Breaking News – Russian Tea Room

Are you sitting?  Seriously.  This just in…Chef Gary Robins has left The Russian Tea Room.  It seems the legendary haunt has suffered yet another setback.  No, it’s not another less than sparkling restaurant review though I might remind you that I rather enjoyed my supper under the red Christmas bulb-clad chandelier.  Alas, Gary Robins will sadly no longer be dishing out savory nibbles of foie gras pelmeni.

Gary Robins resigned on Monday.  Robins laments, “I was disheartened at leaving and hope the RTR is successful.  Also one of my sous chefs who had been with me for three  years was wrongly dismissed.”  He continues, “After seeing sales dropped, I was too expensive to keep on the payroll.”

A Russian Tea Room bartender (who wishes to remain anonymous) reports to Restaurant Girl: “Gary did not storm out of the kitchen Monday night  – in fact he essentially parted ways with the owners the previous Friday after meetings in which they demanded that he cut his kitchen almost staff in half and cut food cost dramatically by using inferior ingredients.  In the previous week they had already fired his primary sous chef.  Mr. Robins resigned on Monday or thereabouts.  He is not one to sacrifice quality and he knows how to run a kitchen well enough to know that there was no way he was going to be able to cut back.”

No word on who will replace him, but I personally look forward to seeing what kitchen the gifted Gary Robins will grace next…

Until we eat again,
Restaurant Girl

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