Server Not Servant

Rules of Engagement

Massachusetts – Vote NO on Ballot Question #5

Book Chapter: Rules of Engagement

Posted: 11/2/2024

After extensive research and observation, I believe that Saru Jayaraman, founder of ‘One Fair Wage,'(OFW) is a self-serving, disingenuous fraud who has been manipulating and exploiting (emotionally and financially), the same workers that she claims to be advocating for. She has created a sustained cottage industry, an annuity for herself and Senior Director, Fekkak Mamdough funded by donations from many unsuspecting ‘charges’ under the guise of being their savior. Sound familiar?!?

Saru Jayaraman is the driving force behind the Question 5 ballot initiative in Massachusetts to eliminate the tipped minimum wage.

According to IRS Form 990 (non-profit tax form) for 2022, Saru’s total compensation was $137,162 and Fekkak was paid $119,726 from OFW donors and ‘dues paying’ members, including servers and bartenders. Total ‘salaries, other compensation, and employee benefits’ paid were $2,149,714 from Total Revenue of $5,639.169. I’ll report back when I learn what Saru and Fekkak are currently paying themselves 2 years later… (Please message me if you know.)

Speaking from decades of experience in jobs including dishwasher, bartender, server, manager, owner, and consultant to restaurants, the grind, high failure rates, and thin profits (if any), are very real in an extremely difficult business. Let’s not make it even harder to survive.

It’s counterintuitive to think that raising the tipped minimum wage will actually have a net, detrimental impact on the bottom line for workers. However, I believe that is exactly what will happen if Question 5 passes in Massachusetts, and it will threaten the viability of many of our favorite, independently owned, Mom & Pop, full service, neighborhood restaurants that we love.

So why is Saru a fraud?

Saru’s Colors restaurant in NYC was supposed to be a model for restaurant operators to take the ‘high road’and thrive. It failed, twice…

As I tweeted on January 20, 2022:

Here are some excerpts from a blog post I published on 1/22/20 titled: ‘ROC United Reveals True Colors in Wake of Abrupt Closure of Colors Restaurant in NYC.’

When your ‘socially conscious’ mantra is embracing the ‘high road,’ you don’t blindside the leader of your restaurant via text, ever, never mind only 3 days before closing your business for good. And exploiting and abusing the very people you claim to be advocating for, is even worse than the ‘low road.’ It’s the gutter.

From the official ROC (Restaurant Opportunities Center) website, now ‘One Fair Wage.’:

TAKING THE HIGH ROAD – A HOW-TO GUIDE FOR SUCCESSFUL RESTAURANT EMPLOYERS

What is the High Road?

Employers defined the “high road” as employment practices that support workers and unleash their loyalty, creativity, and productivity to make the restaurant successful. High-road employers emphasized that the benefits of increased productivity of invested long-term workers and the reduced cost of employee turnover outweigh the short-term costs of high-road practices.

While specific practices varied, these “high-road” policies fell into the following three areas:

1. providing livable wages
2. maintaining a healthy workplace through paid sick days, vacation, or health insurance; and
3. creating career ladders for employees through training and internal promotions policies

From early on, ROC United set themselves up to fail because the foundation they ‘built’ (I should say, ‘sold’) their business model and ideals on is fraudulent. They don’t practice what they preach and lead by example. With the shameful closing of Colors restaurant, they have zero credibility.

Shortly before Colors restaurant reopened after a 3-year closure, Eater NY reported, “It’s a comeback attempt for the 70-seat restaurant at 178 Stanton Street, between Clinton and Attorney streets. After the September 11 attacks, surviving Windows of the World employees regrouped and organized to build Restaurants Opportunity Center United, one of the country’s most important restaurant labor organizations. They also opened Colors, a restaurant intended to embody their ideals of fair pay, diversity, and employee equity. But while ROC and its advocacy took off, Colors never mastered the balance of running a profitable business with a nonprofit heart. Former employees have filed lawsuits, and many claimed that their fair wages weren’t paid on time.”

The 12/11/19 Eater piece also quoted Colors’ leader, Chef Sicily Sewell-Johnson just before the reopening:

Sewell-Johnson also is working to regain New Yorkers’ trust. “Colors did the community a disservice. We weren’t open for three years. We were inconsistent and let them down,” she says. “Then, among peers, ROC challenged the [industry’s] sub-minimum wage and tipping policies, but we weren’t co-laboring to make the changes. We have to repair those relationships to be taken seriously.”

There was no mention of Colors as a pop-up or “test drive.”

It’s ironic that the entity that prides itself as the standard-bearer of loyalty, equality, and trust betrayed one of their top leaders and advocates in a disgraceful fashion. They didn’t even have the intelligence and courage to meet with Sicily and her team in-person to tell them they were closing and why. And it gets worse…

Excerpts from Eater NY (1/21/20):

After only one month of service, the surviving Windows on the World employee restaurant Colors has closed yet again. Head chef Sicily Sewell-Johnson announced the closure Friday — saying that the restaurant’s owner, labor nonprofit Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, had suddenly pulled the plug.

