NEW YORK Tip-sharing litigation, dealing with municipal red tape and operating restaurants in partnership with government agencies topped the agenda at a breakfast meeting earlier this week with such renowned restaurateurs as Drew Nieporent, Danny Meyer and Jasper White during the International Restaurant & Foodservice Show here.
Nieporent, owner of New York City-based Myriad Restaurant Group, the operator of such concepts as Nobu and Tribeca Grill, indicated that he is less motivated today to open new restaurants because of the politics involved in the process.
“Today, it’s 100 times harder for me to open a restaurant because in New York you open a place maybe where there was nothing, create jobs and pay taxes and the government rewards you by sending in the health department, the building department, sanitation, the DEP, the EPA," Nieporent said.
(VIDEO: Drew Nieporent talks about the impact of ramped-up health inspection in New York City.)
White, owner of Boston-based Jasper White’s Summer Shack Restaurants, agreed with Nieporent’s assessments, particularly those concerning the state of health inspections.
“In Boston, if you have fruit flies it’s [the same] violation that includes [having] rodents," White said, "so they publish in the newspaper that you have rodents when you have fruit flies. You know fruit flies come in on fruit every day. It stinks.
"I have to agree with Drew," he continued. "Why do I want to open another restaurant? What are they going to throw at me this time?”
White also said it's no longer appealing to run restaurants at facilities run by government agencies, such as Boston’s Logan International Airport, where he has a Summer Shack unit. He said he was frustrated with how they run the business and would “never do another one [with them].”
Tip-sharing litigation was another topic of conversation on the panel. Nieporent blasted the lawsuits concerning tip sharing, which he says has been dubbed “tip stealing.” Myriad currently is embroiled in a lawsuit with former Nobu employees accusing the company of the practice.
“To be hit with lawsuits about tips after someone works for you for 16 years, makes over a million dollars, when you’re Santa Claus at the staff party and their kid sits on your lap, it’s always when they’re out of your employ that you get a letter in the mail that they’re suing for tips and you apparently stole the tips," he said. "It wasn’t tip sharing or tip pooling it was tip stealing, but they abided by that [rule] for 16 years.”
Meyer, owner New York City-based Union Square Hospitality Group, operator of such high end concepts as Union Square CafŽ, Gramercy Tavern and Eleven Madison Park as well as the casual Blue Smoke barbecue restaurant and fast-food burger concept Shake Shack, said he plans to expand Shake Shack into a chain. A second unit is scheduled to open later this year on New York’s Upper West Side.
Also speaking on the panel were Danny Meyer of Union Square Hospitality Group in New York; Ferdinand Metz, president of the World Association of Chefs' Societies and a former president of The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y.; consultant David Dodson of The Cultivation Corps in Burlingame, Calif.; and moderator Michael Batterberry of Food Arts magazine.
