Thu 19 Mar 2009 10:33 am
Per my previous post, Gabriel Claycamp is now confirming on his Facebook page that Culinary Communion has closed.
He wrote: “Gabriel Lee Claycamp is coming to grips with the fact that this rollercoaster has ended. CC is done. We have given our whole lives to this dream and met amazing people. Love you.”
Supporters reported receiving a letter of explanation (below) a few hours later.
The short summary: The final straw for the closure, he wrote, was the city’s requirement that a second exit be built from the building’s basement. He will hold a going out of business sale at CC March 21 to raise money toward paying the staff and refunding tuition. ” It is not our intention to slip away quietly, leaving a pile of debt and bad feelings behind us.” He still plans to operate The Swinery and Lunch Counter (though, if the city does lock the building’s doors, as he references below, I’m not sure how that works.) If you want to help, he wrote, attend the sale, be vocal about good experiences you had with CC — “and, cook. Dig out your recipes and have a dinner party; invite friends or strangers, and come together around the table. Keep the food community alive. ”
Here’s the full letter:
Hello Foodie Friends, Heidi and Gabriel here, with a painful message.
This letter is terribly difficult to write, and comes to you from a place of deep sorrow. After over seven years of operation, Culinary Communion must close its doors. We have explored every option, and nothing will work to keep our heads above water. We have to shut down. This decision comes out of a mix of circumstances; we will describe them briefly here. Simplification is required in the interest of brevity; this is a pretty complex situation.
When we moved into this building in mid-2007, we borrowed heavily to finance build-out costs. The past 18 months have been spent playing catch-up from that expenditure. We did manage to finally recover from the bulk of the construction costs late this past summer, just in time for the economic bust; we saw a 90% downturn in our business in November. Like many small businesses, we’ve been struggling to make it through these tough times, barely skating by through the loyal support of many of our students. We could have made it but for the last, killing blow.
We anticipated being in this building for at least 5 years, possibly much longer, so our major investment in improvements seemed sound. Recently, however, the building has run into permitting trouble related to its construction prior to our lease: the basement requires a second exit, a stairwell for emergency egress. If such is not designed and fully permitted by April 10, the city has told us they’ll lock our doors and fine us, even though responsibility for amelioration of this issue falls upon the building’s owners. For the past several weeks we’ve been up in the air, not knowing what the owners would do. We did not want to continue accepting registrations since we weren’t sure whether we’d have a building in April, so we closed the calendar. This put us into a downward spiral; soon we couldn’t pay the staff. And so on.
We learned last week that the owners do not plan to build this required exit. We don’t understand this decision, but it’s been made abundantly clear. As of today, we have no cash flow and no certainty of having a building from which to operate. We’ve been on the razor’s edge for months; this has blown us over. We’ve stretched the limits of our creativity to try to find a way to make this work, had sleepless nights and last-ditch efforts, but we have finally come to the realization that it can’t be saved.
Should the owners put in the exit, and/or assuming that situation is eventually resolved, The Swinery will take over Culinary Communion’s lease. The Swinery will also continue to operate Lunch Counter from this building. Lunch Counter will reopen on Monday, March 23. We have given everything we have and all that we are to Culinary Communion; it has been much more than a business to us. It’s been our life, our baby. There were so many nights of sitting around the table with students; sharing stories, wine, and laughter; growing friendships. CC is so dear to us that this is like cutting off a limb. Nonetheless, we’ve come to the end of this chapter. So, down to the unpleasant nitty-gritty.
