Results tagged “staff”

The restaurateur who sent out an obscenity-laden missive against his employees last week stands by his angry rant, which he has defended as his food industry version of Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl." Vadim Ponorovsky, owner of the Meatpacking District eatery Paradou, told the Post that he has been receiving death threats because of his email to staffers, which goes something like this:

More than two dozen Park Slope restaurants and cafes owe at least $910,000 in unpaid wages to more than 200 workers, the State Labor Department announced yesterday. Inspections during the spring revealed that some workers made as little as $2.75 an hour; the minimum wage for food service workers is $4.65 per hour. (Today the Daily News revealed that the restaurants include Aunt Suzie’s, Baluchi's, Sotto Voce, Olive Vine Café, and Sweet Melissa Patisserie.) Getting chiseled out of already laughably low wages is rough, but at least they didn't have the misfortune to be employed by Paradou owner Vadim Ponorovsky, who's earned some notoriety today for an incredibly nasty email he sent to staffers at his Meatpacking district restaurant. His gloriously profane and hateful missive, which makes Hunter S. Thompson's letters seem like Get Well Soon cards, is published below in its entirety:

We're running out of pigs-at-the-trough jpegs! After last week's news that the City Council is giving staffers approximately $3.9 million in "cost of living" raises, the Post has learned that a dozen council members showered their staffs with tens of thousands of dollars in bonuses at the end of the last fiscal year. According to the article, each council member gets $273,000 a year for expenses like rent and office supplies, and any unspent funds are supposed to be returned to the city. But an examination of financial records found that at least twelve council members transferred the leftover loot into their personal accounts in June, the last month of FY09. Councilman Kendall Stewart (D-Brooklyn) moved $30,000 on June 19th to give bonuses to eight to 10 staffers; he tells the Post, "Me turning back $30,000 and everybody else spending their money to give it to the staff, would that make any sense to do?" Well, if everyone else is doing it, why not? And Councilman Thomas White (D-Queens), who spread $38,000 in unused cash between five staffers, explains, "I have a very committed, dedicated staff. They work very hard."

Guess some State Senators weren't doing nothing during the 5-week State Senate—they actually gave staffers big raises! According to the Daily News, "Records released by state Controller Thomas DiNapoli show that 11 top staffers have gotten pay hikes of as much as 51% since the June 8 Republican-led coup." Here's some of the raises, all to Democratic aides: "Mortimer Lawrence, special counsel to the Senate majority leader and the highest-paid Senate staffer," got an increase of "16% to $177,231," while Senate Majority Deputy Secretaries Meredith Henderson and Patricia Rubens got 30.6% raises—"their annual pay skyrocket[ed] nearly $33,000, to $140,382. Legislative Analyst Despina Moraitou's salary climbed 51.1% to $75,787 - a $25,651 bump." A Senate Democrat tells the Post, "This is one of the most outrageous things I've ever seen. Frankly, I'm ashamed of it." Senate spokesman Austin Shafran claims the raises were scheduled before the coup.

As previously mentioned, the Knitting Factory will soon be moving from its current Leonard Street location to the old Luna Lounge in Williamsburg. The change will take place early next year, and the venue will have its last Manhattan night on New Year’s Eve. The NY Press is now reporting that "the whole staff—65 people in all—is losing their jobs." Well, not all of them; "two of the 65 staff members—both managers—are being kept on. According to the bartender, the staff was told in April that they were being laid off en masse when Jared Hoffman, who took over in 2002, was still looking at a space" and "wanted to start fresh." Allegedly there were letters stapled to the employee's checks that broke the news. One old booker at the venue said that it's Hoffman who “fucked it all up." Well, Hoffman was just axed as well, so maybe the Brooklyn space really will revive the KF name?

Colors, the feel-good restaurant on Lafayette Street owned and operated by Windows on the World employees who were spared on 9/11, is reportedly back from the brink of ruin. The fine dining restaurant opened two years ago as one of New York’s few cooperative restaurants, with everyone from busboys to chefs sharing ownership and a menu featuring international cuisine created by the multi-ethnic staff.