Thursday, March 29, 2012

Proficiat Met Je Verjaardag


The Pookie in Belgium


 AARP is proud to announce it's newest member
to the fold, the one, the only, (hopefully) Pookie
de Hann! Yes boys and girls, today is day we all celebrate this momentous occasion because, well, cause she said so, and more than likely it will involve beer of some kind for the rest of us. Not to mention it's also TNSC.  And we here at TLBL can always get behind something like that.
     Tonight one of her many birthday wishes will come true, when "The Boss" who is nice enough to come to town and play for just for The Pookie, on her big day. Last, but not least, a video of her favorite song being sung in her favorite city, Badlands from 1985 in Paris. Enjoy!








Tuesday, March 27, 2012

It's Like Deja Vu All Over Again

     I have been meaning to write about some of this nonsense for a while now, but every time I sit down, my slowly balding head nearly explodes in utter amazement, of how after all this time, these jokers are still in business. Who could I ever be talking about you say? Why it's those crazy assed former owners of  The Atlantic Jazz Yard, The Bookstore, Fork And Barrel and Tap And Table. Or I as I like to call them "the let's shut this place down in the middle of the night and skip out on our tabs people" We must have an education problem in this country, because I can't believe that people by now haven't read of the constant public spectacle that goes on and on and on with these fools. And yet it seems like the beer geekery gets a giant size boner every time they open their mouth about another "project" that will change the landscape of beer in the Philly area. With more candles of course. Ah, to be young and beer foolish again.

    When I heard about that so called Tiki Bar concept, I was almost willing to bet both of my testicles on that ever opening up in Spring Garden or for that matter, the number of other so called openings that they have planned at one time or another over the last three years in various locations. But when they see a desperate landlord in trouble, they are oh so willing to help out. They remind me of the aliens in the movies Starship Trooper and Independence Day, where they swoop in to suck up all of the resources and then move on to other prey.

     So now, with out further adieu, from our friends at Foobooz, another fun filled day of comments with and about the Farmer's Cabinet people. Please click on the link below for the whole story/stories.


                                                                      FOOBOOZ

6.Huh Says:


March 27th, 2012 at 11:56 am

@Drama I have some Matt stories but I see that my comment from yesterday has disappeared. Not sure why, as the language that I used was actually cleaner than many of the 104 comments left about Matt Swartz on the one story on this site about Matt’s former restaurant “Fork and Barrel” Closing. There are a few other Fork and Barrel stories on here as well that have comments pretty much identical to my deleted comments, except that mine was in regards to Matt’s failing venture “The Farmer’s Cabinet”. I am assuming that Will came on here and threw a fit but everything that I stated can be backed up by doing a quick online search. Yes, it seems odd that Matt is opening up another restaurant when F-Cab can’t even pay its employees or vendors. A search of current court listings reveals at least 4 open cases against Matt brought by purveyors suing for non-payment of goods or breach of contract. There are also the numerous judgements against Matt (also available through a quick search) that have not been settled, yet somehow he can come up with the money to open this new spot? Ask any F-Cab employee how many of their paychecks have bounced due to lack of funds, or how many people have walked out of that place due to constant abuse. As far as Matt’s penchant for racism/homophobia/public drunkeness/Delilah’s strippers- well that is nothing new, and is well documented on this site in comments going back over a year. Foobooz, please don’t delete our comments because Will doesn’t like them. Especially when there are tons of similar comments from old articles that are still available on this site Although these Matt Swartz stories often border on the unbelievable and insane- Everything said about him is 100% true and there is tons of publicly-accessible evidence online to back it up. He is a horrible businessman and his track record with Fork and Barrel, Tap and Table, Atlantic Jazz Yard, and Farmer’s Cabinet speaks for itself.



7.Matt Says:

March 27th, 2012 at 12:36 pm

@Huh Keep talkng out of your ass and hiding behind a food blog. It’s sad that you dont have a life.


8.David Says:


March 27th, 2012 at 2:43 pm

Matt, Why do you keep making a fool out of yourself in public? Pay your bills, quit playing games and stop trying to cheat the system.


