Six former Drink servers and bartenders say their former employer made them eat the costs of walk-outs, unsigned credit card receipts, and register shortages in a class action filed this week in Hennepin County District Court. The suit says supervisors also altered time sheets in order not to pay them all the hours they worked. Since they only made minimum wage to begin with, the practice meant they made even less than minimum wage.
Among other things, the suit says management would sporadically "announce that the 'till was off' and would require all bartenders who were working to pay ... to make up for the alleged shortages, which generally ranged from $40 to $200" and "refused to provide documentation of the ... shortages."
Drink has locations in both Uptown and downtown. Spin Nightclub, which is under the same ownership as Drink, is also named in the suit. The six employees worked for both the Updown and downtown Drink locations.
USA Today's been hitting the food safety beat hard lately. First, it went after school food, and now it's set its sights on airports. Could the paper be inching its way up in credibility? Among its findings:
More than 40 percent of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport's reviewed restaurants had at least one "critical" health and safety violation. And more than 75 percent of those reviewed at D.C.'s Reagan National Airport did. Among the grosser overall revelations:
More than a dozen Minneapolis Public School employees filed suit this week in Ramsey County against Subway, claiming they were sickened after eating "party" subs they bought from a Roseville shop two years ago. The 16 plaintiffs all similarly claim that they suffered nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, cramps, and various aches and pains in the days following their consumption of the sandwiches.
A subsequent Minnesota Department of Health investigation concluded that two of the store's employees, who reported being sick in the days before they prepared the party subs, were responsible for the outbreak. The plaintiffs, described by the suit as "pipefitters employed by the Minneapolis Public Schools," seek more than $50,000 in damages for their claims of the sandwich chain's negligence and liability.
According to the suit, norovirus causes an estimated 23 million cases of acute gastroenteritis in the United States each year. The virus may be spread through vomit or feces as well as human-to-human contact.
Blech. Here's hoping the store's cleaned up its act since then.
Do fast food restaurants care more about your kids than the U.S. government? If the stringency of food testing is any measure, then the answer appears to be 'yes.' A USA Today investigation revealed this week that the U.S. Department of Agriculture allows millions of pounds of meat into to the nation's schools that would not pass muster by fast food chains like McDonald's or Burger King. For example, the article says:
For chicken, the USDA has supplied schools with thousands of tons of meat from old birds that might otherwise go to compost or pet food. Called "spent hens" because they're past their egg-laying prime, the chickens don't pass muster with Colonel Sanders-- KFC won't buy them -- and they don't pass the soup test, either. The Campbell Soup Company says it stopped using them a decade ago based on "quality considerations."
Popular Eat Street destination Jasmine Deli must hire and keep a state "food manager" on its premises during business hours and is subject to more frequent health inspections according to the terms of a recent settlement agreement over the restaurant's business license. According to the settlement conference document:
"[Jasmine Deli] has failed to maintain a food management safety system to prevent public health risk factors and to keep the restaurant kitchen in clean and sanitary conditions in compliance with applicable [city] provisions"
As far back as 2006, inspections of the deli have resulted in health department violations, including, but not limited to, reports of rodents, roaches and other pests on the premises. Since city health department officials have gotten involved, however, the banh mi purveyors seem to have cleaned up their act. Its most recent inspection indicated zero violations.
Consider this the appendix to this week's Dish column about how restaurateurs are reacting to the proliferation of anonymous online reviews.
I've pulled a few of the posts referenced in the article from Yelp and Citysearch and republished them here. Decide for yourself if you think they're fair.
1. Heartland
I look at the menu, it is twice the price of my favorite restaurant , however there is a bountiful list of food listed on each item. We splurge, we take the three course meal. The waitress will substitute ice cream for the third course, since I have food problems. Now, where I come from, bread is served with every meal. So the joke of a bad meal is that you have to live on the bread. Well, at Heartland you have live on the bread, which is served first and I can't eat. Then came an appetizer the size of a quarter (I am not joking), served on a big plate. Oh that is just complimentary. The real appetizer comes next, a 3-4 inch diameter of food on a big plate, about 1/4 of what I would expect. It was good, or maybe I was just very hungry. Then the main course comes out, 4 thin slices of lamb hiding a tiny tiny amount of potatoes and carrots. I ask the waitress if I could have more potatoes and carrots, she says there would be a surcharge. I decline. It was good, or maybe I was just very hungry. Even in Europe I had more of a serving for lunch. Then desert came, four small scoops of ice cream. It was good, or maybe I was just very hungry. I think I could have gotten more food walking around the taste testers at Sam's club. My husband was there, or I would have gone begging to kitchen. "Please, just a bit more food, I am very hungry". -thegracekelly
Popular Lyn-Lake restaurants The Herkimer brewpub and neighboring sake bar moto-i are at the center of a heated legal battle between a former manager and part-owner of the business and his business partner, who retains control of them.
