Foobooz - Your guide to food and drink in Philadelphia

  • Neighborhoods

     

  • Features






  •  

  • Tip Jar

    Have a food or drink tip? tips@foobooz.com (AIM:foobooz)

  • Opening Soon

  • Upcoming Events

  • Categories

  • Archives

  • Masthead

    Editor
    Jason Sheehan
    Founder
    Arthur Etchells
    Advertising
    danielle@phillymag.com

  • Fun Things To Do in Philly

  • Subscribe

«
»

Shakeup at Farmers’ Cabinet (Again) (Again)

Posted by Foobooz on July 12th, 2012

Chef Steve Forte is out at Farmers’ Cabinet and we’re hearing he isn’t the only one to quit in what appears to be a bloodbath at the embattled Walnut Street bar.

Photo by Steve Legato

Farmers' Cabinet
1113 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA

    Related Tags: ,

    Related Posts

    This entry was posted on Thursday, July 12th, 2012 at 4:38 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

    • BirdsOfAFeather

      I have observed two type of people work for them:
      1. Fellow Felons, fired from other jobs
      2. Idiots who are too dumb to research the past of these guys before taking a job.

      Look at their lawsuits online, they are bad slimey people in my opinion. They already have several reputable vendors suing them here for unpaid invoices. No need to even look at their prior four failures, take the cash and then make the dash, that’s their way imho

      Lock the guy up again

    • modular

      why is there a 70′s porn star and a guy wearing a dickie sitting at the table?

    • Bronwen

      As long as they don’t take away the yummy beer, i’m only mildly concerned about the food… & the staff seem cool to me.

    • Former employee

      @birdsofafeather u are completely right, the owners are dicks and paychecks bounce frequently there. I’d be surprised if the boilermaker lasts two more months!

    • Brian

      I think Modular has summed up the takeaway of this story.

    • UnpaidSuppliers

      Ask the ex-chef who is still selling them food? In the short time Farmer’s Cabinet has been open their Grainery Corp has outstanding lawsuits due to Julius Silvert $23,645 and Ashley Foods $10,837 and BK Specialty Foods $3,631

      How is a chef supposed to get product when all the suppliers are owed money and refuse to deliver?

      I can get these same beers with better service, better price, better food and better conscience (not supporting deadbeats) at dozens of other restaurants in walking distance.

      Stay away until they pay, no Farmer’s Cabinet for me

    • Cranky Ex-Employee

      @Unpaid… please do tell where you can get these same beers in walking distance. The house brews are available at only 2 locations, and a majority of the draft list is only currently on at Farmers Cabinet.

    • no

      @Cranky Ex-Employee: Tria.

      What do I win?

    • Steve

      Hated Fork and Barrel for it’s inconsistent/expensive food, pretentious staff and over-priced beer. Refused to try Farmer’s Cabinet for the above reasons. I actually dig boilermaker because it’s more affordable and not nearly as pretentious. They should just scrap the high end places and stick to something more simple like Boilermaker

    • Catherine

      No surprise, Matt and Colleen Swartz and Matt Scheller of Center City’s The Farmers’ Cabinet (1113 Walnut St.) have no common decency.

      And #7 their house beers are not very good, I’d give them a “C”. And as far as carrying only beers no one else feels are worth carrying, I guess that’s a strategy but obviously not a winning one, they can’t pay their bills. Any bar or takeout shop could carry any beer these misanthropes carry, your argument is moot. My analysis of them has been proven by their five failures and the two short term pending closures.

      #6 How can they owe over $50,000 at Farmer’s Cabinet already? They spend all credit card receipts on advertising to get overhyped, don’t pay the regular vendors, bounce employee checks and do god knows what with the cash. That’s how

    • HelpingHand

      Any worker who has been stiffed by these guys (or any other restaurant for that matter) should go to Community Legal Services at 1424 Chestnut Street. They provide free legal services to people with low enough incomes (unemployed is definitely low enough) and may be able to help recover some of those lost wages.

