homely and rather stagnant arrangement of persons is the cure for it. Get in line, baby.
James Parker writes regularly for Ideas and is a contributing editor at The Atlantic.
© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
Todd English article
The Boston Globe
Signs of strain in English’s empire
For celebrity chef, it’s been a wild year, chasing the new while fending off claims
By Linda Matchan and Doug Most, Globe Staff | February 7, 2010
An hour late, Todd English breezes into Olives, the restaurant in Charlestown he opened 20 years ago, the place where he made his name. He is wearing a freshly pressed chef’s jacket, has a BlackBerry in one hand, an iPhone in the other, and a TV crew tailing his every step. He is, as ever, juggling ventures and appearances and texts away furiously as he talks.
“Don’t mind me, I’m ADD,’’ he says, slouching to the table, head in hands, a portrait of mock fatigue.
Todd English tired - an impossibility. The handsome, square-jawed chef who helped put Boston’s food scene on the map now has 21 restaurants, from coast to coast, and more on the way. But while the ageless energy, brash optimism, and love of the spotlight that helped make him a celebrity are still there, fault lines are starting to show in the English empire.
For every splashy restaurant opening, it seems there is a closing - three in the last 18 months. He has had to deal with a court ruling last summer that he and his companies owed $4.5 million in unpaid rent for the space where his Washington, D.C., Olives restaurant operated for almost a decade before closing last year. And there are at least five pending lawsuits against English claiming he or his business enterprises owe more than $280,000 in unpaid bills, including one from his last-minute canceled wedding last September.
English offers explanations for each case and, on Thursday, his publicist issued a bullish statement: “Todd’s restaurant group continues to prosper and grow.’’
On the personal side, it has also been a challenging stretch. Even for someone like English who thrives at center stage, the tabloid-frenzy around his last-minute breakup with Erica Wang last September was unwelcome. Though physically he appears unscathed following the tumultuous breakup during which Wang allegedly slugged him in the face with a heavy watch - leading to stitches for him, an assault charge and anger management program for her - the events did scar him.
“It’s been a year of reinvention,’’ the 49-year-old chef says.
Finding a way to flourish amid criticism, lawsuits
Reinvention apparently doesn’t mean slowing down. Star of cooking shows, namesake of cookware, writer of cookbooks, English has restaurants on two of the world’s biggest cruise ships, he just opened Wild Olives in Boca Raton, Fla., he is taping a pilot of a new TV show, and helping launch a men’s fashion collection at Club Monaco. He also has plans to open a cupcake shop on Beacon Hill with his daughter, Isabelle, start a line of children’s food products named after the character Eloise, and open restaurants in Las Vegas and at New York’s Plaza Hotel. (An anticipated Boston burger joint is off the table, for now).
“The way the world economy has gone, people have had to rethink things, their way of thinking about business,’’ he says. “Like music, like fashion, we’re in the entertainment business and need to stay current. It’s very much about staying fresh.’’
But if, as his publicist’s statement concluded, his business figure is bright, how then to explain the recent closings and line of lawyers chasing after him, from New York to Los Angeles?
The publicist, George Regan, says English’s stardom has made him a “celebrity piñata’’ and an easy target for “gossip, rumors, and especially lawsuits.’’
But is it that simple?
Olives in Aspen and Washington, D.C., and Fish Club in Seattle all shuttered recently. The D.C. closing was forced, after the building owner sued English for failure to pay rent and a judge said he was in default and his business owed $4.5 million. Of that, English personally was held responsible for $813,000, but the final amount he and his companies actually paid was agreed to in a settlement that was not made public.
Other figures, however, are laid out in court documents.
Dan Klores, the public relations titan in New York whose firm has represented Jay Leno, Howard Stern, Jennifer Lopez, Paris Hilton, and Britney Spears, filed a lawsuit last November against Todd English Enterprises, alleging it did publicity work for English in June 2008 for $15,662, and has not been paid a penny of it. English, via Regan, says it was merely a “discrepancy in the hours and services provided’’ and will be resolved.
