friendly, "Junior" seemed to think that maybe we were talking about sex,
when in fact all the while we were discussing the internal combustion
engine. There were long silences as his gentle, cheerful probings and
expressions of non-specific good will were left dangling in the air. After
a while of this—me wanting only to know how much he was charging for
Norwegian salmon today, and resisting his unspoken entreaties suddenly
to muse aloud about how, maybe, it would be nice if I could afford a hot
tub for my apartment—he gave up in frustration and left.
Minutes later, a waiter drew my attention to a plain white envelope on
the floor. Opening it, I found a stack of 100-dollar bills and a list of
nearby hotels and restaurants with some names checked off. "Junior" had
apparently dropped it. I have to tell you, I felt pretty damn good calling
up "Senior" down at X Seafood and breezily informing him that his son
seemed to have left something behind by mistake at my restaurant: could
they please send someone to come pick it up? A red-faced functionary
picked the envelope up within minutes, and I never heard from that
company again.
All sorts of scumbags will offer you every variety of free stuff if you
entertain the prospect of doing business with them, slipping them food,
or looking the other way. Screw them all. Don't even play footsie with
them, meaning, "I'll take the case of Dom—but I don't know if I can
always do business with you." Don't even do that. There are a lot of
scumbags in the restaurant business, people who will let the Gambino
Family decide who gets the fish order or the liquor order in return for
Knicks tickets or a lap dance, and these are people who you will have to
deal with, sometimes adversarially. How can you win an argument with
one of these people when you're a scumbag too?
- Always be on time.
- Never make excuses or blame others.