    • WHAAAAAA

      Recover lost wages? What? That money is LONG gone. Sorry to the employees but it’s time to get out now.

    • Cranky Ex-Employee

      @No… a quick look at the taplist of both places show that there is no overlap between the tap selection at Farmers cabinet and the tap selection of Tria… so you win nothing for your inability to do the simplest of internet searches. In fact, i feel like you owe me a dollar for my time.

    • Girth Brooks, Esq.

      @ Birds of a Feather: Don’t be a dick. It’s not the staff members’ fault if the owners are assholes.
      @ Steve: The staff at Fork & Barrel were some pretty awesome folks. There were many reasonably priced beers and foodstuffs on their menu. If you are too cheap or too poor to drink anything but PBR, get a second job. Don’t blame other people for your lack of finances.
      @Cranky Ex-Employee: How much are the Matts and Colleen paying you to defend them on foobooz? That’s some weak sauce, dude. Time for you to get a better hobby. And a life.

    • JTA

      Tap Finder shows three beers that are on tap at FC are on at other places, but otherwise they have a”unique” list. This says nothing of the quality of the beer or the place.

    • Jimmy

      I haven’t seen this back and forth before…

    • philwood

      shouldn’t it be (again (again))?

    • Steve

      @ Girth Brooks – $32 for 4 rubbery/bland scallops is where the problem was…trust me, I have more than enough expendable money to spend on quality beer/food. I just refuse to be overcharged for it. Even their “saloon” upstairs at Fork and Barrel was grossly overpriced for beers. Most american craft beers were going for minimum of $7. I can get the same ones elsewhere for 2-3 less.

    • Cranky Ex-Employee

      @Girth… most definitely not an employee. I’d be the first to bitch about high prices, flat beers, food thats not worth it… im just standing up to the people who like to jump in on an argument with no relevant information to add and only add innacuracies.

    • Girth Brooks, Esq.

      I don’t know. I go out to bars to have a good time with my friends, not to look for every little thing that is wrong so I have something to gripe about. I’m not the biggest fan of everything these guys do (as human beings they rank slightly lower than slugs), but having visited all of their spots past and present, there seemed to be price points for everybody. If you want dive bar prices, go to a dive bar. If you’re unhappy with your food, send it back. Don’t be a little bitch about it. Restaurants with a certain type of atmosphere do charge a little more for something you can get elsewhere cheaper. It’s common practice. The biggest problem these guys have is not their pricing or the quality of their food, it’s their egos. They can’t sit still long enough to allow any of their places to enjoy success. It’s always on to the next and the next after that. None of their ventures have closed due to lack of customers. They closed because once Matt and Matt open a bar, they quickly lose interest in it, because they think the grass is always greener over the next hill. They constantly overextend themselves searching for the next big thing, instead of sitting still for awhile and nurturing what they have right in front of them.

    • LowPlaces

      GirthBrooks obviously has an IQ in low places.

      Every one of their places has failed financially because they do not draw enough of a crowd. They do not springboard to a next concept like you want us to pretend. They slither into the next sewer hole they create leaving a wake of financial judgments against them growing larger and larger.

      Thank you for proving once again esq. is the proper abbreviation for clueless douchebag. Take your worthless opinion elsewhere.

    • Lauren

      Girth Brooks sounds more like the Spin Doctors. Here’s the equivalent of what you just wrote Girthy: John Goodman’s problem isn’t that he’s fat, it’s he has A.D.D. and keeps moving on to the next bigger, better diet. If he just stuck with his KFC, Dunkin Donut diet he would be a very thin man by now

    • http://www.lagirlinphilly.blogspot.com sunnyjane

      Over the moon Teresa is gone. She stood around, did ZILCH but brown nose and smooch ass with the owners, and got paid for it. She strutted around all day and night like little miss knows-it-all looking down at us because her a-hole husband was a manager. Good riddance!