And in another twist for the embattled restaurant, the chef tells Eater that ROC United is currently not letting her release the more than $2,000 that she raised over the weekend through Venmo to provide “a cushion” to staffers who have just lost their jobs. It’s another bump in what she says has been a “crazy” time with ROC, which she alleges has mismanaged the restaurant from the beginning.

“I’ll never look at this organization the same,” she says.

Management, though, was “a mess” from the beginning, she now says. Structures such as payroll, health insurance, and worker’s compensation were not in place, she says. Sewell-Johnson alleges that she sometimes paid vendors for food and other products out-of-pocket and filed for reimbursement, despite multiple requests for ROC to put a business debit card into place. When her finger got injured during business, she paid for care herself because the nonprofit never gave her health insurance that it had promised, she alleges.

Plus, ROC did not properly tell locals that Colors was open for business, Sewell-Johnson says. The restaurant was still showing up as closed on platforms such as Google and Yelp until the last week of business, she says.

“It was already a mess,” she says. “There were no systems. There was no structure.”

But business was also difficult because ROC did not seem committed to figuring out a financial plan that worked, she says. The nonprofit touted how it pays servers a $15 minimum wage plus tips, an extension of its ongoing fight to end the tipped minimum wage.

In practice, though, trying to pay $15 plus tips while creating an equitable pay structure throughout the restaurant created some bumps, Sewell-Johnson says. Because pooling tips is illegal, Colors also paid its kitchen staff above minimum wage. Entry-level positions like a dishwasher made $18.30 an hour, and with taxes, the restaurant ended up paying much more for labor than most restaurants in the city.

Sewell-Johnson wanted to start considering what other models would work, such as eliminating tipping, but she faced opposition from ROC. Ultimately, she says, paying a dishwasher a high wage doesn’t matter if the restaurant closes and the dishwasher can’t leave with additional skills.

“It’s easy for a lot of people to say — everyone deserves better, and this is what you should do,” she says. “It’s hard to find the middle to make that work.” [Amen.]

The New York Post, who broke the story on 1/19/20, quoted Sewel-Johnson, “…systems weren’t in place to make Colors succeed, when this place is the epitome of what ROC stands for.” BINGO. In other words, if you don’t practice what you preach, you have absolutely zero credibility. Remember, this comment is coming from a former ambassador of ROC.

The Post also stated, The chef said she was blindsided late Thursday when Sekou Siby, a former employee of Windows of the World and ROC’s executive director, informed her the plug was being pulled. Johnson was informed by Siby in a text that the eatery would close Sunday since funding could no longer be provided.

Reached by The Post for comment, Siby denied Sunday that the restaurant was closing, claiming the latest opening was always intended as a “test drive.”

“It’s not a closing, per se, but we are assessing the financial situation,” Siby said. “the last six weeks was a test drive, to analyze what is possible.” [Turns out, that was also bullshit…]

Back to Question 5 in MA. If an independent, Mom & Pop restaurant closes because they can’t survive the expenses imposed on them by a law created by a lobby group (who also failed attempting to operate a full service restaurant under the same model), the mission fails and everyone loses – the workers, the owners, and the ‘high road’ lobbyist. And the lobbying group refills their coffers with donations to sustain their ‘cottage industry’ and compensation and repeats the cycle of ‘advocacy.’

The current business model for full service, independent, Mom & Pop restaurants in America is far from perfect for workers and owners alike. And the issues are much more layered and complicated than the simplistic solutions bandied about on social media, “Be like Europe, NO Tipping!!” is a common refrain. Danny Meyer thought the US was ready to ‘disrupt’ the social contract of tipping in America when he eliminated tipping at his NYC restaurants and raised his prices to cover higher wages. The ‘movement’ didn’t work and Meyer abandoned the initiative.

On 5/3/18 I published:  Saru Jayaraman, Fekkak Mamdouh, ROC United Leadership & Members: Is ONE FAIR WAGE really FAIR for All? Tip Credit & Tipped Minimum Wage-Part 1 

Excerpt from that post:

Theoretically, philosophically, and morally there is rationale to support why the idea of eliminating tipping makes sense. However, the practical implications of imposing an experimental ‘solution’ on a culture unwilling to embrace the change will adversely impact the earnings of many servers, and simultaneously threaten the survival of independent, ‘Mom and Pop’ restaurants. For those reasons, I am going to propose that tipped minimum wages remain, and are set as a percentage of rising full minimum wage amounts. Further, I believe that the simplistic sounding, ONE FAIR WAGE ‘solution’ to the ‘living wage’ problem is far more complicated than ROC United and others make it sound. One size does not fit all. Legislation that might increase the pay for servers averaging $9/hr at a rural, national chain in the Midwest could simultaneously and significantly reduce the earnings of servers working at independent, full service restaurants in American cities where servers are earning a lot more than even ‘full’ minimum wage. I believe that we need to encourage local legislators to be more creative rather than imposing rigid, cookie cutter ‘solutions’ that just don’t work. I’d like to see ROC, NRA, RWA, RAISE Up (and other advocacy groups) consider a framework/compromise that is in the best interest of the diverse group of local workers, restaurants, and the customers they serve. We need more tiered solutions based on revenue, # of stores, # of employees, benefits provided, type of service, geography, median income, etc. 

