Steve Forte

As we reported yesterday, chef Steve Forte left Farmers’ Cabinet on Wednesday night–departing for points unknown after just 7 months behind the stoves. And this, of course, set off a storm of speculation, rumors and trash-talk about Matt and Colleen Swartz‘s Walnut Street bar. We heard everything from tales of imminent closure and mountains of debt to stories of bounced paychecks and massive walk-out from the staff.

Some of this is true. Some of it is not. I talked with operations manager Will Pumphrey (who is currently standing in as GM at Farmers’ Cabinet) and while he admitted that there are problems both on the floor and in the offices, a lot of the talk out there right now is “grossly exaggerated.”

So how do things really stand right now at Farmers’ Cabinet?

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