Comments on: Tearoom luncheon brings out fancy hats, fond memories (with slideshow)

By: Lindsey Nair

Lindsey Nair — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 14:50:12 +0000

Nolwheeler, unless they have run out of the recipe pamphlets, you can still get one by sending the self-addressed, stamped envelope to:

VA Egg Council
Re: Miller & Rhoads
3401 West Ridge Rd., Roanoke, VA, 24014

By: nolwheeler@aol.com

nolwheeler@aol.com — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 19:48:29 +0000

Lindsey, could you direct me as to where I can find the Miller and Rhoads cookbook?? I worked there, and would love to recover some of the good recipes..

By: crooked road

crooked road — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 15:00:01 +0000

That is also a strategy, on a lower scale, that WalMart employs.

When people dismiss local establishments in favor of standing in line for an hour every Saturday evening at (fill in the blank chain restaurant), they often fail to consider the ripple effects.

Sure, the wait staff is employed at a busy restaurant. Of course, they’ve limited to no access to health benefits, their tips are redistributed to kitchen staff, and everyone ends up in a form of economic slavery.

All so lazy consumers can have the exact same dining experience in Roanoke as in Blacksburg as in Richmond as in Atlanta as in Chicago as in Dallas, ad infinitum.

Call me cranky, but I find little to nothing of value in that.

By: Lindsey Nair

Lindsey Nair — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 14:23:57 +0000

Thanks for bringing that up, CR. The original article Gawker is using for its story came from The Orlando Sentinel: http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-10-07/business/os-darden-part-time-workers-20121007_1_darden-restaurants-health-insurance-olive-gardens
If you read that article, it sounds as if many other companies are also considering such a move.

By: crooked road

crooked road — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 13:09:22 +0000

This is a thread hijack, but one that I think is worthy of attention. Darden restaurants, owner of such franchise restaurants as Red Lobster, Longhorn Steakhouse & Olive Garden, has begun instituting a policy in some of its restaurants on a trial basis.

First, they’re limiting workers to no more than 30 hours per week, to avoid having to provide health coverage under the new medical care plans coming in 2014. Secondly, they’ve forced ‘tip sharing’ by the wait staff with hourly employees.

This allows them to pay the hourly employees much lower ‘tip credit wages’ of $2.13/hour instead of the minimum wage of $7.25/hour. It evidently does not matter that the tips are spread so thin among so many employees, that no one makes the assumed differential between the two wages.

Nice corporate strategy. Think about that the next time you go to Longhorn Steakhouse, Red Lobster, Olive, Garden, etc.

http://gawker.com/5950331/olive-garden-red-lobster-scale-back-employee-work-hours-to-avoid-paying-for-health-insurance

By: Drew Gibbons

Drew Gibbons — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 17:25:24 +0000

Dear Lindsey,
It’s really been fun to see the pictures and read this blog and the article in last Sunday’s paper. I appreciate being quoted, but I am sorry that my mother and her modeling weren’t mentioned, even when the Teen Board was mentioned, since she had worked with the Teen Board for a number of years. Are you, perhaps, going to do another feature on the models?
I’m glad this project has been such a success. Maybe they should make it an annual event, and hold one of the luncheons on a Saturday so those of us who work can attend.
Love, Drew