Shirley Leung, business reporter for the Boston Globe on 10/31/24:

“I just have one question about the ballot initiative to raise the minimum wage of tipped workers to $15 an hour: Why does it even matter what I think?

I don’t own a restaurant. I don’t own a salon. I don’t pretend to know how to run these businesses. So why do I, a random voter, get to tell these small business owners how they should pay their workers?

C’mon, this is not a good use of democracy.
We have to ask ourselves, how is it that, every election cycle, we allow special interest groups to make an end-run on our legislative process? We already have representative government. Voters cast ballots for the people we want to make policy decisions on our behalf.

A New York-based advocacy group, One Fair Wage, is pushing for the measure as part of a national campaign to change how tipped workers are paid. The proposal would get rid of the $6.75-an-hour minimum wage currently in place for tipped workers in Massachusetts, such as servers, bartenders, hairdressers, and manicurists, and replace it with the state’s standard $15-an-hour minimum wage.

I’m voting no on Question 5 because I don’t think many workers even want this. The concept is particularly perilous at restaurants, where it pits front-of-the-house workers, who are tipped, against the back-of-the-house workers who typically are not. Caught in the middle are restaurant owners who say it will drive up costs, forcing them to raise prices and reduce staff so they won’t go broke trying to comply with the law.

Proponents of Question 5 argue the measure will create a more equitable pay structure. The matter, they say, is about standing up for worker rights. And voters have to because the people who will benefit the most — lower-paid workers, many of them immigrants, from busboys to dishwashers — are too vulnerable to speak up.

I maintain it’s a bad idea to apply a one-size-fits-all approach to sectors that are still recovering from the turmoil of the pandemic and its aftermath.

And too often, ballot questions make convincing campaign rhetoric but terrible law. A similar measure to boost wages of tipped workers was passed by voters in Portland, Maine, in 2016, but was undone a year later by the state legislature.”

I have read as much as possible from ‘all sides’ of the Question 5 debate. Thoughtful, sustainable solutions to the restaurant industry’s problems are going to require much more significant study and collaboration by everyone impacted, not half-assed, self-serving solutions. This legislation is misguided.

#NoOnQuestion5 

 

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Maguire Promotions-PR, Marketing, Social Media & Hospitality Consulting Monthly Subscription

Book Chapter: Rules of Engagement

Posted: 07/4/2022

I’m proud to announce the launch of Maguire Promotions Monthly Subscription Service available to restaurants and small businesses. This ‘pivot’ is the culmination of more than 8 years of operating an independent business providing PR, marketing, promotions, social media, and hospitality consulting. It is the continuation of my strategic initiative to leverage, monetize, and collaborate with the valuable network that I have cultivated and partnered with over the last 40+ years.

My current network consists of 2,800 (IG), 4,690 (Twitter), 10,400 combined Facebook platforms, 3,500 email, and 2,693 (LinkedIn) contacts, totaling more than 24,000 people. Every day of the week I review my social media feeds, multiple media platforms, email, and targeted Google alerts, constantly seeking ideas and tools to benefit my clients. I get it that business owners are looking for someone to sort through all of that for them because most are consumed with the day-to-day operations of their restaurant or business. I also know that independent, Mom & Pop, neighborhood businesses have been ravaged by the plague (myself included) and don’t have budgets for PR and many of the services that I provide. I’m offering a fair and reasonable way to supplement what you are currently doing to keep your brand current and relevant, broaden your customer base, increase your media coverage, and make more money.

I have immediate openings for new subscribers beginning August 1. The first businesses to commit via email, text, or DM by the end of business on Friday, 7/29 will begin the first 3 months of service upon receipt of payment. First come, first served. Beyond 7/29, pricing and availability will be TBD, based on availability of my time and ‘supply and demand.’

Email: patrick@servernotservant.com. Cell: 617-510-5682.

