restaurant

Florida restaurant owner fighting for his life after COVID

Robert C. Williams 3 hours ago

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Nino Pernetti, owner of Caffe Abbracci, left, stands at the restaurant in Coral Gables, Fla., on Tuesday, July 16, 2019. Pernetti celebrates 30 years in the restaurant business. (Al Diaz/Miami Herald via AP)


Al Diaz

AP

CORAL GABLES, Fla.

Everyone thought it odd when Nino Pernetti called the afternoon of Dec. 31, 2020, to say he was skipping the annual New Year’s Eve dinner at his landmark Coral Gables restaurant of more than 30 years, Caffe Abbracci.

He injured his ankle while playing his daily round of tennis, he told his friends, family and staff at the restaurant where athletes, actors and politicians dine in anonymity. The doctor, he said, instructed him to put up his leg and rest it for a week.

“We should have known better,” his ex-wife Marlén Pernetti said. “Nino would not miss Caffe Abbracci on a 31st. He would’ve shown up on crutches.”

Days later,

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Lewiston’s best restaurant refused to serve Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘spiritual mentor’

Robert C. Williams 15 hours ago

Martin Luther King Jr. with Benjamin Mays, the Bates College graduate and Morehouse College president whom King considered his spiritual mentor and intellectual guide. Courtesy Bates College

With the approach of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and as the nation continues to reexamine its troubled record on race, an incident in Lewiston more than 75 years ago affirms that the roots of racial issues stretch deep and were never just a Southern concern.

The incident occurred in 1945 when Bates College graduate Benjamin Elijah Mays wanted to have a meal in the city’s leading restaurant.

Mays, a civil rights activist and the president of Morehouse College who later gave the eulogy at the funeral of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, was already a well-known figure as World War II neared its end.

About 750 people gathered on March 18, 1945, to hear him speak at the now-demolished United

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Gillibrand vows to ‘do better’ after restaurant says she ignored mask mandate

Robert C. Williams 2 days ago

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand told Fox News Digital that she would “do better” in the future after a restaurant owner in Latham, New York, posted a video of her “blowing past [the] manager” and ignoring signs requiring masks.

“We all need to do our part to help stop the spread of Omicron and that means following state and local guidance,” Gillibrand told Fox News Digital. “That includes me and I will do better going forward.”

CITIES WITH MASK, VACCINE MANDATES SEEING HUGE COVID-19 SPIKES ANYWAY

The complaint came from Innovo Kitchen, whose owner vented frustration via the restaurant’s Instagram.

“The problem with NY politics in a nut shell. My Senator blowing past my manager before she can even ask her to put a mask on. Walking right past a really big sign that says ‘masks required to enter,'” the owner wrote.

“The masks are a mandate from the Governor. As good

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Restaurant Stocks Face Tough Going in New Year

Robert C. Williams 6 days ago

Restaurant stocks may have feasted in 2021, but negative events are stacking up against food and beverage establishments in early 2022 – and that could mean thin gruel for restaurants over the long haul.

“In review, 2021 was an interesting year for restaurants, and one where you realize how much we take for granted,” said TheStreet’s Jonathan Heller in Real Money recently. “It was no longer as simple as hitting the local drive-thru and quickly getting your order. I can’t tell you the number of times that I found places closed or waited more than a half hour for a drive-thru order.”

If disruptions hurt the industry, investors couldn’t tell based on 2021 restaurant stock returns.

“A basket of 40-plus restaurant stocks I follow were up an average of about 33% for the year versus 28.7% for the S&P 500, 14.8% for the Russell 2000 and 19.3% for the

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