Limore Shur, the owner of a company that runs high-end, turnkey apartments in New York, says in 2006 he leased to Todd English and an acquaintance, Andrew C. Stranberg, a third-floor loft off Broome Street in SoHo. Shur’s lawsuit alleges that English, Todd English Enterprises, and Stranberg owe $64,242 in unpaid rent, $11,000 to cover damage to the property, and $5,000 in legal fees for the defendant, for a total of $80,242.
“It was $10,000 a month, with bed turn-down service, almost like a hotel,’’ David Katz, the attorney for Shur, said in an interview. “Todd was there for a month or two, maybe three, and just skipped out. . . Nobody ever bothered turning the key in, paying the rent.’’
Stranberg, in a March 17, 2009, profanity-laced deposition obtained by the Globe, lashed out at English.
“I don’t know what Todd English did,’’ Stranberg said. “I’m not in business. I don’t like Todd English. He is a [expletive] loser.’’
In his statement to the Globe, English said he had sublet the apartment and his name was supposed to have been taken off the lease.
And then there’s Avatar Studios, a recording studio in midtown Manhattan whose artist clients include Aerosmith, Paul McCartney, and Billy Joel. Avatar sued English last year for $68,265, alleging that he rented its studio and never paid. English said he is settling that case. The same New York attorney pressing the Avatar case, Amos Weinberg, also represents Building Maintenance Services, a New York cleaning services company that has cleaned everything from the Empire State Building to W Hotels to Radio City Music Hall. It sued for $69,567, for janitorial services at two English restaurants in New York, and his closed one in D.C. English said the matter is still in litigation and his business is not at fault.
More recently, a suit was filed in November in Los Angeles Superior Court against English and Todd English Enterprises LLC, by a consulting firm he hired almost a decade ago to negotiate exclusive restaurant deals. According to the complaint, Fred Bestall brokered deals for English to open restaurants at the Marriott Hotel in Seattle and at Walt Disney World in Florida. The complaint says English paid off $94,948 of the $120,000 he owed, but that payments stopped in August 2007 and he still owes $24,052. English says it’s a dispute over the final amount due and is being settled.
But of all the complaints against English, the smallest one might sting the most.
On Dec. 16, Chestnuts in the Tuileries, a boutique florist hired to do all the flowers for English’s Oct. 3 wedding, sued both English and Wang. The wedding at the opulent St. Regis Hotel in New York never happened, and the florist didn’t get any of the $22,054 it was owed.
“The day of the wedding, Chestnuts delivered all of the flowers to the St. Regis and set up the flowers as ordered by the Defendants,’’ the complaint reads. “On the morning of the wedding, Todd English called the wedding off. After abandoning his nuptials and leaving his fiancée at the altar, Todd English contacted American Express and falsely denied authorizing payment for the flowers.’’
John Crossman, the attorney for Chestnuts, said even though Chestnuts sued both Wang and English, he has no doubt who owes the money.
“When you order flowers, you’re supposed to pay for them,’’ Crossman said. “It seems clear to us Mr. English was supposed to sign. We have his credit card number.’’
English offers a different explanation. Through his spokesman, he says a “third party used his American Express card without his permission, and the florist was told not to deliver the flowers prior to the event.’’
Driven by love of food, entrepreneurial spirit
In the interview at Olives in Charlestown, English did not deny the recession has bruised his business. “The economy has beaten us all up,’’ he said. “People don’t spend as much. Instead of a $70 bottle of wine, they’ll order wine by the glass.’’
But the economy isn’t his only challenge; there have also been some wounding reviews for his food. Of the Fish Club in Seattle, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer restaurant critic wrote: “For that kind of money, I want some or all of the following: great food, great atmosphere, great service, maybe even a view. Yet my three visits to Fish Club can be summarized as follows: lousy, OK, not bad.’’
To criticism that the food his restaurants serve has suffered as he’s shifted from restaurateur to entrepreneur, the chef says nothing has changed. “Not at all,’’ says English, who is fond of quoting renowned French chef Paul Bocuse. “People would ask him who was cooking when he wasn’t in the restaurant. And he’d say, ‘The same people cooking when I am there.’ ’’
When Olives in Charlestown was his one and only, it was hottest place in town serving, by general acclaim, some of the city’s best food. Replicating that, he concedes, is hard.