Services Included with 3-Month Subscription

1. Copies of Maguire Promotions Social Media Strategy, Social Media Daily Checklist, Event Promotions, Instagram Strategy, Successful Strategies at jm Curley, and Complimentary Content (media, reviews, etc.) Response.
2. Previous 3-month audit/review of all of your social media posts/content. Report findings and make recommendations to your designated team via group email. Phone consult after review of findings, if necessary.
3. Review of website, all social media profiles, branding, Google search, newsletters, and media coverage.
4. Read past 3 months of all online reviews and make recommendations. Discuss and understand business strategy with respect to ‘amateur’ reviews.
5. Daily review of all of your social media posts and threads. Provide feedback and recommend edits and responses in comment threads when necessary.
6. Amplify your social media posts by liking, commenting, defending, and sharing when appropriate, especially events you are hosting and participating in, and food & drink specials. This includes retweets with personal comments and #hashtags. (Yes, you should have a twitter account. I can help you establish one if you don’t.)
7. I will notify your staff of any opportunities I see to invite potential customers to your business. I often see threads online where people describe a scenario seeking a restaurant that is a great fit.
8. As I mentioned above, I will constantly be seeking ways to promote your restaurant/business and improve your operation. I read and review everything I can locally, nationally and internationally about restaurants and business, and will forward anything that I feel is relevant and can help you.
9. Access to my network for vendors, contractors, legal, licensing, and potential staff/recruiting referrals. I am often contacted by people seeking employment. For management positions, please see #12 in ‘additional services’ below.
10. Referral and introduction to Boston’s most professional and well-respected hospitality publicist.
11. Confidential vetting of prospective new hires.
12. Subscription includes at least one visit to eat and drink at your restaurant and promotion on my social media platforms. [$100 gift certificate included in pricing below.]  This includes encouraging my ‘followers’ to follow all of your social media platforms.  Just don’t call me a ‘foodie’ or an ‘influencer…’  (For additional visits and promotions, please see #5 below.)
13. Live phone conversations/consults following up on all of the above.

It’s very important to note that my services outlined above do not include taking over the management of your social media and creating content for you. My collaborations with monthly subscribers will work best with restaurants and businesses that have dedicated, internal, social media managers on your staff, or an external vendor. My complementary consulting role is best described as a ‘watchdog’ or advocate looking out for you, your business, and your team.

Pricing: Minimum 3-month commitment is $750, paid upfront, plus $100 gift certificate. The cost breaks down to $250/month. After 3 months, the cost to continue the subscription is $275 per month, payable 30 days in advance. After 3 months, the subscription will continue month-to-month until cancelled by either party with one month lead time. Payment can be made via Venmo @Patrick-Maguire-32, PayPal, or check.

FYI, I personally will be servicing all accounts and communicating directly with your team, no interns or anyone else.

Additional à la carte Services

Please Note: Services listed below are available to all, but discounted for subscribers.

1. Press release and distribution to media for special events, anniversaries, etc. (Pricing depends on whether or not I’ll be creating the content or just editing.)
2. In-person brainstorming/consult/strategy sessions.
3. Crisis Management.
4. Dedicated Blog Post featuring your restaurant/business, similar to this feature of Formaggio Kitchen, or this one on Vee Vee in Jamaica Plain. (Those offerings are no longer complimentary.)
5. As I indicated in #11 above, the initial, 3-month commitment includes eating and drinking at your restaurant or patronizing your business at least once. Promotion on my social media platforms accompany the visit. Additional visits and promotions can be negotiated with additional gift certificates beyond the initial $100. We can also work something out if I attend and promote events you are hosting.
6. Evaluate current training manuals and recommend edits, editions, improvements.
7. Attendance and/or participate in special events, ‘guest’ bartending, etc.
8. Staff Training-Hospitality Workshop.
9. Editing content of newsletters, emails, negotiations, strategic communications, etc. I also refer 2 retired English teachers to clients seeking technical, grammatical scrutiny.
10. Attend and evaluate staff training sessions.
11. Company email database management and newsletter services.
12. Management level staff recruitment. (Fee-for-service, 2-tiered. #1-Posting job. #2-Refering hired candidate = % of salary.)

If you’re looking for the most affordable way to boost for your business, I look forward to working with you.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you-Patrick

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‘Rules’ of Engagement in Civilized Society Include Restaurants by Dee Wolf-The Lobster Shanty Salem, MA

Book Chapter: Rules of Engagement

Posted: 01/19/2022

Today’s guest post by my friend, Dee Wolf, Chef/owner of The Lobster Shanty and Wolf Next Door Coffee in Salem, MA first appeared in my Server Not Servant Facebook Group where it garnered more attention than any other post in the history of the group. As of today, Dee’s post has been shared 350 times, 700 people reacted to it, and 136 humans commented on it. [The FB post cannot be shared any longer because it has been slightly edited.]

Diane is a savvy, seasoned, salty restaurant industry veteran, and clearly her poignant message has resonated with many. I’m reposting here to encourage more people to read and share her message with your networks, including media contacts for publication. The link to this blog post will make her message easier to share.

The more restaurant customers and humans who read Dee’s work, the better…

From Diane ‘Dee’ Wolf:

You don’t need to go out to eat.

You don’t need to sit at a bar and have drinks with friends.

If you want to, then there are some rules that our society needs you to follow. If you want to drink, you must be 21 years old, and we can only serve you during the hours that our liquor license allows. We require guests to be fully dressed, including shoes and a shirt. You can’t misbehave or disrupt other guests. You cannot smoke or vape inside the restaurant or on our patio. When you drive here you can’t just leave your car anywhere, you need to park it in a legal spot, or you’ll get towed or get a ticket. Don’t drive if you’re drinking alcohol. If you bring a dog, she can’t sit inside, and we need proof that she has had a rabies shot.