Culinary Communion has paid out the last of our funds to our employees and laid them all off. We have searched for a way to go ahead with the classes that are already on the calendar, classes for which many of you are already registered, but that’s impossible. Even if we were to have a space from which to teach, there are too many classes for Gabriel to teach alone, and we literally can’t buy the ingredients for those classes now. We understand that this represents a breach of your confidence; for this we apologize with the utmost sincerity. We are extremely sorry to let you down, but funds received for March and April classes have already been used to pay CC’s staff. There will be no more classes or dinners whatsoever. However, it is not our intention to slip away quietly, leaving a pile of debt and bad feelings behind us. Even though Culinary Communion will be closed, Gabriel and Heidi will make good on every one of those registrations, although we realize it may take awhile. We have three options for honoring these obligations: 1) We are having a sale of assets to raise funds to pay refunds and debts; more on this below. 2) Anyone who so desires may transfer their refund amount owed by Culinary Communion to a credit for goods from The Swinery, including lunch at Lunch Counter. 3) Should we be unable to honor all obligations through the methods described above, we will make arrangements with students on a case-by-case basis for Gabriel to provide individual, in-home instruction as recompense. What about gift certificates? We don’t know at this point. We’re happy to exchange CC gift certificates for Swinery gift certificates, although we will have to restrict when these can be redeemed, so we don’t get hit all at once and drive The Swinery under, too. If you don’t want Swinery products or lunch, you could give this certificate to a friend. If that still doesn’t work for you, we’ll try to figure something else out.
There are too many questions now and too few answers, but we’re doing the best we can. There is still one more chance to see each other and say goodbye: Please join us for a huge GOING OUT OF BUSINESS SALE The Swinery does not need CC’s teaching equipment, so we’re selling it off to raise funds for staff and students. From knives and pans to SubZero refrigerators, we’ve got a lot of stuff to sell: equipment, dishes, containers, tools, you name it. We can also sell wine by the bottle. We hope to raise enough money to give our employees their last pay and then give refunds to everyone (from last Friday on), and ideally, to pay a few debts, too. We want to make sure these funds get to the students for whom they are intended; therefore the sale is CASH ONLY, even for the big stuff. I guess it’s pretty obvious in this situation that all sales are final. For the bigger items, we’ll use a silent auction format.
WHEN: Saturday, March 21, 2-6 pm. WHERE: CC House (it’s still that for now, at least): 2524 Beacon Ave S., Seattle, 98144 BUT: Please do not come expecting to pick up a refund for classes on this day. After paying our staff, we will divide money received among students who are owed a refund. If we’re not able to raise enough, we’ll refund everyone the same percentage, so for example, someone who paid $79 will receive the same percentage of their tuition as someone who paid $225. We will communicate with students via email about refunds AFTER this sale, not prior to it.
What will Gabriel and Heidi do? Well, we’re not completely sure yet. As we mentioned, we’ll continue The Swinery, which is still working hard to get its approval for bacon production from the King County Health Department; look for us at farmer’s markets soon. Heidi’s working on a book about CC, and we hope that will get picked up. For awhile we’re just going to rest and spend time together as a family, and then we’ll figure out our next step.
What can you do to help? Lots of people have asked what they can do. First, please come to the sale and help us liquidate. Refunding tuitions and paying debts is our top priority. Second, please be vocal about your good experiences with CC. Tell people what this meant to you. If you have stories or memories to share, we’d love it if you’d email them to us–maybe Heidi can put them into the book. Post your positive energy and good experiences on blogs and help us fight the wave of negativity we’re expecting will come from a small but loud minority. And, cook. Dig out your recipes and have a dinner party; invite friends or strangers, and come together around the table. Keep the food community alive.
We want to express our deepest gratitude and love to every one of you who’s supported us, taken a class or classes, and helped us sustain this dream. Our staff has been amazing. Through the years we’ve been privileged to work with some truly wonderful people, and we can’t thank them all in this format. However, the group we had most recently assembled was really the Dream Team. To our office staff, Jenny and Adrienne, thank you for falling in love with CC and being such perfect additions so quickly. Zora came on board in 2007 as a third owner and grew into working full-time as our CFO, for no compensation. Zora, we never could have made it this far without you and we are grateful for your efforts and for your belief in this business. Tom, we were awed when you wanted to come work for us; thank you for being so wonderful with the students and such a strong presence. Our House Managers, Virginia and Miriam, were always cheerful and warm, even in the face of mountains of dirty dishes. Nate and the Swinery staff, thank you for helping to get us set up, for being flexible, and for wanting to learn. And Katie. Words do not suffice. You made our dream your own, and loved CC just as much as ever we did. Starting with ECC House, then teaching full-time in West Seattle, and finally supporting us in the move to Beacon, you have always been our rock, tireless and with boundless passion. You poured yourself into this place, worked crazy hours, and helped steer this ship. The energy, effort, and faith you gave to Culinary Communion is unparalleled. Thank you. To everyone: We are very deeply sorry that we can’t make this work. Culinary Communion is our baby, and this is breaking our hearts, but we know it’s very special to you, too, and we are very sorry that it has to end. Hope to see you Saturday.