In a complaint filed last month in Hennepin County District Court, former Herkimer Manager Chad Jamrozy says he was fired for no reason and shut out of the remainder of his involvement with The Herkimer -- as well as with moto-i and an energy drink company the two men own called TripleCaff. He claims that majority owner Blake Richardson also still owes him $10,000 for a loan he made and demands Richardson follow through on a promise of a 20 percent ownership stake in moto-i.
In a subsequent filing, Richardson shoots right back, accusing Jamrozy of embezzlement, of mishandling The Herkimer's insurance plan, of failing to pay the restaurant's vendors, leaving its books in "complete disarray," as well as "highly inappropriate" and "professionally embarrassing" behavior.
While Jamrozy himself admits "that there may have been occasions where [he] was intoxicated at the Herkimer during off-duty hours," he maintains his entitlement to repayment of the loan as well as his ownership stakes in the three businesses.
The two men also own TripleCaff, an energy drink on tap at several local restaurants.
Chowhounders, foodies, and food critics united in recent months over the rumored departure of a critical mass of employees from the beloved St. Paul Chinese restaurant Little Szechuan. The exodus was followed shortly thereafter by the appearance of a new Szechuan-style restaurant in Bloomington called Grand Szechuan. A lawsuit filed this week in Ramsey County by Little Szechuan's former head chef -- now heading up Grand Szechuan -- provides a few more pieces to the puzzle.
Vegemite, which is made from brewers' yeast extract, leftover from beer-making, btw, is probably one of those things, like Brussels sprouts, that should be reevaluated as an adult--you might surprise yourself by liking it the second time around. Aussies love the stuff--they probably eat it on crocodile--and even though it's made by Kraft, Vegemite can be hard to find in the US. (When it is sold here, it's often not bearing the Kraft seal, I'm assuming because marketers worry that the pungent paste and its oddball reputation would harm the Kraft brand in American markets.)
An article about "up and coming" local chefs in next month's issue of MSP Magazine has won the ire of local chef and restaurateur Stewart Woodman, provoking MSP Mag's dining editor Adam Platt to enter the fray in an ongoing exchange between them and others that at last count, included 24 comments. As far as journalism goes, Steve Marsh's profiles of notorious chef-about-town Landon "Colonel Mustard" Schoenefeld, 20.21 pastry chef Corinne Sherbert, and Sea Change sous chef Jim Christiansen, are pretty badass. Marsh knows how to get the goods, gets 'em, and presents them in an artful way.
But Woodman takes issue with Marsh's inclusion of Schoeneman, saying he doesn't deserve the recognition and suggests he has engaged in criminal behavior by serving pot brownies to his former co-workers at Bulldog NE. Woodman also brings up an earlier, unrelated comment by Platt about preferring to watch Hell's Kitchen over reading an interview with a farmer to illustrate what he describes as "the 'reality' TV obsessed food media."
When another commenter then blasts off an f-u to Platt, Platt himself gets in on the action, defending Marsh's article, explaining that MSP Mag "exists to satisfy the interests of the quarter million people who look at our magazine each month, most of whom are not chefs or food professionals or farmers," and saying his comment about preferring Hell's Kitchen was taken out of context. The "discussion" features comments from Marsh and others as well. No comment from Schoenefeld so far.
Marsh's article is not online, an issue also taken up in the exchange. Ah, this is what blogging's for.
Ground beef doesn't even make the Top 10, people. Nor peanut butter, nor pistachios -- all three inducing practically mass hysteria in the last year or so (one as recently as this week!) related to various illnesses (E. coli and salmonella, specifically) they've caused consumers. And while some, nay maybe even most, of the foods cited by the Center for Science in the Public Interest as the riskiest in America are sorta no-brainers (like seafood) a few are actually pretty surprising. (Cheese? Potatoes? WTF?). Check it out after the jump.
Say it ain't so! A Minneapolis woman is saying she contracted salmonella after eating a pork banh mi from the popular Eat Street Vietnamese restaurant and CP fave Jasmine Deli. According to a lawsuit filed this week in Hennepin County, four others were sickened with the same bug after eating at the restaurant around the same time in early 2008. The restaurant was unable to comment. The woman seeks more than $50,000 in damages.
A NYT article published over the weekend, dubbed by Andrew Zimmern as "The Most Important Food Article in Years," features not only the tragic story of a 22-year-old Cold Spring woman stricken with and eventually paralyzed by a virulent strain of E. coli but also the manufacturer of the ground beef patty responsible for her illness, Minneapolis's very own Cargill.
A former server at the Edina Cheesecake Factory says in a lawsuit filed this week in federal court that she was fired by the restaurant after being sexually harassed and subjected to racist behavior by her manager.
Lion's Tap is getting out the big guns. The Eden Prairie burger institution sued McDonald's in federal court Friday accusing the fast food giant of stealing its "Who's Your Patty?" tagline. The suit's language is priceless:
Is there a lawsuit comin' round the bend for a popular Eat Street destination? MPR reports that two former employees of the Malaysian restaurant Peninsula on 26th and Nicollet have filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Labor claiming the restaurant owes them thousands of dollars. And management isn't taking too kindly to the allegations. MPR quotes the restaurant's manager, speaking on behalf of restaurant owner Chang Tong Xu, as saying, "He's going to let the legal process run its course because that's what we do in the United States and that mob mentality does not rule." Mob mentality?