“You are always looking for the hottest place in town,’’ he says. “I am, certainly. But I’m also realistic . . . There is an ebb and flow. It’s the business.’’
But still, some raise this question: Can his restaurants truly shine if he’s not actually in them, as he was at the start of his career?
“When a chef himself is not in the restaurant, even if the greatest sous chef in the world is cooking, [the quality] is down 10 percent,’’ said GQ’s wine and food critic Alan Richman. “If the chef is never there, it’s down 30 percent. After that, there is no way to go but down.’’
Richman said of English, “I might be his greatest fan. I thought his food at Olives, when the restaurant was new, was magnificent. Every dish on the plate had too much of everything in it, and you know what? It was great!’’
He said he interviewed English about a year ago at Olives in New York, and after the interview English dashed into the kitchen and “threw together’’ a simple flatbread pizza for him. “It was fabulous!’’ said Richman, who was working on a story about pizza at the time and was sure it would make his top ten list.
But when he went back to the restaurant when English wasn’t there, Richman tried it again and said “it was just so-so.’’
“The man is a near-genius as a chef,’’ he said. “And yet people who are near-geniuses are often the ones whose food is hardest to translate into mass production. I think his restaurants are okay . . . I just get disappointed by seeing a truncated version of what a great chef might do.’’
But Gordon Hamersley, who has presided over Hamersley’s Bistro for more than 20 years, defends English’s desire to expand.
“I have one restaurant,’’ he says. “I go to my restaurant and I stand behind the line and work with 22-, 23- 25-year-olds because that’s what I like and love. But there are other kinds of chefs who happen to be entrepreneurial chefs, who have a love of food and a variety of food ideas they want to explore, and they can’t just do it in one restaurant. And there’s not a darned thing wrong with that.’’
He adds: “The only thing that’s important is: Does the food taste good, and is the food great quality? There are good cupcakes and there are bad cupcakes and my guess is that Todd’s cupcakes will be very high quality.’’
English is sure of it. For all his myriad ventures and challenges, he says he is still driven by the culinary passion that made Olives, Olives.
“I love the entrepreneurial side of the business,’’ he says. “The conceptual side of it, the creative side of it.’’ But then he adds, “I never want to lose my sense that I started out as a chef.’’
© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
Signs of strain in English’s empire
For celebrity chef, it’s been a wild year, chasing the new while fending off claims
By Linda Matchan and Doug Most, Globe Staff | February 7, 2010
An hour late, Todd English breezes into Olives, the restaurant in Charlestown he opened 20 years ago, the place where he made his name. He is wearing a freshly pressed chef’s jacket, has a BlackBerry in one hand, an iPhone in the other, and a TV crew tailing his every step. He is, as ever, juggling ventures and appearances and texts away furiously as he talks.
“Don’t mind me, I’m ADD,’’ he says, slouching to the table, head in hands, a portrait of mock fatigue.
Todd English tired - an impossibility. The handsome, square-jawed chef who helped put Boston’s food scene on the map now has 21 restaurants, from coast to coast, and more on the way. But while the ageless energy, brash optimism, and love of the spotlight that helped make him a celebrity are still there, fault lines are starting to show in the English empire.
For every splashy restaurant opening, it seems there is a closing - three in the last 18 months. He has had to deal with a court ruling last summer that he and his companies owed $4.5 million in unpaid rent for the space where his Washington, D.C., Olives restaurant operated for almost a decade before closing last year. And there are at least five pending lawsuits against English claiming he or his business enterprises owe more than $280,000 in unpaid bills, including one from his last-minute canceled wedding last September.
English offers explanations for each case and, on Thursday, his publicist issued a bullish statement: “Todd’s restaurant group continues to prosper and grow.’’
On the personal side, it has also been a challenging stretch. Even for someone like English who thrives at center stage, the tabloid-frenzy around his last-minute breakup with Erica Wang last September was unwelcome. Though physically he appears unscathed following the tumultuous breakup during which Wang allegedly slugged him in the face with a heavy watch - leading to stitches for him, an assault charge and anger management program for her - the events did scar him.
“It’s been a year of reinvention,’’ the 49-year-old chef says.