Thank you all for your love and support. Yours, Gabriel & Heidi Co-Founders
**updated at 12:52 p.m. to add the farewell letter and remove the note that a letter would be coming**
53 Responses to “ Culinary Communion update ”
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Good riddance.
Looks like it didn’t take long for the nasty trolls to follow you from the PI blog.
The comments should have been removed from the PI thread. They were just petty and mean-spirited personal attacks on someone trying to maintain a business he had poured his life into. They didn’t contribute anything to the discussion except to show the meanness of some people who enjoy kicking people when they are down.
CC brought so many people together and created a wonderful community. It’s a terrible shame that it’s over. We are all the poorer for no longer having CC to call home.
PJ, thank you. I’m planning to keep the comment thread here more civil — but I did agree with the P-I’s New Media staff that the comments that didn’t violate the P-I’s terms of service should stay.
If a newspaper is going to provide a forum, it can’t start censoring opinions (unless they’re libelous, demonstrably false, etc.)
And, I think the sheer number of people who wanted to talk about CC showed something important about the business. Clearly there were passionate fans, but also a critical mass of people who were angry and felt betrayed. Isn’t it possible that it was *both* a wonderful community and a place that had problems?
I only started looking into this issue, remember, because I was thrilled to hear The Swinery was getting its start, and surprised not to find it at the Ballard Farmers Market. I am not personally happy to see CC go.
Thanks, Rebekah. I’d suspect that many of those comments were from one or two people who just really enjoy being nasty. Several of the comments also sounded a lot like those on another PI comment board about a woman who was laid off from Microsoft–comments that were reveling in her bad situation in the same way people were piling on top of Gabe. The PI blogs, unfortunately, are just not a good forum of discussion because there are so many people who join in for no reason other than to say nasty things about people.
I also worry that there are people whose first impressions of CC and Swinery were based on the unfair postings of some of the nastier comments by someone who obviously had an axe to grind and seemed to feel that they could get some personal satisfaction by trying to take down a small business that the owners worked their butts off to keep together.
Many of us were thrilled the Swinery was getting going, but there were obviously some people on that thread who only cared about trying to destroy something they knew nothing about.
“Big going-out-of-business sale” planned for Saturday, according to note from CC’s mailing list.
Wow — you posted the letter just as I hit “submit.” Cheers.
Having been to a few Gypsy dinners, I can attest to the fact that this guy is a scam artist and got what he deserved. The invisible hand has a way of working things out.
ihateveggies: It surprises me that you would say you’d been to “a few gypsy dinners” yet say that Gabe is a scam artist. I would be curious to know how you deduced that opinion, and why you would go back to a few dinners if that was the case?
I have known Gabe for years. I started taking classes in 2003 and have learned more from this man than I can even quantify. I have also assisted in classes, gypsies, vagabonds, trips to france… I’m a biased bystander. Over the years I’ve learned a few things. First, Gabe loves what he does. He loves teaching people, and loves sharing food, knowledge and whatever else can. He is a larger than life personality, to be sure. He’s also very young and relatively just starting his career. I am wishing him the best, and will be supportive of him just as he, as my friend, has been of me all these years.
Ihateveggies: A scam artist how? He made food and people ate it. He taught cooking classes. How exactly did that scam people?
I have never know Gabe or Heidi to be anything except honest and open. I will greatly miss the great food, the learning opportunities, the chances to see chefs playing and not just working.
Gabe and Culinary Communion (which was a lot more than one person or couple) helped many many people in the past seven years experience food as art rather than fuel and we are all less at his diminished presence.
What April and Jeff said. I’ve known Gabe and Heidi for five years now, and in that time learned not only so much about cooking, but a ton about community and respect food and land and art, and I can thank CC for so many of my friends. CC was home for many of us. The community that it created will live on. But today is still a sad, sad day.