    • Girth Brooks, Esq.

      @ LowPlaces: I don’t know which is lower your I.Q. or your knowledge of this situation. Lack of a following has never been the issue with these guys, and it is certainly not the primary reason why any of their businesses has closed. You are either an ex-employee with an understandable ax to grind, or more likely a customer who had a beer once or twice at the Farmer’s Cabinet and now thinks he has the inside track. LowPlaces is a perfect name for you, by the way. Now go crawl back into the gutter from where you came and leave the conversation to the grownups.

    • Girth Brooks, Esq.

      @ Lauren: Apparently the definition of ‘equivalent’ fails you. Your analogy is so far off-base, it is laughable. So, let me help you out. If you plant a flower in your garden, pay attention to it for a few weeks, and then proceed to ignore it, it will most likely whither and die. This is what the Matts do. They open up a bar, are all gung-ho about it, shower it with money and attention, and a short time later, they grow bored and move on to their next venture. They have repeated this exact same scenario more than a few times now. Who knows whether any of their bars would have made it in the long run? They never stick around long enough to find out. They stretch themselves too thin, and rob one place blind to finance and run the next, leaving the old place (and staff and vendors and customers) in the lurch. The two bars they walked away from in Bethlehem continue to do well under new ownership, sticking to a very similar format to the ones Matt & Matt created before they pulled out. It’s not their ideas that suck or even the execution of them (for the most part), it’s their follow-through, or lack thereof.

    • ThunderRolls

      Girth, you continue to prove to be an idiot. People having success do not leave a half million dollars of unpaid lawsuits on their resume. They do not go to jail for felonies. You ignore the most important facts, they fled every business with sheriffs following close behind with court summons.

      They do not have one original idea. Even when copying tried and true formulas they can not run a business long enough to afford their munchkin sized suits.

      You can’t spin the facts Jack and anyone with access to court records can show you the ugly facts. Obviously you are a clueless ambulance chasing online degree esq, i.e. another leech on society 1ike them. Go suck down another warm beer there before they close end of month

    • The Big Ragoo

      Yo, Sunnyjane! That shit is slander and it’s total bull shit! Teresa (and Nick) are amazing! (Not to mention generous, uber-friendly, totally dedicated, and truly professional. Everyone loves them and working for and with them. Foobooz, what’s up letting this libelous crap stay up? Sunnyjane, you are a cunt.

    • jobin1319

      YES!!! This is my favorite! Keep the drama coming! I love reading about the train wreck that is the F-Cab!

    • jobin1319

      YES!!! This is my favorite, Keep the drama coming! I love reading about the train wreck that is the F-Cab!

    • MattSays

      Robert Liccio is the president of the corporation and deserves the blame. He should pay the $50,000 owed food vendors.

    • Shut It

      Apparently The Big Ragoo spent half an hour in a freshman legal class before dropping out.

    • CalamityJane

      Sunnyjane your blog has to be the most pathetic I ever saw. Sorry I clicked on your name to see that travesty. And why is your boyfriend’s head so bloated? Anyhoo… I know why you got evicted, it’s because you are a loser and belong with the Farmer’s Cabinet group. They’ve been evicted five times now

      From your own blog “In other news in the Woodwald house, we’re apartment hunting again, since we found out we’re getting the boot from our perfect apartment” i.e. building owner says “hit the bricks ya deadbeat tramp”

    • RockBottom

      Industry insiders joke working for these guys is the last stop before a McDonalds or a diner. If one of their places is on your resume you can never get an interview at a Starr, Garces, Vetri or other reputable restaurant. Oh well, McDonald’s is hiring if you can get someone to give you a clean urine sample ….

    • Lady Rump Shaker

      Let’s bring the conversation back to what’s really important: how ridiculously smoking hot Jeff Boyle’s ass is.

    • apologiesinadvance

      Wow, thanks, we never heard about that before. Thanks for informing us unwashed rubes.

    «
    »