Little more St. John restaurant news

SusanNJ · Post by **SusanNJ** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 4:10 pm

I also noticed that the website for these restaurants is no longer. What a shame. I know La Tapa is currently closed and is scheduled to reopen "mid-October". Does anyone know the exact date? We'll be on St. John 10/13 - 10/17 and are hoping to have dinner there at least once.

toes in the sand · Post by **toes in the sand** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 2:24 pm

mdcoles1 wrote:September 25, 2009;

source: http://barnako.typepad.com/news_of_st_john_usvi/

Still no comment from the folks who own/manage the Balcony, Paradiso, Asolare and Chloe’s.

First word the eateries were “in trouble” cropped up a week ago, courtesy of Anthony Finta’s Virgin-Islands-On-Line posting. An e-mail to the company brought no immediate response, nor anything since then.

However, the Inquiring Iguana's publishing the story this week has brought more information.

One commenter alleged some employees of the restaurants are owed “thousands” of dollars in back pay and have been afraid to stop working for fear they’d never see a penny.
Another reader found that the company’s Web site, stjohn-restaurants.com, is now off line. The site is apparently maintained by Andy Clausen at Savant Media Group in Coral Bay.
September 25, 2009 in Restaurants | Permalink | Comments (0)

Does anyone else see where a "commenter" made the above allegations regarding backpay etc? The way I read it, the allegation was made here on VIOL and I have not been able to find that statement or any like it. I also could not find it on the Iguana site comments. I do find it interesting that a newsletter would post VIOL as a news source and people here are siting the Iquana as a source. The inquiry to the rumored troubled resturants was an unanswered e-mail even though the same article mentions trouble with the resturants websites. (ever consider that perhaps e-mail is not the way to contact people who are having issues with their Web host? Pick up the phone!) This whole situation appears to myself that there is the taste of blood in the water and many are circling just waiting for the feeding frenzy to happen.

Dislcaimer; to those for whom it matters, I do not have any affiliation with the resturants, management, waitress, waiter, busboy, dishwahser, parking attendant, matre'de, food suppliers, leaseholder, bank-note holder or anyone affiliated with any of these resturants. I do not own a resturant but I do eat at resturants on occasion. I have eaten at at least two of the rumored troubled resturants in the past.

Xislandgirl · Post by **Xislandgirl** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 6:21 pm

I hope he was not quoting my, my on island former employee just told me that they no longer had a job and said nothing about backpay.

Boston Mike · Post by **Boston Mike** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 7:44 pm

I have never looked at St. John as a place for getting all dolled up and tasting some fine dining. I look at St. John as a place where I can kick off my shoes and enjoy the relaxing atmosphere of the true beauty the island has to offer. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with getting dressed up and hitting the upscale places. I do like doing it, but just not on the rock. Heck, we are only there for a short time each year and that time is simply let loose and fancy free. We save that stuff for the many places in the Boston area to visit.

iamyourserver · Post by **iamyourserver** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 9:27 pm

As an employee of this company...I just want to thank toes in the sand for your input.

If both websites are truly interested in what is going on with our restaurants, is it that difficult to find someone to give you the info? And don't you exist to give tourists and locals info about our island...I must say you are doing a tremendous disservice to both employees of our restaurants ( locals) and to tourists who actually like what we provide them with...not to mention, new visitors to the island who you are flat out lying too.

It is no secret we are struggling, but there are dozens of employees, some have been here for 15 yrs+ - who care deeply about what they do- and love STJ and our customers. So in the interest of fact finding -don't you owe it to us (and visitors to your sites) to place a phone call to any one of the restaurants , and get the facts from a manager or company representative instead on continually contributing to the rumor mill. That is unless your interests lie elsewhere...

Pete (Mr. Marcia) · Post by **Pete (Mr. Marcia)** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 10:29 pm

As an employee of this company, could you please set the record straight?

lprof · Post by **lprof** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 10:42 pm

toes in the sand wrote: One commenter alleged some employees of the restaurants are owed “thousands” of dollars in back pay and have been afraid to stop working for fear they’d never see a penny.

Does anyone else see where a "commenter" made the above allegations regarding backpay etc? The way I read it, the allegation was made here on VIOL and I have not been able to find that statement or any like it. I also could not find it on the Iguana site comments.

http://barnako.typepad.com/news_of_st_j ... l#comments

toes in the sand · Post by **toes in the sand** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 10:58 pm

Thank you Iprof. I see that there was another "article" on the newsletter site that I had not read until now. Apparantly it is a person who has friends (unknown number) who are owed hourly wages and has some doubt that they will be paid. I still find it interesting that the News is siting this forum as a source along with anonymous commentors on his articles at the same time some on this forum are siting News of st John as a source of information. Even if the rumors and inuendo are true, it seems unfair that these resturants and their employees are being written off because they are high end establishments and because the "coconut telegraph" has already written their obit. Posters who are apparantly trying to get information out are being grilled as to their credentials as if being cross examined by a cheap lawyer while rumor posts are going un-questioned.