I was a Gypsy member and a Culinary Communion student and my experiences with Gabe and his staff were nothing but positive. While I realize that nothing pleases everyone, the amount of negativity regarding that Swinery story was beyond reasonable. Clearly it had more to do with the pathology of the individual posters than it did anything that really reflected the quality of the experience learning and eating with Gabriel and the CC staff. I suppose you can’t ever do anything great without envious and deceitful people attacking you. Gabe’s “critics” should train their hatred on the mountains of bland, over-processed foods that pack the pantries of most households and instead celebrate Gabriel and others who elevate prosaic food to something transcendent.
The City. Instead of coming down to my neighborhood to clear out all of the junk vehicles that litter the streets (http://letitiacarranch.blogspot.com/)they are up on Beacon Hill sweating Culinary Communion, a legitimate business! This is sad. Now, I’ll never get to take the bread-baking class.
I think that the comments on the PI blog were fair. Clearly, there were/are people who don’t think that the sun rises and sets on Gabe. There were enough explanations to ring true, and I know of several people who had issues who didn’t even post. He is certainly a polarizing influence, and I’m not sure that that’s a good thing.
The problem with the PI posts is that Gabe never responded and Heidi only responded with sarcasm. Perhaps if they had actually dealt with the situation, such as calmly answering the public, things would have turned out differently. If Gabe has posted what he did on his facebook page, it may have saved him (not the comment about FU bacon, obviously).
I for one am not sorry to see CC go. I know ya’ll are going to jump on me, but my experiences were not good ones. I won’t elaborate, the man is shut down, that’s enough for me.
All of the sudden, they need a second egress? Just in the last few weeks? Riiight… there’s always someone to blame, isn’t there? Nothing is EVER their fault.
Maurice,
The comments on the PI blog were from creeps who made unsubstantiated, libelous, and mean-spirited comments and were too cowardly to even post their names. Their attacks say more about them than they do about the people they were attacking. IF they had legitimate gripes, they could have given actual incidents instead of just random nastiness, and the could have posted their names. They chose not to, and so just look like trolls.
Those of us who have spent a lot of time with CC and Gypsy and Vagabond know that most of the people who were (and are) a part of the CC community were there because of what a great home CC was for us. IF those anonymous posters attacking CC ever had any dealings with CC, it’s because they have their own little axes to grind (or they just enjoy hurting people), and that’s really sad. They’re really sad, miserable people. But Gabe and Heidi don’t owe it to those cowards to answer their vitriol.
Paulette, I’m not going to get into a flame war with you. There were several specific instances posted on that thread. There was also the original issue, which was Gabe’s lies and illegal activity. People were reacting to someone who thinks he’s above the law, who has flouted the law with several illegal businesses, … well, I’m not going to go there. No one’s above the law, period.
Gabe’s going to need his friends, so stick with him. You may also want to encourage him to work within the law, because THAT is what really caused all of this mess.
Maurice, I don’t want to start a flame war with you either, but do you really think that there is anything legitimate added to the conversation when people post about dancing on someone’s grave and calling people they’ve never met a psychopath because they don’t like their business?
And the whole point of Gypsy was that it was an underground restaurant. That’s what makes it cool. Some people don’t get that. Fine. I think basketball is extremely stupid, so I don’t watch the games. I don’t feel a need to try to take it away from those who like it. If people didn’t like CC or Gypsy, they could ignore it, rather than try to ruin it for the rest of us.
Also, some of the “specific incidents” cited behavior that anyone who knows Gabe and Heidi know cannot be true, and in at least one case, the person was outright lying. Of course, since they didn’t post a name, it’s kind of difficult to have a conversation about it.
Ok, Paulette. Last time. I’m talking about the references to actual, specific incidents on that blog, as well as Gabe’s actions (illegalities of the swinery) that started the whole thing. I don’t think you/I can assume anything about the posters, especially whether they know him or not.
Clearly, you and I are never going to agree on everything. Gabe is a talented cook, I’ve eaten his food, it’s good. But there is this other side to him that is actually a danger to him. But I know you won’t agree with that statement. I think we can all agree that whatever the cause, people are out of work, and that itself is very sad right now.