What I’m saying is, having rules of engagement in any society is nothing new.

We have the legal right to refuse service to anyone, at any time, for any reason, or no reason at all. But we are not unreasonable, and we welcome you to join us and stay. We want you to stay, we are in the hospitality business – but it is a business and there are laws, rules and societal norms that we all must follow to be part of this community. We take community building seriously.

I didn’t need to buy a restaurant.
I didn’t need to get a liquor license.

But I wanted to – so I had to do a few things; I got TiPS certified, ServSafe Certified, went to culinary school (which required me to be vaccinated for MMR, Hepatitis B, Chicken Pox, & Meningitis). I also trained with NEHA (the National Environmental Health Association) and created a HACCP (Hazzard Analysis Critical Control Point) plan to make sure my team handles food safely. I wrote a business plan, took out loans, and sold some personal items for seed money. I applied for a food permit & a liquor license. We had to have a health inspection, plumbing inspection, fire inspection, and building inspection just for our occupancy permit. Can’t just hang a sign, need to go before the Design Review Board for approval first. Want an A-frame sign? Need a special permit for that too. We must file and pay meals tax to the city and to the commonwealth, monthly. I need three or four different kinds of insurance, a payroll service, a trustworthy accountant, pest control, quality food & liquor vendors, trash, recycling, & compost removal. I must arrange for cooking oil recycling and knife sharpening. Clean that grease trap and snake the drains every quarter. Clean the exhaust hood and have the fire suppression system tested regularly. Train my crew, write a menu, buy plates & glassware, decorate the place, maybe get a couple of TVs, pay for cable or a satellite, maybe a jukebox service and an ATM. (Don’t forget to pay the four different musicians unions if you play a radio or have live music) Buy a Point of Sale system, arrange for credit card processing. Maybe secure a line of credit (or bootstrap it like we did). All of this needs to be done before we serve a single burger or pour one beer. The goal is to create a culture and an atmosphere that folks want to go to.

Yeah, you could eat at home – my job is to entice you to come join us and be part of our special community. Do you have to? No. Do I want you to? Yes.

We have done SO MUCH to get this restaurant ready for you, to make it fun, to make it safe – so you can let loose and relax for a while. The least you could do is not give my host pushback for asking you to follow the rules. Rulemaking is well above our pay grade here at our little Mom & Pop restaurant. Anyone who wants to ‘punish’ a local business for following new mandates from the city or commonwealth is shooting themselves in the foot – because all that will be left are big chains of boring food dished out by large, soulless corporations. If you want to live in a thriving, unique community; a community with heart and soul, do your fucking part. We’re tired of arguing with you, we’d just like to get back to hospitality if you don’t mind…

In the comments, Dee added, A handful of folks in cities with new vaccine mandates want to punish restaurants by boycotting them, I find this infuriating and heartless. If you want small, independent restaurants in your community, you need to support them.

Amen, Dee Wolf. Amen ♥

Dee can be reached via email at lobstershanty@gmail.com.

Subscription to these blog posts is currently free by entering your email in the blue box on the upper-left side of this post. To support the mission of the Server Not Servant blog and expedite publishing of the forthcoming book, please click on ‘Support Server Not Servant’ in the blue box on the upper-right side of this post. Venmo: @Patrick-Maguire-32. Please email me about personal or corporate book sponsorship opportunities at patrick@servernotservant.com.

And please consider sharing this post if inspired to do so.

Cheers-Patrick Maguire

#ServerNotServant

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Fuck You, #BoycottBoston Boors. #FuckYou

Book Chapter: Rules of Engagement

Posted: 01/17/2022

I’ve spent the most of my life living and working in and around Boston. Right now, I’m embarrassed for Boston and the America many of us grew up to (mostly) love and respect. The recent degradation and desecration of Democracy, ‘patriotism,’ and ‘American’ ideals that we have witnessed, and are in the midst of, are absolutely disgraceful.

A friend posted the following on social media on Sunday morning, 1/16/22:

I never turn off comments for Facebook and Twitter posts, but I did today for the posts about the [Boston] vaccine card mandate once I started getting Nazi stuff and other nastiness. I’d like to think we’re better than this as a country but apparently, we’re not.

Oh, and to those saying they’ll try to push their way into restaurants without vaccine proof because “a mandate doesn’t have the same power as a law”? Guess what–they both have the exact same power of enforcement. And again, don’t take it out on restaurants who are already struggling enough as it is.

Seriously, don’t be a dick.