Pete (Mr. Marcia) · Post by **Pete (Mr. Marcia)** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 11:25 pm

Iamyourserver...I guess I didn't understand an aspect of your post.

You correctly point out that rumor and gossip of this type can be damaging to these businesses. Then you suggest that people who want the truth simply call the establishments.

But, you say that you work for this company. Instead of us calling them, why don't you set the record straight? I am assuming that you know more than the rest of us. So, what is the bottom line?

Post by **Anthony** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 2:15 am

iamyourserver wrote:That is unless your interests lie elsewhere...

My initial post was not made with any bad intentions I can assure you. When I start hearing from repeated, trusted sources something of this magnitude it seems only natural to let the thousands of people who read this forum a week know about it.
Something seems to be going one besides the usual struggles for so much chatter be going on - as an employee if you have any facts we certainly welcome them.

Also, I think this:

"One commenter alleged some employees of the restaurants are owed “thousands” of dollars in back pay and have been afraid to stop working for fear they’d never see a penny. "

Refers to a comment someone made to the Inquiring Iguana - that was how I read it.

iamyourserver · Post by **iamyourserver** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 3:20 am

I am not saying that everyone call the restaurants to get the info, but rather the admins on the websites do the fact checking. At this point this is nothing more than an "online coconut telegraph".

It is not my responsibility to comment on my employers current situation, and even if I did it would be pure speculation, as WE do not have all the facts!

But I will say this- a huge thank you to toes in the sand. In the midst of all of this, it is nice to know someone out there understands what people are going through. You all need to understand that IF any of these restaurants close - PEOPLE LOSE JOBS. We all love STJ - and like many of you have probably thought about doing (or did) , we gave up the stateside lifestyle to pursue a life/career in paradise. The thought of having that all disappear is upsetting to say the least - so it would just be respectful to us to not contribute to the rumor mill, and maybe just maybe...be sensitive to the situation of others- that's really my only point.

Post by **Anthony** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 3:33 am

Point well taken - as others have said - in this thread and elsewhere - these are tough times. There probably isn't a person on this forum who has not felt the negative effects of the economic situation, including us. I think the silver lining in your specific situation is that even if any of there places were to "close" in their current incarnation, they certainly will be opened again, and probably pretty quickly. There is no keeping the entrepreneurial spirit down in the VI - especially when it comes to restaurants.

satobsat · Post by **satobsat** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 8:05 pm

As an ex-employee, I will set the record straight, at least from my perspective. I will start by stating that company wide, these four restaurants have been blessed with amazing staffs of bright, talented & commited people. They also have been severely mismanaged. This year, with the season down over previous years & the pricipal ownership either unable or unwilling to provide a cash infusion, the restaurants essentially failed as slow season approached. At this point, management made a concious, immoral & illeagal desision to pay their bills by not paying their staff. Employee tips & insurance premiums were collected and spent to keep the company afloat while peoples insurance was cancelled. Employees were written numerous bad paychecks. Some people simply were denied paychecks entirely after the amount of bad checks written became a felony check fraud threat to management. A conservative estimate of outstanding back payroll owed to employees would be $60000. A higher up in the company told me that the VI usage tax of 4% has been ignored since 2005, as has the vast majority of unemployment, workmans comp & social security taxes that are supposed to be witheld from paychecks. Some tipped employees were owed thousands of dollars in gratuity. as well as five months of back base pay. Off the book kitchen employees were simply told that there was no money to pay them. They responded by refusing to work, resulting in the closure of Chloe's. The kitchen help at Asolare, Paridiso & The Balcony, all of who were owed between $1000-$8000 each, then refused to work unless they were paid nightly. Some quit, others went to the police, to the labor board or to lawyers, depending on their legal status. In short, in an effort to stay in business, the company took out an unauthorized loan from their employees. A loan that will never be paid back.

iamyourserver · Post by **iamyourserver** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 10:01 pm

There it is...those are facts I had been holding back. But after tonight...I will go on the record as that being the facts. As a staff we have been lied to, manipulated, cheated and essentially stolen from. If you want to help us...we can use the donation of your legal advice, your business (cash of course

) and any support you can give in general. Thank you for giving us this forum to get our word out there. We truly love our jobs and just want our money! is $3 an hour too much to ask? THEN CLOSE!

ClevelandDave · Post by **ClevelandDave** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 10:37 pm

Cindy in pa wrote:Depends on who you choose to believe -
The CEO of the restaurants or a disgruntled employee.

I think we've figured out why they're disgruntled.

usvi-on-line