In any case. The man’s taking his licks now. Hopefully, he’ll learn from all of this and continue to grow. You’re clearly a loyal friend, and he’s lucky to have you.
Peace.
I loved taking classes from CC and learned so much over the years - It has been truly amazing. That said, I also provided feedback on business issues which pretty much fell on deaf ears. But you know what - big deal. It was Gabe’s choice and right as a business owner to decide what he wanted to act on and if he wanted to discard my feedback, that is absolutely fine by me. I don’t feel that he owed me any action, and since I was upfront with him also don’t feel I let him down as a friend. I am sure he will learn from his mistakes as we all have at one point or another in our lives - its part of being an adult, and all he needs to do is take accountability and then move forward. I hope that he can learn whatever lessons are needed from this experience, and get it together to come back even stronger. Best of luck Gabe in the future!
I completely agree with you, TM - he was a great chef with great ideas, but sometimes you have to follow the rules. Of all the businesses that I’ve heard about that have shut down, I’m the least surprised by this one, though it disappointed me the most. I really enjoyed my cooking classes at CC, but they could’ve done some things differently and made it out okay.
Sorry to see the business go.
Not sure why bankruptcy (legal bankruptcy) isn’t the choice they’re making here.
That’s the appropriate way to wind down a business with unresolved debts. if they want to pay some of the debts they can affirm those debts and not have them discharged in the bankruptcy.
And if the building is going to be condemned or closed, what good is the swinery taking over the lease? is “the swinery” even a business at this point?
I’ve taken several classes at CC over the years and really enjoyed them. My interactions with Gabe and Heidi were always pleasant and professional, and I was surprised to read some of the negative comments. I’m very sorry to think of people out of jobs.
There are at least 2 sides to every story and it would not surprise me if the city bureaucrats looked extra hard to ensure compliance once Gabe came on their radar. However on the other side, flouting lack of compliance (publicizing Gypsy and talking about smuggling cheese in a child’s diaper) is not a good way to gain their favor and cooperation. And they do ultimately hold the cards. So you’re going to poke sticks at them, then you have to expect to follow the regs with meticulous adherence to every requirement.
In retrospect instructors turned over with some frequency (I figured it was just the way of the culinary world, but perhaps that was symptomatic of other issues.)
I hope that lessons were learned and with time and reflection CC can someday schedule classes again. There are still cooking skills I want to master!
I had signed up for a private class with Gabe months in advanced. It was to be a fun pre-wedding event with friends. I was informed the day before the class that Gabe was way too sick to be giving the class and would have to reschedule. Since most of my friends who would be taking the class with me were in from out of town, this would not have worked. We later read in many media reports that Gabe was cooking at a much higher profile event that same night. We asked for a refund and never received a cent! He is a liar, a thief, highly unprofessional, and got what he deserved.
I have Met Gabe and think he’s very nice. I think one reason that he is so polarizing is the very emotional letters he sends to the media that aren’t very logical. For me it was the fact that he accused someone of being a traitor to Gypsy and exposing it which was absurd. Gypsy was on every media outlet including TV. Then there was his thing with Swinery where he lied to the Health Department about using an approved commercial kitchen. Gypsy was one thing but curing meats (especially the natural way without nitrates and preservatives) can be very dangerous and people can get very sick or die if things are done improperly. It is not hard to see why people are upset with him. Also he tried to use his charm to get out of refunding people who have already payed for his cooking classes. The letter said he doesnt have enough “time” to do the classes himself? That doesn’t make sense. If he’s keeping the building to use for the swinery there’s no reason why he can’t do the final classes himself with help from his wife and volunteers selected from his many adoring fans. The fact that he thinks that he can decide how to divide the remaining money to be paid out is incredibly naive. He’s practically inviting a lawsuit. I doubt he’s doing any of this on purpose so I just feel bad for him.
Brandon:
Just wanted to clarify a couple things. I’ve take Charcuterie classes at CC, and Gabe is very insistent that if you are curing and aging meats, you must use nitrates and nitrites. None of the cured meats they sell are advertised as “preservative free.” The reason their bacon is so popular is that they are buying higher quality pork and treating it right.