My response on that thread:

100%. ‘We’ are not ‘better than this’ right now in Boston and America. There is a pervasive entitlement under the auspices of ‘freedom,’ and in rejection of ‘tyranny’ that is rampant in our culture. Many of the #FreedomFighters, including the #BoycottBoston tribe, are opportunists seeking any chance they can to desecrate the very democracy that supports their right to do so. It’s like a sport for them. Vaccine mandates, designed to protect workers and customers, are not easy decisions made haphazardly to ‘oppress’ anyone. And they wouldn’t be necessary if the majority of our populous were intelligent and open enough to research, learn, and trust science on their own without incentives or mandates for the greater good. Self-preservation is a strong motivator, and critical thinking is nearly extinct. And anyone or anything who threatens cultist’s long-ago, established ‘worldview’ will be subject to hateful, vitriolic, and sometimes violent attacks. ‘Different’ will always be a hated enemy to them because it makes them uncomfortable. And thoughtful, 2-way conversation (and potentially changing one’s mind) using meaningful words is too hard and risky for them. Being wrong and vulnerable is a sign of weakness and not an option. Extremists on all ‘sides’ will always be one of our worst enemies in America.

On Saturday, 1/15/22, proof of Covid vaccination, or tiered vaccine mandates went into effect in Boston, Brookline, and Salem, MA with several other cities/towns considering following suit.

From the City of Boston: 

Starting on January 15, 2022, to address rising COVID-19 cases and encourage vaccination, individuals will be required to show proof of vaccination against COVID-19 in order to enter certain indoor spaces in Boston. People working in those locations will also be required to have received their vaccines.

The best way for Boston to stay healthy and support our communities, our businesses, and cultural institutions is for more people to get vaccinated.

Covered businesses are responsible for checking proof of vaccination and posting a notice about the COVID-19 vaccine requirement…

On the days leading up to Saturday, 1/15, several restaurants posted reminders to prospective guests about what would be required for entry.

In response, as predicted, along comes a handful of self-serving, often anonymous, cowardly pack of ‘patriotic,’ assholes attacking restaurants and calling for boycotts of the restaurants communicating what they are required to enforce to operate.

Here’s a sampling:

 

 

The profile from the last tweet states, “…help fight for liberty and religious freedom against totalitarianism and tyranny.” Yup, tyranny… As expected, the engagement on social media became vitriolic and vile. After I supported one restaurant under attack after their facebook post about the mandate, I received this pathetic missive in response:

 

Fuck off, ‘Robyn RM.’

Late last week, on the days leading up to implementation of the vaccine mandate, hateful protesters gathered early in the morning at the private home of Boston Mayor Michelle Wu. Boston Globe columnist, Yvonne Abraham was spot on in her assessment on why we even bother with idiots…

At the Mayor’s house, a measure of how low people can go

Excerpts from Yvonne’s piece:

It’s often best to avoid giving odious people air time.

There’s little to gain from engaging with the ugliness that passes for political protest these days.

But the ugly protests outside the Roslindale home of Boston Mayor Michelle Wu are impossible to ignore. The folks protesting the city’s vaccine mandates have been particularly nasty, and personal. They have crossed all kinds of lines.

Critics of Wu’s policies requiring all city employees to be vaccinated, and proof of a jab to enter certain businesses in Boston, have laced their arguments with racism and misogyny: One protester’s sign at a recent public event in Mattapan called Wu, the daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, a “communist [expletive],” and read, “Welcome to the Peoples Republic of Boston.” {Admin edit, where Yvonne used ‘expletive,’ the protestor’s sign said ‘cunt.’}

In Roslindale, the rabid vaccine resisters have shown up early in the morning, making as much noise as they can in an effort to wake not just Wu’s family, it seems, but the entire neighborhood, joking that they’re the mayor’s “alarm clock.” Their presence is all the more jarring in a progressive city like Boston, where Wu was elected in a landslide just a few months ago.

The protesters’ rhetoric mirrors the poisonous, pandemic-prolonging talking points that have infected millions across the country, a rejection of science becoming a kind of perverted patriotism that is integral to conservatism these days. They parade their ignorance even as hospitals are at their breaking point and public health professionals beg for mercy.

The protesters in Roslindale rail against “forced medicine.” The most vocal of them work in public safety, a field in which their refusal to take the most basic precautions should be utterly disqualifying. They proudly post videos of their disruptions. In one clip posted to Twitter on Friday, Wu’s birthday, somebody in the crowd converging on her car kept yelling “Happy birthday, Hitler!”

Earlier last week, my colleague Stephanie Ebbert heard one protestor say something menacing to Wu, a mother devoted to her two young boys.

“You’re not going to be around for your children cause you are going to be held accountable,” the person said.

Even by the standards we’ve come to expect from these protests, which is to say none, that is despicable. There are human beings in that house, including little kids, and Wu’s mother, who has struggled with mental illness. Imagine how terrifying it must be for a kid to have people show up at your home and say such awful things. It wouldn’t be the first time enraged adults have behaved despicably around children in the city, but one would hope we’d grown as Boston grew more welcoming to people of color.

Instead, we seem to have regressed. Threats, veiled and otherwise, are the currency of public discourse these days, from school board meetings in Derry, N.H., to the office of the nation’s top COVID expert, Anthony Fauci.

