Bankers Boycott Chef Mario Batali

[mainer]

Mario disses bankers. Bankers lash back with boycott. Time for well-heeled DUers to show Mario a little love?

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"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

The seven-course “menu tradizionale” at Del Posto, owned by Mario Batali, costs $145.
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."

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/10/nyregion/bankers-boycott-chef-mario-batali-after-hitler-and-stalin-remarks.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=mario%20batali&st=cse

[gratuitous]

1. Good for the banksters

Somehow, though, I would bet that the cachet of being seen at Del Posto or Babbo will soon outweigh any picayune concerns that they're eating food prepared by a traitor to their class. As soon as these children hold their breath and stamp their feet a couple of times, they'll be back, because they can't take a chance that someone else is getting "their" table at the fashionable eatery.

[Warpy]

13. Yes, overcharging for designer food you can't get anywhere else is equivalent

to bankrupting millions of individuals and whole nations worldwide.

How dare that peasant call Wall Street on their crimes? He should be grateful that they allow him to exist!

[adigal]

21. I ate there a year ago

Best meal ever!!! Time to make another reservation!!

[Warpy]

24. If I lived there, I'd probably have tried it

to celebrate inheriting enough to live on. I often don't think much of tweaked and tortured food, but his stuff on Iron Chef has always looked exquisite.

[lunatica]

2. Let them eat cake...

LOL! The rich eating the rich.

[anamandujano]

25. Let 'em eat cat food. No worse, let them eat

at Olive Garden.

They'll be back.

[dbackjon]

3. What this more tells me

Is the insane amount of money these companies rake in, if they routinely reimburse $145 lunches/dinners.


WE pay for those meals.

[mainer]

4. Chefs work hard for their success. My dad was a chef.

And he worked 16-hour days, 7 days a week. But he never got rich.

I don't begrudge Batali his hard-earned success, and I think we shouldn't lump him in with the banksters.

[msanthrope]

5. No DUer should eat at a place where tips are stolen by management--

http://ny.eater.com/archives/2010/07/more_employees_jump_aboard_batalibastianich_wage_lawsuit.php

[sufrommich]

6. "The irony is that he has made millions

of dollars building a restaurant empire off the backs of Wall Street wealth"

Why is that ironic? Did Mario say "tax thoseWall Street millionaires more but not me"? That would be "ironic" asshole.

Let them cancel their reservations, I'm sure there are others in New York willing to take their place.

[eleny]

7. "off the backs of Wall Street wealth" - Wait just a minute...

If the meals at Mario's restaurants are taken as business tax deductions - then that's off the backs of the 99%.

Banksters making up reality as they go to keep fashioning themselves as victims. More sociopath behavior.

[saras]

8. Yep. It's not their personal money the bankers are spending. It's ours. Remember those bailouts?

[kittykitty]

22. Expense accounts. N/T

[supernova]

11. ^^This^^

[Lost-in-FL]

14. Like his talent and expertise had nothing at all to do with his success.

Bankers really need to be this self absorbed to think that way.

[n2doc]

9. "off the backs" Bullcrap

No one made them go there. No one made the eat there. It was a free choice, not a condition of employment. Might as well say Tiffany and Co made their money off the backs of the rich.

What a bunch of spoiled brats.

BTW, Batali's book is pretty amusing and entertaining. And being a chef does take talent and hard work, unlike being a bankster, which only takes connections.

[Generic Brad]

10. So you think we should defend Batali for his statement?

You really think bankers are like Hitler and Stalin? Well heeled people are supposed to defend this kind of rhetoric?

Count me out. Apparently I am uncouth and proud to be so.

[ceile]

12. Somehow I don't think they'll be missed.

There will be plenty of takers on those canceled reservations.

[eleny]

15. Maybe he could have a $99 special for that 7-course “menu tradizionale”

[ceile]

17. That;'s a good idea.

I'd fill one of those canceled slots- yum. Well, if I lived in NY...

[NeedleCast]

16. Sounds Like A Good Time To Get Some Reservations

Not a place my girl and I could afford to eat at often, but once might be a nice special occasion.

[Taverner]

18. I knew there was something I liked about Batali

Other than his Vodka Sauce...

[Bombero1956]

19. it's hard to feel sorry for anyone in this story so...

a pox on both their houses.

[pschoeb]

23. I have to agree, two sets of douchbags fighting each other

whats not to love?

Batali treats his employees like scum

[Fool Count]

20. Not a huge loss for Mario, as he was going to lose those customers

anyhow, since all those bozos are going out of business soon.