Paradou’s Vadim Ponorovsky on the Warpath

Okay, here's what happened: one of the three night editors at Gawker, Ravi Somaiya, went live around 7am with a post of a leaked, uh, memo from Meatpacking District restaurant owner Vadim Ponorovsky, to Paradou's staff, berating them for not collecting guests' email addresses for the Paradou's online mailer. Sample sentence: "You sit there bitching about how you make no money, remember its because youre fucking lazy motherfuckers. YOU SHOULD ALL BE FIRED IMMEDIATELY!!!!! ALL OF YOU, INCLUDING THE HOSTS!!!!" The post broke 10,000 hits, the rage of the masses ensued. Ponorovsky maybe tried to sneak into Gawker's comments to defend his actions. We contacted Ponorovsky for quote. So did Daniel at Grub Street, and Amanda at Eater. Both posts are worth reading. And here's what he told me.

Do you regret writing the email?
Do I regret that? Yeah. I probably stepped over the line. Do I regret the message? No. As a business owner, I should expect them to do what I ask them to do. No one has been fired or will be fired. That’s not the nature of my relationship with the staff. All of these people who are spouting their venom have no clue as to the nature of the relationship of my staff. They have no understanding of the consequences of their actions. What’s going to happen? My business will decrease. What’s the consequence of that? My staff will make less money. The way Paradou runs: there aren’t many layers. There’s no floor manager or back bar people. The reason we do that is that our staff are responsible people. We don’t micromanage that.

Why did someone decide to leak the email?
Because people are petty. People don’t think. My partner was upset. My wife was upset. But my approach was: I don’t care. I will speak with you exactly. I view profanity as reinforcing adjectives.

Why is the email mailer such an issue with you?
The email collection is strictly voluntary (for customers). It’s not like we’re trying to steal (customer’s) email addresses, their cards out of their wallets. Is it a mandate? I wouldn’t call it a mandate. Is it something we stress? Prior to this, were any quantitative goals set? No.

But could you be more effective without speaking to your staff like this? Was this really the most effective way of getting this done?
Yes. I’ll tell you how I know that: In the two or three months prior to me sending out this email, they weren’t collecting any emails. Since I sent that email, they’ve collected around 200 emails. The emails I’m asking them [to collect] represent less than 10% of the email (addresses) that come into the restaurant. We do not micromanage. We leave the restaurant in the hands of the employees - you see this happen with the mom and pops, not the BR Guests who do have mandates. They don’t collect enough emails, they’re fired. We don’t do that. [Ed. Note: We could not confirm the existence of “mandates” in B.R. Guest restaurants, whereby employees have quotas contingent upon their employment for collecting emails. We’ll update if we do.]

But again, was this really the most effective way to deal with this situation?
Once again, prior to this, you probably had no clue who Vadim Ponorovsky was. I didn’t get in to this business to be on Iron Chef. Before this, I built teams for multinationals of 20-somethings in marketing. They will all tell you that I was one of the better bosses they’ve ever had.

Isn’t this the kind of thing that would further inspire disloyalty? How do you think this is going to effect the relationship you have with your staff?
The relationship I have with my staff? If you asked them, they would probably tell you that I’m not there often. Because I trust them. Several of them have come back to work at Paradou [after leaving].

On the Gawker writer who posted the article, and the emails and phone calls he’s received after the Gawker post went up:
Do these people not have jobs? Do these people not have lives? Why am I so important to them in terms of lashing out?

So, there you have it. Vadim’s perspective. A few notes for the uninitiated:

1. Restaurant owners who aren’t in their restaurants are commonplace. So are the warm relationships those owners have, despite not being around very often, with their staff.

2. It’s true, the service industry, at bare bones, can be a little grittier than its counterparts in regards to the way in which people are spoken to. When you’re running a live show, you need to communicate effectively. It’s not a hard argument to note that this isn’t the way to do it.

3. Vadim spoke at length, was not at all apologetic for what he did, and was more than willing to expound on the issue at hand. This probably isn’t the best idea. Besides the inevitable worker-side support of service industry employees being treated respectfully, regardless of “unique” relationships being detailed—and let’s face it, if Vadim had such a good relationship with his employees that he could speak to them like this without it being an issue, the email wouldn’t have leaked in the first place—and besides the questions of poor labor practices this will raise, Vadim’s restaurant has other pecking holes as well. For example, did you know Paradou has a five-course foie gras menu? Yeah. While David Chang gets harassed for having one foie gras dish on his menu a night, this guy’s serving it five different ways with their own pairings.

Forget animal cruelty, though. People cruelty should probably be dealt with first. This, everyone, is a new step for karma: the lack of anything getting in the way of the upshot besides the “forward” button on an email. Ponorovsky has tried to contact me since I spoke with him, and honestly, I’ve got nothing to say the guy. Maybe it’s unprofessional to report this with perspective instead of under the guise of “just news,” and really, his quotes speak for themselves, but come on, now: this is just bullshit. And as people who love the service industry, and everything else it produces besides the by-products that are people like Vadim Ponorovsky, and as New Yorkers, and as people who understand the need to communicate well, but who also understand the need for compassion: this is just bullshit. Ben, Amanda: Deathwatch this place. These people will find better places to work, starting with whatever takes Paradou’s place.

UPDATE: But wait, there’s more!