Finding a way to flourish amid criticism, lawsuits
Reinvention apparently doesn’t mean slowing down. Star of cooking shows, namesake of cookware, writer of cookbooks, English has restaurants on two of the world’s biggest cruise ships, he just opened Wild Olives in Boca Raton, Fla., he is taping a pilot of a new TV show, and helping launch a men’s fashion collection at Club Monaco. He also has plans to open a cupcake shop on Beacon Hill with his daughter, Isabelle, start a line of children’s food products named after the character Eloise, and open restaurants in Las Vegas and at New York’s Plaza Hotel. (An anticipated Boston burger joint is off the table, for now).
“The way the world economy has gone, people have had to rethink things, their way of thinking about business,’’ he says. “Like music, like fashion, we’re in the entertainment business and need to stay current. It’s very much about staying fresh.’’
But if, as his publicist’s statement concluded, his business figure is bright, how then to explain the recent closings and line of lawyers chasing after him, from New York to Los Angeles?
The publicist, George Regan, says English’s stardom has made him a “celebrity piñata’’ and an easy target for “gossip, rumors, and especially lawsuits.’’
But is it that simple?
Olives in Aspen and Washington, D.C., and Fish Club in Seattle all shuttered recently. The D.C. closing was forced, after the building owner sued English for failure to pay rent and a judge said he was in default and his business owed $4.5 million. Of that, English personally was held responsible for $813,000, but the final amount he and his companies actually paid was agreed to in a settlement that was not made public.
Other figures, however, are laid out in court documents.
Dan Klores, the public relations titan in New York whose firm has represented Jay Leno, Howard Stern, Jennifer Lopez, Paris Hilton, and Britney Spears, filed a lawsuit last November against Todd English Enterprises, alleging it did publicity work for English in June 2008 for $15,662, and has not been paid a penny of it. English, via Regan, says it was merely a “discrepancy in the hours and services provided’’ and will be resolved.
Limore Shur, the owner of a company that runs high-end, turnkey apartments in New York, says in 2006 he leased to Todd English and an acquaintance, Andrew C. Stranberg, a third-floor loft off Broome Street in SoHo. Shur’s lawsuit alleges that English, Todd English Enterprises, and Stranberg owe $64,242 in unpaid rent, $11,000 to cover damage to the property, and $5,000 in legal fees for the defendant, for a total of $80,242.
“It was $10,000 a month, with bed turn-down service, almost like a hotel,’’ David Katz, the attorney for Shur, said in an interview. “Todd was there for a month or two, maybe three, and just skipped out. . . Nobody ever bothered turning the key in, paying the rent.’’
Stranberg, in a March 17, 2009, profanity-laced deposition obtained by the Globe, lashed out at English.
“I don’t know what Todd English did,’’ Stranberg said. “I’m not in business. I don’t like Todd English. He is a [expletive] loser.’’
In his statement to the Globe, English said he had sublet the apartment and his name was supposed to have been taken off the lease.
And then there’s Avatar Studios, a recording studio in midtown Manhattan whose artist clients include Aerosmith, Paul McCartney, and Billy Joel. Avatar sued English last year for $68,265, alleging that he rented its studio and never paid. English said he is settling that case. The same New York attorney pressing the Avatar case, Amos Weinberg, also represents Building Maintenance Services, a New York cleaning services company that has cleaned everything from the Empire State Building to W Hotels to Radio City Music Hall. It sued for $69,567, for janitorial services at two English restaurants in New York, and his closed one in D.C. English said the matter is still in litigation and his business is not at fault.
More recently, a suit was filed in November in Los Angeles Superior Court against English and Todd English Enterprises LLC, by a consulting firm he hired almost a decade ago to negotiate exclusive restaurant deals. According to the complaint, Fred Bestall brokered deals for English to open restaurants at the Marriott Hotel in Seattle and at Walt Disney World in Florida. The complaint says English paid off $94,948 of the $120,000 he owed, but that payments stopped in August 2007 and he still owes $24,052. English says it’s a dispute over the final amount due and is being settled.
But of all the complaints against English, the smallest one might sting the most.
On Dec. 16, Chestnuts in the Tuileries, a boutique florist hired to do all the flowers for English’s Oct. 3 wedding, sued both English and Wang. The wedding at the opulent St. Regis Hotel in New York never happened, and the florist didn’t get any of the $22,054 it was owed.