9.Will Says:


March 27th, 2012 at 3:31 pm

@”Huh” or “Insider” or whomever. I’m assuming you know me personally and know I don’t “throw fits.” All I ask is that people are fair. The Farmers’ Cabinet, , and The Boilermaker help many of us provide for our families. You are entitled to your opinions, but assuming who you are, your handling of situations jeapordizes everyone in the establishment, much more than anything Matt and Matt have been accused of doing. You have moved on, please continue doing so. Im sure you have all of my contact info. Please use it for anything you may need.

10.Huh Says:


March 27th, 2012 at 6:47 pm

Methinks that if Will and Matt focused as much energy on running their business as they do on coming online to refute every single thing written about them on the internet, maybe their restaurants would have a shot at success instead of consistently failing. Hopefully you are not setting yourself up to blame F-Cab and Boilermaker’s inevitable closings on those darn commenters on food blogs. The Farmer’s Cabinet and Boilermaker may provide for the owners and managers but what about the employees? The employees who get fired for no reason other than the owner being drunk once again and in a bad mood? The employees who quit due to Matt’s racism and homophobia? The employees who are left jobless with no notice when Matt decides to shut his business down unexpectedly, leaving nothing behind but a trail of debt (SOURCE: All of Matt’s past restaurants). The black employees who are removed from FOH because “people don’t want to see THAT when they come into an upscale restaurant”? The gay employees who have to worry about a drunken Matt grabbing their bottom and saying “I bet you wish I was the other Matt doing this”? The kitchen employees who don’t want to get pushed off the line in favor of drunken strippers who the owner is trying to impress by letting them cook a meal? No offense Will but I would actually like for Matt to answer these questions as the opinions of his paid errand boy don’t carry much weight. Matt- Do you admit that what is being said of you here is true, or do you believe that this is all a smear campaign brought about by the media, court listings, and 95% of staffers who have worked at Fork and Barrel, Tap and Table, Atlantic Jazz Yard, and Farmer’s Cabinet? Why do you think that you can have a successful restaurant when you keep repeating the same old mistakes that just resulted in closings and lawsuits? Feel free to keep responding on a food blog and further prove my point that you don’t put enough focus on your actual business. Personally, if I were in these guys’ shoes I would be spending my time doing payroll because from what I hear, your F-Cab employees are having a little problem with bounced paychecks. I realize that Matt is Mr. Moneybags Big Baller but for the rest of us, a bounced check can be enough to send our entire bank account into chaos with overdraft fees and insufficient funds to cover the other checks that we wrote thinking that our paycheck would at least be good. It’s a shame that paying your employees and purveyors takes a backseat to sitting on the internet getting upset because people have the audacity to tell the truth about your unscrupulous business practices.












Friday, March 2, 2012

The Eyes Of March

    Blah, blah, blah and blah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and yeah. I know, I am a slacker. I hit one of those "I got a great post to write and I don't know how to write it" things again. (The pros call it writers block)  It happens to the worst of us. But I must face my fears or at the very least just drink them under the table. So, where to begin?
    It's birthday month around these parts with my younger uglier brother hitting his magic 50th milestone and my faux daughter adding another year to her total. It's also birthday time for a couple more of the fine folks we all know and love this month, which leads me to believe that there was more than fireworks going off on the Fourth of July. A wish a very Happy Birthday to every one, and ah, what the hell, even my brother.
     In other news, I guess I will break open this nice little tidbit of info for you fine folks to chew on. What does the Craft Ale House, Railroad Street, Lucky Lab and the French Quarter Bistro have in common on, let's say the last week of April? Stayed tune my friends, it is going to be right smart time out here in the hell and gone of the burbs.
      My own thoughts on the above is that they are trying to milk all our Belgian money out of us before we go. Two weeks of no TNSC  is a big hit for all of them. That is 34 people not showing their glowing faces for two weeks to all the local barkeeps. It may require the filing of some Chapter 7's.

      And now to rub it in, let us travel back in time when I was forced to go and drink beer at St. Sixtus, Westy to all my beer geeks friends.

Or when Mr. and Mrs Parkerford found this at De Dolle, what is sure to be the work of a Richard Ruch groupie.

Or maybe just enjoying the warm temps of Brugge
Yes kids, more pictures coming and more fun details about our trip coming up. Till then......Tot ziens.