The targets of anti-vaccine mobs face an impossible choice: Call out the threats, thereby giving them a bigger platform; or ignore them and risk normalizing the behavior, knowing that one in the mob may actually do them harm. Increasingly, those railing about tyranny are doing more than just posturing, a fact last year’s insurrection made plain.

Wu has gone back and forth, struggling with how best to respond to her increasingly hostile critics. In tweets on Saturday, she called out some of the slurs and said: “To have a chance at healing & building community, we can’t keep normalizing hate.”

Every elected official expects to be the target of protests, particularly in this fractious era. And Wu’s critics have the right to express themselves, no matter how wrongheaded their point of view.

But do they have to be this appalling, this cruel? Can we at least agree that the protests should be confined to public settings, and not the homes of elected officials — of either party — who deserve to feel safe where they live?

Or have we lost the capacity for even that basic decency, too?

[If you want to adhere to the notion that there are still intelligent humans reading, digesting, and responding to articles like that, do NOT read the comments. Your ‘faith in humanity’ will not be restored…]

So many of these comments and actions are disgraceful for Boston and America, but this is who ‘we’ really are. The ignorance under the guise of ‘patriotism,’ the ‘victims’ being ‘oppressed’ by ‘tyranny,’ and the #FreedomFighters fighting for their narrow, incendiary, self-serving version of ‘freedom,’ clearly demonstrates how pervasive hate, divisiveness, and extremism is in our culture, and that SO many people would rather ‘die on the hill’ of their long-ago, established ‘worldviews’ than research, study science and facts, learn, admit they were wrong and change their minds. Civilized society has laws, rules, and social contracts, and consequences when they’re not adhered to. Unfortunately, MANY humans, when left to their own discretion, ‘freedom’ of choice to ‘do the right thing,’ for the greater good, never will.  So embarrassed for Boston and America right now. And no, I’m not leaving, but I will keep speaking up.

On twitter, I responded to tweets like those above with the following:

Researching and supporting the efforts of the Independent Restaurant Coalition is the very best course of action that we can take right now to ensure that our favorite, neighborhood restaurants survive. I can’t emphasize enough how critical this is. This absolutely IS life or death for SO many Mom & Pop shops. For many restaurants, business is absolutely awful right now in the dead of the winter in Boston. The very last vestige of hope for many restaurants to survive is replenishment of the Restaurant Revitalization Fund.

There is a Day of Action tomorrow, Tuesday, 1/18/22 at noon that I encourage everyone to participate in and spread the word about.

 

Last night, I experienced the vaccine mandate requirement first-hand at one of my favorite spots, Trina’s Starlight Lounge in Somerville, MA. It’s the first time I’ve been inside anywhere knowing that everyone else in the room was vaccinated to some degree. And it felt very good knowing that…

After getting home last night, I saw this post on my Server Not Servant Facebook Group from my friend, Diane Wolf, chef and owner of The Lobster Shanty and Wolf Next Door Coffee in Salem, MA. The timing of this ‘boots on the ground’ insight couldn’t have been better on the heels of an often contentious, extremely difficult weekend for restaurants in Boston and beyond…

Diane is a savvy, seasoned, salty restaurant industry veteran and ‘good people’ who I have a lot of respect for. This poignant post cuts to the core:

You don’t need to go out to eat.

You don’t need to sit at a bar and have drinks with friends.

If you want to, then there are some rules that our society needs you to follow. If you want to drink, you must be 21 years old, and we can only serve you during the hours that our liquor license allows. We require guests to be fully dressed, including shoes and a shirt. You can’t misbehave, or disrupt other guests. You can’t bring a firearm with you if you’re drinking alcohol. You cannot smoke or vape inside the restaurant or on our patio. When you drive here, you can’t just leave your car anywhere, you need to park it in a legal spot or you’ll get towed. Didn’t feed the meter? You’ll get a ticket. Don’t drive if you’re drinking alcohol. If you bring a dog, she can’t sit inside and we need proof that she has had a rabies shot and she’ll need to remain on a leash. What I’m saying is, having rules of engagement in any society is nothing new.

We have the legal right to refuse service to anyone, at any time, for any reason, or no reason at all. But we are not unreasonable, and we would like you to stay. We want you to stay, we are in the hospitality business – but it is a business and there are laws, rules and societal norms that we all must follow to be part of this community. We take community building seriously.

I didn’t need to buy a restaurant.
I didn’t need to get a liquor license.