With regards to the final classes, I do think its unrealistic for them to be able to finish everything out. There’s a tremendous amount of prep that goes into a class, and organizing a volunteer army in no time doesn’t seem realistic. He didn’t just site the time issue; there was also the issue of purchasing the materials needed for the classes.
His decision to choose how the money gets apportioned seems odd, but I doubt he’s inviting a lawsuit. Most of the classes were less than $100, and I don’t think many people will drag him into small claims court just for that.
Collin:
Very good points… I stand corrected.
This fire sale in nothing more than desperate people trying to liquidate the assets they have left before their creditors and lawsuits get to them. CASH ONLY?
BTW - Don’t assume that everyone is owed less than $100. I for one had much more credit due to cancelled classes and in one case an overcharge. I would take some nice knives and supplies in exchange, that might be a more fair way to do it than asking the same people that are owed money to come to the sale and pay cash
Since classes were paid with credit cards, you can contact your credit card company and ask for a chargeback for services paid for and not delivered.
I feel really sorry for them in the sense that look at their life: no money, no jobs, probably no place to live, and a million people who hate them and an angry mob looking for money. A CASH SALE TO THE PUBLIC UNDER THESE CIRCUMSTANCES!!!!! I WOULDN’T WISH IT ON ANYONE.
I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO CONNECTION TO THIS STORY EXCEPT THAT I STUMBLED ONTO IT A MONTH AGO AND HAVE FOLLOWED IT RELIGIOUSLY. IT IS ABSOLUTELY FASCINATING.
jd, your compassion is great. But Gabe did this to himself. Actions have consequences, as he is learning. This was cumulative: If he hadn’t screwed around with the illegal restaurants and invited such scrutiny, then lied about his Swinery licensing, he would have opened the Swinery in time to float CC. But he had to play the game his way and got caught. Consequence - loss of business, enemies, etc.
For those of you doubting that CC folks could be so bad as everyone is implying, or that there are a handful of sour apples making all of this up: I’ll go on record as having been one of the people who was burned by Heidi and Gabe, after having been one of their earliest cheerleaders.
I won’t go into the details here because it’s old news, but I was personally on the receiving end of multiple instances of dishonest half-truths, one hand not knowing what the other was doing, assorted unprofessional behavior, and outright false statements. I chalked these up to the growing pains of a start-up business run by overworked people under pressure to make everyone happy all the time. I went away disenchanted, but somehow always hoped they’d grown into something resembling professional behavior.
I never returned to CC after a final-straw episode (one that left me embarrassed in front of multiple friends who had trusted me with their money and time), the things I’d read about their expansion made me feel happy that they’d gotten their act together. Until I got the email yesterday from Gabe, and followed it through to Rebekah’s P-I blog, I had no idea that the PR spin wasn’t even close to reality.
I’m sad to discover that they couldn’t pull it together, and mortified that students may be left holding the bag financially, but I can’t say I am shocked.
ps: Rebekah, glad to see you’ve got a new home :)
Thank you, all of you, for the good conversation. I haven’t had to delete a single comment until just now, when a poster tried to put up a remark under another poster’s name. I know it was meant as irony, but, sorry, it violated what there is of the still-under-debate Eat All About It terms of service.
Maurice,
I haven’t posted anything today about any of this. I decided after yesterday that I wasn’t going to feed the trolls.
seems like there is more to this than explained in gabes letter
if cc cant legally operate in the building, how can the lunch counter or swinery do it
sounds like consolidation as cc must have been losing lots of dough
Hmmm… Maybe the person who posted here under your name hasn’t restricted their activities to this blog.
Rebekah, if you want to remove my reactions to that non-post, please do so.
Maurice, if you can let me know where else someone is posting on my name, that would be helpful. I looked at the few other blogs I could think of but didn’t find anything under my name, except one ill-advised response to the person on the Weekly blog who said went way too far in the personal realm and spammed my personal blog. Which made me realize that there is no point in continuing to discuss any of this on the blogs.
Hey Paulette. I’ve been looking at the blogs and I think that others have been as vigilent as Rebekah. There was stuff on the PI blog that’s gone now, and I thought I had seen something else under your name on the Weekly, but it’s not there now.
It’s sad that this happened. You’re clearly passionate in your convictions and even if people don’t agree, they should be respectful.
