You know what’s worse than getting laid off during the holiday season? Working during the holiday season, but not getting farking paid.
Gina’s employee Deven Mollinedo shared an internal message with the American-Statesman stating that Lockley would be stepping down from Flavor Hospitality Group following a sudden medical emergency and that all restaurants would be going through a “restructuring plan.” The message said the restaurants would be closed Dec. 25 through Jan. 2.
De La Fuente and Flavor operations director Amy Sherman spoke with investors in the three restaurants, all of which are under different LLCs, De La Fuente told the Statesman. Sherman said the passive investors from Gina’s on Congress said they did not have any money to give and that they had lost money as well, since their investment was paid up front.
You know what else stinks? Showing up for your reservation…
On Gusto Italian Kitchen’s social media post announcing the hiatus, one commenter criticized the lack of notice to patrons with existing reservations.
“We had a reservation for Saturday night 27. We never got a cancellation email or call. We arrived and no cars but the lights were on. We walked in and not one person in sight. No one there but the door was unlocked. We then saw the closed sign. I was about to call the police to make sure everything was ok.”
…and finding out the restaurant has closed with no notice.
As a side note, there’s no coverage of this (yet) on the increasingly worthless Eater Austin. Even a year ago, they would have been on a story about restaurant employees getting cheated like a fat man on a Chinese buffet.