After Chef’s Hitler Remark, Bankers Change Lunch Plans

[PoliticAverse]

Del Posto and Babbo have the same celebrity chef as an owner, reputations for impossible-to-get reservations, and customers who can afford, say, Del Posto’s seven-course “menu tradizionale” at $145 a person. It is not unreasonable to imagine that a good number of those customers make a living on Wall Street.

So their reaction after word spread on Wednesday that Mario Batali had mentioned them in the same breath as Stalin and Hitler was to let their hefty wallets do the talking and threaten to cancel their hard-won reservations.

Some complained on Twitter, some on the Bloomberg terminals they use to follow the markets. A food Web site, Eater, said one investment bank had even circulated a memo saying it would not reimburse receipts from Babbo or the other restaurants in Mr. Batali’s group.

“The irony is that he has made millions of dollars building a restaurant empire off the backs of Wall Street wealth,” said a senior executive at a large investment bank who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. The executive, who said he had eaten often at Babbo and Del Posto, said he would not go back to any restaurant that Mr. Batali was involved with.

Read the rest at: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/10/nyregion/bankers-boycott-chef-mario-batali-after-hitler-and-stalin-remarks.html

[Chef Eric]

1. Good for Mario Batali. I'll buy some Mario Batali pasta sauce at the market today. nt

[slay]

It's like we've been saying - Wall St doesn't give a shit about working people - using $ as a weapon

it's what they do - they hold us hostage. well enough is enough - i'm sure susan sarandon would be glad to take their reservations. fucking banksters - unreal. they have no idea how ugly this could get before all is said and done.

[slay]

2. dupe - my above message got double posted

for some reason. :shrug:

[xchrom]

3. good for mario -- and to the banksters -- um there are other people out there w/ money

who will appreciate the open tables -- they thank you.

[Ilsa]

4. "The irony is that

he has made millions of dollars building a restaurant empire off the backs of Wall Street wealth,”. could be changed to

“The irony is that we have made billions of dollars building an empire off the backs of Labor, the Middle Class, etc"

[Bluenorthwest]

5. Good for Mario...he will still have customers, few care for

Wall Street leaches, most of NYC would like to see them gone, gone, gone. This does remind me of my favorite OWS DU post, in which the poster worried they would occupy the Pool Room and shame the ostentatious diners...
Mario will be fine with arts and tourist biz. He's famous the Banksters are infamous. Also the Banksters can't cook.

[Earth_First]

6. I say, cancel all their reservations, invite in a full house of OWS supporters and charge them $1

Fu*k Wall Street and their $145 lunches...