Sometimes I think I feel sorry for people who maybe don’t deserve my sympathy.
For example, the SDC restaurant last night was in a strip center. There was another restaurant in that center, a Chinese buffet, that I’d been to a few times. The last time I went (over a year ago) it was pouring down rain, I had the beginnings of a cold, I went in…
…and water was pouring from a hole in the roof into buckets on the floor. And yet, the buffet was still going. (I’m not ashamed to admit I stayed, even with the roof leak; as I said, I wasn’t feeling well, and didn’t feel like driving anyplace else. Of course, I still didn’t feel well after I ate…)
Anyway, I thought I’d walk down and take a look, since they’d changed their sign from “Chinese Buffet” to “Asian BBQ”. What I found was:
- A lockout notice from the landlord.
- A second note from the State Comptroller’s office, requesting an urgent callback to discuss unpaid taxes.
- A third note from the Texas Workforce Commission, requesting a call to discuss quarterly reports.
In short, a trail of screwed-upness. I mentioned this to Lawrence, who suggested it might be blog fodder. I told him I wasn’t sure, and that I kind of felt sorry for these people. After all, they’re probably hard-working immigrants who got in over their heads (though that place has been there for years). Lawrence, in turn, felt they didn’t deserve any sympathy. After all, he said, he pays his tax bill to the comptroller’s office, and he pays what he owes on his property, and by not paying the TWC, they were probably screwing their workers, so why should I give them any breaks by not naming and shaming them? Not to mention photographing the collection of notices stuck to their front door?
I can’t answer that question. But I can compromise by writing here. If someone wants to name the place in the comments, they’re more than welcome to. I didn’t go back and photograph the array of notices because I was distracted by other things. (And I am curious about “Michael K.” from “Northridge, CA”, and his comment “I like Korea House, but hated driving out there. Now I found a better place even closer.” Where is he driving from, I wonder? If he lives anywhere along the 183 corridor, sorry, but Korea House isn’t that much more of a drive from where Restaurant X used to be.)
(Yes, I realize I just gave everyone the tools to figure it out if they use the Google and put in that phrase above, with the site:yelp.com modifier. Good for you.)
There’s another place I’ve been to a couple of times. Some very good friends of mine seemed to like it. We had an SDC there. I remember the menu had their origin story printed on the back; basically, as I recall, Mama retired from school administration, the family had money, so her children bought her the restaurant (formerly a Thomas Super Buffet) to give her something to do.
The food wasn’t horrible, but I never really thought it was very good. The burgers were the best thing on the menu, and the place always seemed kind of heavy on staffing, while the waitstaff mostly sat around, played with their phones, and looked bored. I feel bad saying this because my friends did like the place, but I felt it was begging for an intervention from Robert Irvine.
I went by the location today, on my way to Fry’s, as I’d heard rumors the place had closed and thought I’d check for myself. The rumors were correct. At least they didn’t have notices from the comptroller and TWC on the door; just the lockout notice from the landlord and a big warning sticker from the NuCO2 people.
Again, I really want to feel sorry for these people. But buying Mom a restaurant so she’d have something to do after she retires? That’s not the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard, but it is in the Top Ten. Let Mom enjoy her retirement. If she wants something to do, she can join the Red Hats. Actually, that’s probably an even better use of Mom’s talents, as she can criticize the food served at Red Hat meetings, without all the problems of running a restaurant.
I don’t know what I’m trying to say here. Maybe that it is sad and depressing when the hard-working family shuts down their Ethiopian place (even though there are better Ethiopian places in town, and what a weird thing it is to be able to say that these days), but it is full of schadenfreudeay goodness when some corporate monster without a soul closes their doors? Even though the corporate monster is probably throwing just as many people out of work? Possibly even more?
Or maybe I’m just looking for cheap blog fodder.