Have a great weekend.
Peace
Rebekah, well done. A big part of why I quit commenting and even looking at comments at your past employer’s site was because the trolls ran unchecked. I think you’re striking a good balanced and I’m riveted by the passion of both sides of this guy.
I mean “balance” not “balanced.” Also, I think this guy is a natural for Top Chef. Drama, drama, drama!
Maurice, thank you. And this is why I doubt the veracity of the anonymous posts. One of those posters (who attacked me for defending my friend) has decided to go after me, and apparently posted these comments pretending to be me after I deleted a series of his/her insane comments from my blog. Someone (who I might never had met) has a very outsized determination to hurt me and/or Gabe and Heidi, and by stooping to such an immature level and pretending to be someone else, proved to me and those who know us all that nothing they have to say holds any water. And this is why I don’t believe the anonymous comments. They don’t match the reality of the people I know; but at least one of the commentors has shown themselves to be really detached from reality.
No one is attacking you paulette. What I have seen written here are facts pertaining to Gabe and Heidi. We have past employees who attest the bad treatment they received from Gabe. We have past clients who relate stories of being lied to and stood up for higher profile events. We have past guest chefs who are still owed money. And we have employees and friends like yourself who stand up for a person you think did no wrong. To attack all these items as anonymous trolling is lazy and infantile.
Paulette, I just have to ask why you also post under “PJ” on just about every food blog when you seem to have such disregard for “anonymous trolls”?
Here’s what I find interesting:
Everybody wants to prove themselves right.
Here’s the deal: There are always 3 sides to every story. Your side, my side, and the truth.
What needs to be understood is that you are all right and you are all wrong.
In everyone, there is some dark, and some light. Poets have been preaching this since long before us.
I’ve been close to CC. And I’ve had some incredible experiences because of my proximity.
But I’ve also been close enough to be burned by the flame. The flickering, deceptively hot flame of the eternal dreamer.
Gabe (and Heidi) likely didn’t set out to hurt anyone. In their minds they only wished to further their world and food view and aesthetic.
But in attempting to realize that dream, the reality is that they lost sight of their ideals, and let many people down at best and lied to and swindled them at worst.
Despite the protests and accusations of “flaming” on various websites, people are venting their opinions on this site and others like this because they’ve been burned as well and have legitimate gripes.
“I’ve met Gabe and Gabe is a nice guy” is not an adequate defense against people who have had a more complete experience.
Gabe has a nice, pleasant personality. No one is disputing that.
Check out the comments on various online articles, both locally and nationally. You will find that the majority of them do not have the heated back and forth that any post with the keywords “Gabriel Claycamp” or “Culinary Communion” seem to have.
There is a reason for that and those that choose to blindly defend Gabe and Heidi and CC need to realize this. These comments were not spawned in a vacuum.
And those who have been drawn in by the seductive flame of Gabe and CC only to ultimately be burned need to realize that it is time to let go. Gabe has received his just desserts (pun intended) and there is no use to pile on at this point. He has hurt many, but in the end, he has hurt himself, his reputation, and unfortunately his family the most.
And he is paying the price, clever PR aside.
Knowing Gabe and his outsize ambition as I have, I believe he will resurface somewhere in some form. But it will likely be in another town, as I believe he has worn out his welcome here in Rain City.
Interesting comment on the Big Sale over at the Times. One person says that the big ticket items (the touted sub-zero freezer, etc.) were pre-sold, and the rest of the items were overpriced ie: $5.00 for chipped Ikea plates.
Did anyone else reading this go to this sale? I didn’t make it and am curious about how it went.
So . .. I was just catching up to the extreme reactions in these posts and trying to sort out the facts. On a whim I went on over to the Dept. of Health website and found:
http://www.decadeonline.com/insp.phtml?agency=skc&forceresults=1&record_id=PR0077823
This was only 3 weeks ago (!). One wonders what else the state might know about .. .
I’ve lived two blocks from their Beacon Hill location for over 29 years now. I was so happy to see something like this appear in the neighborhood, especially the blighted area that they took over. Now, it is all over…
I guess there was a line around the block for the fire sale. In case you wanted to know, Maurice.