“The day of the wedding, Chestnuts delivered all of the flowers to the St. Regis and set up the flowers as ordered by the Defendants,’’ the complaint reads. “On the morning of the wedding, Todd English called the wedding off. After abandoning his nuptials and leaving his fiancée at the altar, Todd English contacted American Express and falsely denied authorizing payment for the flowers.’’
John Crossman, the attorney for Chestnuts, said even though Chestnuts sued both Wang and English, he has no doubt who owes the money.
“When you order flowers, you’re supposed to pay for them,’’ Crossman said. “It seems clear to us Mr. English was supposed to sign. We have his credit card number.’’
English offers a different explanation. Through his spokesman, he says a “third party used his American Express card without his permission, and the florist was told not to deliver the flowers prior to the event.’’
Driven by love of food, entrepreneurial spirit
In the interview at Olives in Charlestown, English did not deny the recession has bruised his business. “The economy has beaten us all up,’’ he said. “People don’t spend as much. Instead of a $70 bottle of wine, they’ll order wine by the glass.’’
But the economy isn’t his only challenge; there have also been some wounding reviews for his food. Of the Fish Club in Seattle, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer restaurant critic wrote: “For that kind of money, I want some or all of the following: great food, great atmosphere, great service, maybe even a view. Yet my three visits to Fish Club can be summarized as follows: lousy, OK, not bad.’’
To criticism that the food his restaurants serve has suffered as he’s shifted from restaurateur to entrepreneur, the chef says nothing has changed. “Not at all,’’ says English, who is fond of quoting renowned French chef Paul Bocuse. “People would ask him who was cooking when he wasn’t in the restaurant. And he’d say, ‘The same people cooking when I am there.’ ’’
When Olives in Charlestown was his one and only, it was hottest place in town serving, by general acclaim, some of the city’s best food. Replicating that, he concedes, is hard.
“You are always looking for the hottest place in town,’’ he says. “I am, certainly. But I’m also realistic . . . There is an ebb and flow. It’s the business.’’
But still, some raise this question: Can his restaurants truly shine if he’s not actually in them, as he was at the start of his career?
“When a chef himself is not in the restaurant, even if the greatest sous chef in the world is cooking, [the quality] is down 10 percent,’’ said GQ’s wine and food critic Alan Richman. “If the chef is never there, it’s down 30 percent. After that, there is no way to go but down.’’
Richman said of English, “I might be his greatest fan. I thought his food at Olives, when the restaurant was new, was magnificent. Every dish on the plate had too much of everything in it, and you know what? It was great!’’
He said he interviewed English about a year ago at Olives in New York, and after the interview English dashed into the kitchen and “threw together’’ a simple flatbread pizza for him. “It was fabulous!’’ said Richman, who was working on a story about pizza at the time and was sure it would make his top ten list.
But when he went back to the restaurant when English wasn’t there, Richman tried it again and said “it was just so-so.’’
“The man is a near-genius as a chef,’’ he said. “And yet people who are near-geniuses are often the ones whose food is hardest to translate into mass production. I think his restaurants are okay . . . I just get disappointed by seeing a truncated version of what a great chef might do.’’
But Gordon Hamersley, who has presided over Hamersley’s Bistro for more than 20 years, defends English’s desire to expand.
“I have one restaurant,’’ he says. “I go to my restaurant and I stand behind the line and work with 22-, 23- 25-year-olds because that’s what I like and love. But there are other kinds of chefs who happen to be entrepreneurial chefs, who have a love of food and a variety of food ideas they want to explore, and they can’t just do it in one restaurant. And there’s not a darned thing wrong with that.’’
He adds: “The only thing that’s important is: Does the food taste good, and is the food great quality? There are good cupcakes and there are bad cupcakes and my guess is that Todd’s cupcakes will be very high quality.’’
English is sure of it. For all his myriad ventures and challenges, he says he is still driven by the culinary passion that made Olives, Olives.
“I love the entrepreneurial side of the business,’’ he says. “The conceptual side of it, the creative side of it.’’ But then he adds, “I never want to lose my sense that I started out as a chef.’’
© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
