Like any business, running a wine bar is tough, especially in this economy. Rafael Mateo runs a great little wine bar called Pata Negra in the East Village of NYC that offers lovely Spanish wines and of course tons of delicious food, including my favorite, Jamon Iberico.
This is a great but sobering essay that anyone interested in opening a wine bar should read. Disclaimer: Rafael is a friend but I thought it might be interesting for anyone who loves wine.
That is a very interesting piece. I am connected with the restaurant biz up here and I have never had to deal with anything close to this. Sure, some hygiene regulation problems but nothing serious.
BTW, local health board posts all hygiene inspections on their website for all to read.
I have to give kudos to your friend for his perserverance. I wish him the best, but I sense his frustration and think he may not be able to take many more “revenue generation plans” from the city.
Well, not only is Mateo a friend, I’ve worked for the Health Dept, the Dept of Ed, and the City’s OMB, so I have some idea of the thinking at those places. The “judges” are generally administrative law judges. That means they’re usually attorneys who work a few hours hearing the cases to pick up some extra money. The “expediters” are usually people who’ve worked at one of the agencies or who at least know the rules. They don’t really have any juice with the “judges” because you never know who’s going to be adjudicating a case. It’s not exactly like a regular district court where there are a couple of judges that work in the same rooms day after day.
Unfortunately for guys like Mateo, that’s another problem - the expediters are screwing him just as much as anyone else because they don’t really offer much that he can’t do himself. After you’ve been through the system once or twice, you know the drill. So be nice to the clerk who takes your name and that probably does you more good than anything else.
Too bad. In concept, having inspectors out there checking on food establishments is a good idea. Exactly what those inspectors do is a different issue. I’ve known a few wine bars that haven’t made it, largely due to the same kinds of things he recounts. What’s always struck me as strange is the indifference shown by the bureaucrats. As I was told years ago by someone responsible for the revenue portion of the NYC budget - “From the womb to the tomb you’re paying for something.”
I’ve been in front of an “administrative law judge” for Medicare; he was totally ignorant of the situation, as was Medicare’s doctor representative–an 80+ year old retired internist who knew absolutely nothing about the very technical, innovative and new surgical procedure for which I was trying to have Medicare pay fairly. After I gave my talk, cross-examined the Medicare doctor and ripped him to shreds politely in the best Perry Mason way, he leans over to the judge and says, “Murray, my turn to buy lunch. Where do you want to go today?” The time of the appearance was 0830 and my case was heard about 1130, meaning I missed a half day at work to plead my case. I received the judgment in the mail a month later. I won. He awarded me a paltry $500–which didn’t cover my overhead for being there and out of my office, and refused to assign a fee to the procedure, meaning I’d have to appeal similarly each time I did it . . .
Sobering indeed - how disheartening. The immediate answer is to support his business. I’ll be there this weekend. Sorting out this idiocy will take more time but first things first. Thanks for posting this Michel.
Your friend should sue the state for the extortion like nature of the compensation board. Being in the hole for 20k is absurd. Where is their basis for an audit that they drag out. With the IRS, if you owe taxes you can at least fight the interest and only pay principal if you have a legitimate claim.
I worked in the bar business for years in NYC and when times are bad, such as now, the city tries anything to obtain revenue. But the city really needs to ask itself, does it need money if it hurts small business or even drives them out?
I’m a small business owner myself. If I met with this sort of bureaucratic hostility, I’d simply move my business to another city. When I hear stories like this, I truly wonder why anyone would want to run a business in NYC. You’re loaded up with taxes and regulations, and the place is so damned big. Knowing someone is unlikely to help you at all.
I guess he needs to ask if his dream is run the wine bar that specializes in ham, or is his dream to run that place in NYC. The obvious solution is to pull up stakes and move the business.
I understand the governmental interest in having health inspectors, but it sounds like their purpose has shifted from maintaining health standards to being a revenue stream for the city.
On another note, I practice workers’ compensation defense litigation in Georgia, and his description of his workers’ compensation problems is just mind-boggling for me. Of course here we get our workers’ compensation coverage directly from insurers and the premiums are based on your actual payroll. I doubt he’d even be required to have such coverage here because he doesn’t have three regular employees.
I’ll go visit this guy on our next trip to NYC - I hope he’s still around.
As someone who is dealing with boobocrats from a previous venture (4 years ongoing now!), I can really empathize. It truly is disheartening to see small businesses being abuse for revenue. And it’s worse when it’s a small, distinctive business that specializes in something we all love, wine. I’ve been going since he opened and it’s a wonderful place with a great selection of Spanish wines, a warm welcome and great food.
NYC used to be full of small, driven independent businesses like this, but they’ve been strangled so badly that we’re now left with Duane Reades, CVS, banks and Charbux on every corner.
In any case, I’ll pass on your kind comments when I see him.
Back in the 70’s, one could grease these leeches with $200 and a turkey sandwich, in return for a good report.
We had one inspector who was fond of using our rest room, with its limitless supply of girlie magazines, for an hour or two. Then he’d eat his free sandwich, pocket his lucre, and be on his way, and we wouldn’t have to see him for another 6 months.
NYC has an endless need for more revenue, and nothing is sacred anymore.
Whether it’s meter maids and cops writing nuisance tickets, or the sanitation police picking through your trash to make sure a stray bottle hasn’t made it’s way into the wrong receptacle, or crap like this guy is writing about, it’s not the way to encourage productive people to work and hire others.
That’s the equivalent of going Bear hunting with a switch…
I have had my run-ins with health departments and other such govt’ agencies and the guy has my empathies…
While being audited by the Indiana Dept. of Revenue (the guy was at my office conference table for 2 1/2 days) I was visited by the local Health Dept., the State Health Department and IOSHA in the same week! The audit went as well as expected and the health depts and IOSHA was much ado over nothing. But it took a lot of time and money to get through all of it. Its also incredibly stressful.
There’s nothing like someone coming into your establishment and either handing you or telling you the laws/ordinances that allow them to shut you down or penalize you if you don’t roll over for them.
Exactly. It shocks me that our pro-business mayor lets crap like this go on. Then again, we’re in the middle of a recession and they need to generate revenue. Still, taking it out on the little guys seems counter-productive, especially in a city which is supposed to be all about business (maybe not small business, however).
It’s narrow-sightedness. The city will generate more revenue by letting those small businesses stay open than the few thousand they get in fining them, and booting them out of business.
What a shame. This system is rigged against the small businessperson. The health thing wouldn’t be so bad (21 points is still a “B” grade), but the time wasted is incredible, especially for such a small operation. Then the rest on top of it…hope he can get out from under this. Have to give the place a visit next time we’re down that way.
For me, the really sad thing is that a basically good idea (I mean the restaurant inspections, after all that protects the customer, in principle) has gotten bogged down in so much bureaucracy, and also in inefficiency etc. since the city is short of money. Nobody thinks about what a burden this is for the owner, esp. for a small operation like this.
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