Roy Mitchell, jr...a good man.

Cagney's lost a loyal friend this week, Roy Mitchell, jr of Durham. He and his sweet gentle wife Millie, probably dined with us 3 or 4 hundred times over the years. Always quick with a smile, a witty comment, a hearty laugh, and an UNC coaching suggestion, good folks like Roy and Millie made owning a restaurant joyful. Roy had an outstanding professional career, but what we remember best is how he treated others. Our warmest thoughts go out to Millie and the children.
Thanks for the memories Roy.
Dino, Dino, Danny, Michelle and all the Cagney's staff.file:///Users/dinothompson/Pictures/iPhoto%20Library/Originals/2009/Jan%201,%202009/IMG_0025.JPG

Ann and Albert Thornton

I met Ann and Albert Thornton maybe 40 years ago. Eating at my pancake house, playing on the beach, then years later serving them and their wonderful family in Cagneys and Flamingo Grill. Albert walked in opening day May 1976. introduced himself and became the first customer who ever dined at Cagneys.

It was my pleasure to watch the wonderful Thornton family grow from adorable, adventurous tots to beautiful people. Ann passed away suddenly last week. A classy, stylish and great lady and loving mother. Words to soothe loss always sound inadequate.

Carolyn, Dee, Greg...we remember your mom and your dad with smiles and respect.

Good people as we say down south.

Can I Get an Apology?

It's a New Year. What do we wish for? We wished for 2011 to end and we wished for an apology from somebody, from anybody for causing this mother of all downturns.

An apology from...

1. The completely oblivious congressional and banking committees.
2. The mortgage-bungling-bundling brokerage houses.
3. The mealy-mouth FDIC.
4. The liar-loaners and the get-a-loan liars.
5. The pork-addicted congress who dig passing laws that don't effect them.
6. The see-no-evil regulators.
7. Every Presidential administration since Truman.
8. The last five treasury secretaries.
9. The fill-in-the-blanks appraisers.
10. The ponzi-schemers.
11. The endless GOP/Dem pissin contest.
12. The toothless, testicle-less SEC.
13. The sub-prime factories like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac who are now monkeyed under a manure load of mangled mortgages.
14. The ethanol boondoggle.
15. Every egghead economist with a title.
16. From any congressman who served during the even-odd gas rationing days and swore on a stack of Guideon bibles they'd solve this energy crisis.
17. And for whoever invented Credit Default Swaps and Collateralized Debt Obligations and every other snake-oil commodity, I want an apology and a bumpy bunk in San Quentin.

And I'd like an especially glib apology from all the TV talkin savants who kept us posted on the Kardashians bra sizes, Charlie Sheen's latest rant, The Donald's comb-over, Tebowing, Gaga's girdles, Bieber's bowlcuts, Ashton's tweets and Simon's t-shirts...but completely missed the oncoming economic tsunami.

Can't someone somewhere just man-up and say "My bad! Not only did I not say anything but I helped cause this mess."

Tim Timberlake family

It was our honor to have the fantastic family of Tim and Teen Timberlake at Cagney's this Saturday to celebrate their patriarch, wisdom giver and still shoot-his-age golfer!

It was our honor to have the fantastic family of Tim and Teen Timberlake at Cagney's this Saturday to celebrate their patriach, wisdom giver and still shoot-his-age golfer!

So You Wanna Open a Restaurant?

Excerpt from Dino's new book:

Like I said…lousy winters in towns with an ocean view are just part of the annual rollercoaster rectal ride. But there’s gonna be entire years when you’re stretched thin as Stein’s corn beef. When your exposed derriere is hangin half over the dempsey dumper. When you’re just one long ticket time away from being another indie restaurant casualty.   

   My ole man waded through 20 or 30 funky years. Like a one-leg man on an economic hamster wheel he went in and outta business a dozen times and never flinched. But he never drank the Kool-aid, he was a different breed of cat. 

   He smiled and survived…Hookworm epidemics, polio epidemics, hurricanes of every category, breech births, breach of contracts, drawbridge failures, power failures, grease fires, botched ectomies, highway construction, outbreak of war, food walkin out the back door,boycotts cause we served black patrons, re-cessions, de-pressions, gas shortages, stagnation, hyper inflation, apron rash...he even endured mom crashing her dyna-flow Buick through the wall of the restaurant and his mother-in-law opening right across the street with the same menu using money his wife Angie had squirreled from him. But like I said, he was a different breed of cat.

   So git ready Mister or Miss meter-dee cause the suck-egg economy is gonna getcha. Sure as your béarnaise is gonna break at 8pm, the shorts are gonna getcha sooner than later. Yea, the food biz offers a million ways to be stoned like a biblical whore. 

So before you jump in with both slip-proof feet, ask yourself. Self, can I financially weather one entire shitty year? Can I bleed money all year, pay my staff, cover my rent, expenses and come back to fight another day? 

When Hurricanes Blow

HURRICANES: We've only been nailed twice Hazel 1954 (closed for almost a year) and Hugo 1989 (closed for 3 weeks), we've had over 25 near-miss storms which have threatened us and turned north. On many near misses we had tree, roadsign, window or rooftop damage, and of course power outages and severe beach erosion even though we were on the good side quadrant. Here's a few quick thoughts....

OUTAGES: On many of the near misses we had power outages from a few hours to days. Entire inventories were lost on at least five occasions. Tens of thousands of dollars. If you have a generator, safely ready it for perishables.

WEEK BEFORE STORM: Order perishables lightly as possible.

Cancel unnecessary orders.

Move some unneeded cooler items to freezer now to get them solidly frozen.

Freeze some large containers of water in your freezer to lengthen food survival time.

Leave some frozen containers in freezer and put others in walk-in cooler to give you a few more hours of safe temp.

Once power is off, don't open freezer of cooler.

OUTSIDE BUILDING: Common sense reminds us to move or tie down anything which can fly thru your windows. They say taping windows doesn't help.

Check flat roof for flyables like empty tar buckets, etc.

Trim branches which rub against or near window, roof eave, neon, roadsign, etc.

INSIDE: Any valuable decor painting, stained glass, etc, near a large window might be moved further back into the restaurant.

CASH: Remove cash from safe and leave cash drawers open to view.

ELECTRIC: Probably best to shut off all AC units. In and out power surges can damage compressors.

DISCONNECT GAS: Ask gas company if you have main disconnect. Ask how to handle gas lines.

WHERE TO GO: If its heading your way and there's a evacuation. Know where you, family, staff and pets will go. Have cash on hand and medications filled.

STAFF: Ask your staff (get cell numbers) where they will be, here or out of town. In the event it misses you'll want to re-open soon as possible.

Tell them what you plan to do and exactly when you plan to reopen if passes safely. You might not have enough key personnel to open even it's a miss.

INS POLICY: Read your policy now. Deductible? Wind and hale? Awning coverage? Roadsign? Food spoilage? Business interruption? Will (BI) pay your staff if you're damaged? Ask agent for details today. When storms are out there it’s too late to buy coverage but you'll know what to expect for yourself and your staff.

COMPUTER & POS: Do you have offsite backup? Do you have a backup you can take with you? Ask your computer company whether you should unplug entire system. In and out power can cause problems.