But I wanted to – so I had to do a few things; I got TiPS certified, ServSafe Certified, went to culinary school (which required me to be vaccinated for MMR, Hepatitis B, Chicken Pox, & Meningitis). I also trained with NEHA (the National Environmental Health Association) and created a HACCP (Hazzard Analysis Critical Control Point) plan to make sure my team handles food safely. I wrote a business plan, took out loans, and sold some personal items for seed money. I applied for a food permit & a liquor license. We had to have health inspection, a plumbing inspection, a fire inspection, and a building inspection just for our occupancy permit. Can’t just hang a sign, need to go before the Design Review Board for approval first. Want an A-frame sign? Need a special permit for that. We must file and pay meals tax to the city and to the commonwealth, monthly. I need three or four different kinds of insurance, a payroll service, a trustworthy accountant, pest control, quality food & liquor vendors, trash, recycling, & compost removal. I must arrange for cooking oil recycling and knife sharpening. Clean that grease trap and snake the drains every quarter. Clean the exhaust hood and have the fire suppression system tested regularly. Train my crew, write a menu, buy plates & glassware, decorate the place, maybe get a couple of TVs, pay for cable or a satellite, maybe a jukebox service and an ATM. (Don’t forget to pay the four different musicians unions if you play a radio or have live music) Buy a Point of Sale system, arrange for credit card processing. Maybe secure a line of credit (or bootstrap it like we did). All this needs to be done before we serve a single burger or pour one beer. The goal is to create a culture and an atmosphere that folks want to go to.

Yeah, you could eat at home – my job is to make you want to come join us and be part of our special community. Do you have to? No. Do I want you to? Yes.

We have done SO MUCH to get this restaurant ready for you, to make it fun, to make it safe – so you can let loose and relax for a while. The least you could do is not give my host pushback for asking you to follow the rules. Rulemaking is well above our pay grade here at our little mom & pop restaurant. Anyone who wants to ‘punish’ a local business for following new mandates from the city or commonwealth is shooting themselves in the foot – because all that will be left are big chains of boring food dished out by large, soulless corporations. If you want to live in a thriving, unique community; a community with heart and soul, do your fucking part. We’re tired of arguing with you, we’d just like to get back to hospitality if you don’t mind.

Don’t like the rules? Stay home. You don’t need to go out to eat.

In the comments, Diane added, A handful of folks in cities with new vaccine mandates want to punish restaurants by boycotting them, I find this infuriating and heartless. If you want small, independent restaurants in your community, you need to support them.

Amen, Diane Wolf. Amen ♥

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Thank you-Patrick

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Anniversary of January 6, 2021-Donald Trump & #Cult45’s Attack on America and Democracy

Book Chapter: Rules of Engagement

Posted: 01/6/2022

Never Forget. I posted the following on Facebook on the night of January 6, 2021:

Reflections after being riveted to the TV today during the ‘Raid on Democracy’ by Trump’s willfully-ignorant, sycophantic, naïve, manipulated, pathetic thugs/mob who stormed the Capitol and violated American ideals to support their psychotic, narcissistic, criminal demagogue:

-Self-preservation (justifying one’s existence/beliefs) is a strong motivator. Even neanderthal, Soprano wannabes, willing to put themselves at risk, do so for selfish reasons. They formed their insulated, bigoted, hateful ‘worldviews’ long ago. They’re done reading, studying, brainstorming, learning, and evolving. Critical thinking isn’t even in their lexicon, never mind on their radar. Trump has enabled and empowered their latent, suppressed voices of hate, and the Trump cult has given them a forum and a platform to be ‘loud and proud,’ finally. So they heed the clarion call of their demented demigod. That was clearly on display today. Never forget, more than 74 million Americans voted for Trump in 2020. Widespread ignorance will always be pervasive in America, and combating it with education to make progress, will always be a huge challenge.

-In our present condition (especially after today), America IS (not looks like) a ‘Third World Country.’ I’ve always abhorred the notion of being, “The greatest country in the world.” In many respects we are, but in many respects we’re not, and never will be. And that’s ok, we don’t need to be. We just need to strive to be a great, global neighbor. “American Exceptionalism’ is bullshit. Today we were no better than the unstable nations around the world that we’ve always been horrified by.

A few of my ‘live’ tweets from today:

– “Seriously, it’s ridiculous that the National Guard and/or the military and Homeland Security have not secured the buildings by now. There is no excuse for this. The US was totally unprepared, and the delayed response is disgraceful.”

– “Never forget that Donald Trump, Thug-In-Chief, called the mob/scum that stormed the proceedings in Washington to sanction our elections, “special people,” and said, “We love you.” Trump is an absolutely horrible ‘human’ who has desecrated America, again.”

– “It’s disgraceful enough that security was breached, but how is it possible that these thugs have been allowed to occupy these buildings all afternoon?!? Where is the cavalry?”

– “If today’s mob/terrorists were members of Black Lives Matter, marine helicopters would have landed on the lawn and we would have seen a violent, overwhelming show of force in no time. On a day that started out w/so much hope coming from Georgia, I am so fucking angry + sickened.”

– “The rage is slowly giving way to sadness for America because of the sycophantic, ignorant, hateful mob manipulated and inspired by one of the worst demagogues on the planet, Donald Trump. He’s reached another disgraceful low, and America has suffered greatly, again.”

The inauguration can’t come soon enough. Trump has presided over one of the darkest chapters in American history. His inept, incompetent, selfish behavior is beyond immoral and unconscionable, it’s criminal. Justice must be served, sending him to prison for the remainder of his life in order to preserve the integrity of democracy.

Good Night-PM

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