Does anyone even still eat Little Caesars? Maybe its their profound lack of customers that's driving them to get a little grab-handy with their employees' paychecks. In a lawsuit filed this week in federal court, a New Brighton woman accuses her former employer, a Crystal, Minn. Little Caesars, of making unauthorized deductions from her paycheck.
The lawsuit says when she asked about it, she was told that her till had come up short, which was news to her. The store proceeded to do so again on another paycheck, even though the plaintiff was no longer working as a cashier.The suit says the store then reduced the woman's hours for no reason, forcing her to quit. The woman also accuses the pizza chain of racism.
General Mills' Totino's and Jeno's brand frozen pizzas were recalled in 2007 after E. coli was detected.
The New York Times' business section ran a semi-alarming article last Thursday on how companies that manufacture processed food are "[i]ncreasingly ... unable to guarantee the safety of their ingredients." The article goes on to say, "almost every element [of processed foods], not just red meat and poultry, is now a potential carrier of pathogens, government and industry officials concede." I'm sorry, what?
An article titled "Drink Up" in the May 18 issue of the New Yorker paints an unflattering, almost cringeworthy, portrait of the man responsible for the cheap, abundant Charles Shaw wine most of us know as Two Buck Chuck. Fred Franzia (whose family was also originally behind Franzia boxed wine) seems to barrel through life with a lack of self-awareness that can create a dilemma -- "Has this guy ever been interviewed before?" you sort of worry to yourself -- but can also make for a reporter's dream subject.
Reporter Dana Goodyear digs in. Franzia, we quickly learn, is a tenacious businessman, no question, who grew up in the wine business (the involvement of his own immediate family aside, Ernest Gallo married Franzia's aunt) and has kept his eye on the prize ever since. The prize? Cold, hard cash. Franzia's particular brand of wealth-seeking has involved tethering himself to the mantra that no wine should cost more than $10 (!!!) and meanwhile gobbling up struggling and bankrupt vineyards Hungry Hungry Hippo-style and repurposing them for his own business.
More juicy details about Fred Franzia after the jump.
The Strib published an article this week on the ongoing financial struggles of former Vikings co-owner James Jundt and his son Marcus, which have evolved from the bankruptcy of Jundt the elder's investment company to include the seemingly perilous existence of a restaurant chain that Marcus Jundt presides over and both men have invested deeply in.
Kona Grill, which bills its cuisine as "east meets west" and prides itself on its steak and sushi, has some 20-odd locations countrywide. The Strib article failed to mention the chain's pending Eden Prairie location, on Flying Cloud Drive across from the Eden Prairie Mall, construction of which appears to have been abandoned. Until recently, there was a sign identifying the structure as "Kona Grill," which is no longer visible from the road, and a "For Lease" sign hangs on the perimeter fence. No one answered the phone Thursday at Kona Grill's Scottsdale, Ariz. headquarters.
Trademark lawsuits are some of the most bizarre. I saw one in the last year or so that involved one company suing another for the particular shade of blue it was using for one of its products as being "confusingly similar" to the blue it used on its own. Another involved one trial lawyer association suing another (lawyers suing lawyers -- ha!) for having a name that was something like "unlawfully similar" to its own.
The weirdness most definitely extends to food-related topics. Just last week, the locally-owned Buffalo Wild Wings sued Procter & Gamble, the company that makes Pringles, for using the word "Blazin'" to advertise its Pringles "Extreme" chips. The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court claims, "Procter & Gamble chose words and themes such that the only conclusion to be drawn is that Procter & Gamble intended to use the success of and goodwill attributable to Buffalo Wild Wings ... in order to mislead consumers ..."
Yale Environment 360, a publication of the university's School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, has published an interview with one of Yale's resident psychologists who recently co-authored a study on the links between some of the food industry's deceptive marketing tactics and those of the tobacco industry's.
"The playbook is the same, but this time the the lies and
misinformation could be disastrous for everyone -- children especially," says the introduction to the interview.
I have no idea what this means and I refuse to look it up but I believe the words "tentacle hentai" may mean something to some of you? I am taking Consumerist's advice and not Googling this, but according to their readers, there is a "Tentacle Grape" soda now available (comes with a condom?!) that is inspired by the -- anime? -- term.
A former employee of Warehouse District restaurant and nightclub Trocaderos says she was fired after she complained about being groped and propositioned by an entire cast of characters including sound techs, bouncers and bartenders right up to top management of the club.
Spike.com brings us a look inside this toilet-themed restaurant on its Modern Toilet photo album. And you thought you'd seen everything you needed to know about Japan on Engrish.com...
Surely you've seen them. There's one that says "Fabulous" on I-35W North just before you get downtown. I saw one that says "Oh Boy" at a downtown St. Paul bus stop. Another says "SODYPOP." One even takes up an entire LRT train, though I couldn't quite catch what it said (anyone?).
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