DEARLY DEPARTED

All I know is from the tongue bathing they received in WW (seriously, for an “investigative” paper, they’re mighty fawny over all the restaurant power players). And from that it appears to me to be yet again style over substance (which appears to be Sage’s signature in this town), with a touch of bimbo tossed in for good measure.

I feel really, really sorry for the cocktail waitresses who are dressed like 1960’s flight attendants and have to wait tables in high heeled boots. I’m guessing after a few shifts of very slow service, a wipe out or two on the polished floor and girls quitting over job related bunions (without health coverage)—and we’ll see a “new” departure uniform.

Oh yes, and the uniforms that are no doubt very expensive to dry clean (honestly, how did Sage ever survive with the endless stupidity they exhibit?) and will fade and start looking tacky in short order…

Well stated Zump. There are a few of us out here that understand what Sage is really all about. In the end, it’s corps as this that pull the industry into the toilet. As for The Willy Weekly, they’ve a long history to sucking up to the corporate convention as well as having habitual redundancies towards trendy and fashionable - whether it is practical or real.

Before wildly promoting another promising project, Sage has to stablize what it has already. What makes you consider that ‘Departure’ will take off? They don’t have a sterling history regarding business practices.

We had an interesting experience at Departure: as we were being seated, our waitress was kind enough to inform us that her manager (Ron Acierto, aka “the Chihuahua”) penalizes his server staff for taking mandatory breaks. Basically, if a server takes a break, a chunk of cash is taken from their fare-share of the tips for that evening. Our server was in her 7th hour of service without eating anything since breakfast. Maybe pale, dizzy, weak and emaciated is still in vogue?

Our evening only got worse from there.

Have you guys SEEN the kind of people Departure is attracting? I’ve never seen so many trashy soccer-moms dolled-up in prom dresses to take twitter pictures of themselves. Even worse were the drunken bro’s staggering circles around the bar in hopes of finding their husky girlfriend, or the beer-bellied AIG execs trying to impress the trampy craigslisted catch-of-the-day with our tax-dollars (well-spent, no doubt).

I was a humiliated employee.

Time (already!) for those poor ladies to call The Wage and Hour Division at BOLI. The laws about this are very clear cut and very non-neogtiable. And Sage (previously at Urban Farmer) has already demonstrated a pattern of playing games in that department.

As to the the pale, dizzy, weak and emaciated still in being in style—Well, A) Sage does tend to be a bit behind on trends and B) somehow those overpriced stewardess uniforms have gotta fit–and they can’t afford new ones!

Chef is a bad alcoholic and egomaniac, heard sage fired him today. He’s totally nuts, but you just have to blame sage for not doing research into who they hire and how competent they are, Sage will be going down in this town soon. Urban Farmer was doing 20 covers on friday and sat nights, the original is a mess. That company hemorrages cash.

Thats the first bad thing i heard about the chef, although i don’t work at departure. The rumour for months has been that sage has been trying to push him out since he was supposed to be one of the top chefs in his field to replace him with someone cheaper. just like ned elliot (original chef from urban farmer) i had always heard that chef brian was too smart to fall for sage’s trickery and allow himself to be set up for a fall. the new executive chef matt is bad news, that much is for sure and david the new f&b director is a question mark. Since he’s been there barely a week or two, two key managers have been let go. who’s next to be voted off the island? those considering a career with sage should look at the track record they have established. once they get what they can out of you..ie open a restaurant or a kitchen or banquets they replace you with someone cheaper. the same goes for the long forgotten security and engineering coups. shun the hand that feeds before it can feed you a fist full of roofies so it can fuck you while you sleep. you’ll only wake up at the nines only to find you have no in-roon coffee maker to bring you back to your senses. hope they hand out free coffee in the unemployment line cuz thats where sage will get you.

What’s David’s last name and where did he come from?

But yeah, Virgil, I’m starting to notice a trend, as well in thier hiring practices. The other weird thing about Sage is that many of their quite upper, key people (like Karpinski) are madly unqualified on both paper and in practice for the positions they hold. It really, really mystifies.

Zumpie, I think we could have some great talks. Sounds like you know Sonny boy, as well as I do? He is a KOOK BALL!! Sociopaths, are an interesting breed. I have a great book for you to read. It describes “Sonny boy” or AKC I mean AKA “Kruger” It is called “The sociopath next door” by Martha Stout PHD.

Virgil, that is so true. I opened a restaurant for Sage. Worked 20+ hours a day for a week straight opening week then clocked 60/hr weeks for the next few months until I was “laid-off.” My replacement makes $12/hour and didn’t even get a raise when I was let go. And my lay-off went something like this “Thanks for all your work. Here’s your check.” Stay AWAY from Sage.

Krugerlover! Thanks for that—I just visisted this site for the first time in about 12 billion years and there was your shout-out. And yes, Sage’s entire process still mystifies…perhaps you have more to share?

I’ll also add, their depressing hiring/firing practices continue: who cans their sales and events manager (as they did at The Courtyard)right before the holiday season???? Unless she was feeling up the valets (and they didn’t enjoy it) or stealing $100 bills from the register–no matter HOW bad she was, ditch her AFTER all the parties! Bad employee during the busy season is always better than NO employee.

And, of course, they WERE the ones who hired her in the first place, right?