I’m pretty sure they said they got paid minimum wage (not the tipping wage, looks like $7.80/hr in AZ) and that’s partly how the owner justified taking it.
Problem is, this ain’t Europe, the restaurant’s patrons don’t know this because it’s an American restaurant where tipping is the norm and I’d also be willing to bet that Samy and Amy do not tell their servers that the ownership keeps all the gratuities when they hire them.
And damn…100 servers/food runners in a year? That’s unreal turnover, even for a transitory job like waiting tables.
This was obviously gonna happen, but it won’t last more than a few weeks.
That, coupled with the fact that nearly every photo of a baked good on the site, and the photos that the owners uploaded to the yelp site, were stolen from other sites, is pretty good evidence of fraud.
Also, as several people have noted, the kitchen had no baking supplies.
She also posted lots of stuff about America being all about ressling (sic) and saying on the show Gordon doesn’t understand about reselling because he’s not American.
Pretty sure we agree with you here. Look at the comment upthread where I say “The owners take the tips? You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” I’m just addressing the facts of what was going on, as a poster wondered why someone would stay on at $2.13/hr. They’re getting paid regular minimum wage. Still absolutely ridiculous to take the tips.
Yeah, it’s mostly self served. For a brief period when Panera was offering their take on pizza - “crispanis” the food was brought out. For large to-go orders of multiple bagel packs, coffee packs, etc. we were told to take it to the car for the customer, or if you saw a mom wrestling with a bunch of kids, you would just bring her the food, etc. I know Arby’s serves food and for some drive-thru’s if it’s backed up they tell you to park and they’ll bring the food out to you. Like I said, the tipping opportunities were rare but it does present itself from time to time.
I know right? I’m not caught up on tax code but I would imagine filing that many W2’s would raise an eyebrow or two at the IRS.
Yeah, there’s no way they’re doing that kind of paperwork. Definitely something smells funny here, financially.
[quote=“Dewey_Finn, post:105, topic:658341”]
I think they actually want people who don’t respond well to criticism, as it means for a more dramatic show. >snip!<QUOTE]
**Dewey **is dead-on. If any of you have watched Total Blackout on Skiffy then you know what he is referring to. That show is chock-full of black, gay, butch, you-name-it-it’s in-there stereotypes that have you rolling your eyes in nanoseconds.
And yet, damn me, :smack: I keep watching that show. Why?
Because all of those stereotypes present as Raving Drama Queens, which makes for guilty viewing pleasure which means good ratings which means big bucks for the folks who created the silly show.
Who’s gonna watch a stoic, well-trained ex-military kind of person for example who will do the blackout stunt while turning nary a hair? Nobody. Booooooring…
And yes, KN is also a tasty guilty viewing pleasure. I admit to watching the Baking Company’s ep twice last night.
Sorry. I did read that yesterday but forgot. I watched that episode with my girlfriend yesterday evening and we were constantly looking at each other during it with that “great googly moogly, for real?” look on our faces. It was so over the top that I would have believed it was utterly staged had I not read about it here and elsewhere before watching it.
Ramsay should have done the same thing with Chappy.
I wonder how old Katy is. She looks about 13.
After watching the show and the aftermath, I couldn’t believe the owners thought that it would go well:
I was still talking to my husband about it two days later. It reminds me of a certain chef/ owner here, who scolded me on Yelp.
Are Amy /Sammy Israeli ? I thought I heard some Arabic. ( in between the swearing)
Sammy emigrated from Israel sometime around 2000 and Amy, or Amanda Bossingham as she was known before her stint in prison, is american.
Still illegal, tough.
Sure. You can “forget” to put things on the ticket, and once they’re paid for that cash goes into your pocket, for one (something like this occurred that we saw). There are other ways to screw with it too. Just the fact that there’s no oversight and no one but Samy ever sees the books and they have so much turnover leaves plenty of room to fiddle with the numbers. Who would know?
Most owners end up taking his help but in the restaurants with the really fucked up weirdos (the best episodes!!) I always get the feeling things will return to the dysfunctional norm as soon as he’s gone. Some things you just can’t fix in a week. A lot of the owners get into this business thinking it’s a fast buck, and they have absolutely NO experience of any type. I always assume they ultimately fail, but so what? Makes for good TV.
Also, I want to say that I think Gordon is a real good guy. He comes across as an asshole a lot, but it’s just to shake these morons out of their complacency. The amount of delusion many of them have is astonishing. But I’ve never seen him walk into a place with kind owners who have a strong willingness to improve and then act like an asshole. With people who want to learn, he’s very helpful and patient.
!!! Oooooooh, do tell.
I thought it was mentioned previously but if not, she was arrested in, I think, 2000 or 2001 for opening a line of credit with someone else’s SSN. She served about a year of her sentence and then had a couple years of probation, I think. After she got out, she snapped Sammy up and they opened the restaurant.
Reading for comprehension !!???
:smack:
Part 1 of the episode seems to have disappeared from the OP’s Buzzfeed link.
Correct, it wasn’t mentioned on the show at all, but it was all over their Facebook before they claimed it was hacked. Those posts have since been deleted but this page has a screenshot of one of the posts talking about it.