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Olly Olly in come free…
In the interest of fairplay – in a local soap opera of historic, tabloid TV news proportion – I bring you the following message from the jazz club known as Jardine’s just off the Country Club Plaza:
Come and get it!
That’s right, as reported here last week, Jardine’s owner Beena Raja has her checkbook at the ready and wants to settle up with members of her now-former wait staff. Including the pair that were fired, the manager who resigned and the dozen or so others who vanished into thin air.
"I want to pay all of the employees," Raja says. "I went back through my records and I want to pay them today."
Just one problem…
"I don’t know how much," Raja says. "I need to get that from my (ex) manager and I will meet with them somewhere besides Jardine’s and I’ll have a lawyer there and I will pay them. But I need to know how much, including the tips."
To that end, Raja has sent messages and attempted to contact the manager, who resigned after she walked in on employees at 4 a.m. drinking illegally after hours at the club Thanksgiving morning.
"But he did not respond," Raja says. "I have not heard back from any of them. I’m waiting to hear and I want to settle today. I have all of my records. The other person I need to settle with is Dave Stephens and I’ll take that up with him."
Raja reopened Jardine’s Monday by completing a commitment to KC Confidential and hosting its Holiday Wilding It remains open for business with a full staff, musicians and a growing calendar of dates as Raja fills in for acts that cancelled..
Hearne, your writing is so fantastic, almost to the point of being unbelievable! These people must reeeeally not be wanting for ANY money at all if they are actually dodging Beena’s ever so gracious calls for money to be picked up during this holiday season! They must be completely ignoring her calls for payment… Either that,or this is a biased piece of hack “journalism” that everyone can see through. Hearne, you’re not fooling anyone and neither is she.
can we post the money owed to u
Fantastic, huh? One employee already called Beena the day after my story last week in which she vowed to pay everybody off within two weeks. He wants to get paid. The mother of another staffer messaged me that her son really liked Beena and was bewildered by the turn of events.
You seem to have a dog in this fight, so I don’t know where you’re coming from. So how about I clue you in?
Jardine’s is open again for business and in my opinion the owner is highly unlikely to go on record as wanting to pay everybody off if she didn’t intend to. You think she’s going to violate labor laws for some small sum of money?
Try giving it a little more thought.
Sure, go ahead. But that would be zero.
We don’t need to load the comments section up with people commenting and then congratulating themselves. The comment’s right there, if you think it’s funny, rock with it
Great comment Nadia
I can do this all day Hearne, I have the time.
I dont think that joint will make it…
sorry…after 3 stories on local news…all the hassles …all the b.s. the employees went thru…
all the bad publicity…i can’t see this place staying open very long. Now that it’s back open i imagine
that people will still think its closed. Or they can bring back a bunch of old female crooners…be interesting
to see who plays there. anyway..too much bad p.r……the odds are this
place won’t stay open too long. When you treat people like that…it all comes back to haunt them.
Too bad…hate to see another place close down but thats the business world.
Hearnes stories showed there are some very bad deceitful lying people in this town. His stories
helped us and now we know who to patronize and who not to do business with.
thanks hearne…you did a fantastic job (lol)
The fox 4 story was seen by about 120,000 people..and hearne check all your drinks and food…i think you really ruffled some feathers
with the service industry in this town. I’d eat a lot of microwave dinners at home for a while.
I was in the food industry years ago and if someone made us mad there were all kinds of things that was done
to their food. You have made all the servers in kc mad.
But thanks for the story. It was like a soap opera. Hope the people get paid quickly.
And tony really blasted you on this whole episode.
Harley = Figures
Harley, why am I not surprised to know you would “do all kinds of things” to someone’s food that made you mad? For someone that likes to question EVERYONE else’s character, ethics, etc., you revealed exactly who you are. Is there a bigger chickenshit, passive-aggressive, immature or total pussy move than doing something to someone’s food? What a fucking tool/loser.
Your confession is all anyone ever needs to know about you.
“”Just one problem…”” “and theres the rub”
hehehe….. reminds me of what my good ole grand pa would sometimes say…..
“and theres the rub”
more shenaigans
Why are you writing ‘come get it’? Why are u going along with the beena bs? Now its ‘I want to pay you but I don’t know the amount! – thought she said it was less than 800. And who has a lawyer to pay back small amounts to employees? On money owed!She’ll have some bs release document to sign first. Don’t do it! And dave stephens has not been paid! This woman has assulted employyees. Just pay them beena. No strings!
And nadia is unbelievable drunken incoherent babling in the middle of the night. Wonder who that could be?
I’ll bet you do!
Eh, when you don’t have the sources, you gotta blast someone. I can tell you there’s no one I know who sucked down more free drinks and free dinners at Jardine’s the past two years. Interesting.
Easy sis, the manager was in charge of paying people and all she wants to do is confirm the amounts with him and move on. I’m sure they’ll work it out fine. They want to get paid and she wants to move on.
actually i didnt say the food was going to be
adjusted. That was the several people who worked at jardines or friends of thers who said it would
be. I don’t work in a restauarnt…the people who do in this town have taken exception to hernia and
glazes comments. I was just repeating what they said.
As for hearnes comment…i don’t understand it. He’s continually writing stuff to support his
friends that doesn’t hold water.
Why did she wait so long to pay these people. I think we all know. Hernia..you can’t paint this
pig any other color.
But what she does is give a bad name to all the restaurant people in this town. I talked with a
manager who’s over 6 local restuarants and those people should have been paid immediately.
He figures the broad is broke…which is what everything points to.
She had your money hearne so you had to have the party there.
Otherwise people this is a sad commentary on the people who own that restauarnt. I have never seen
so many people come out who have been screwed…lied to…and cheated. We all hope the place
stays open for the sake of the employees and bands..but my guess is the damage done is so
great to that business that it will struggle.
So whose next hernia to get the kcc ax slashing. I can barely wait. You’ve done a huge disservice to
lots of people over the last 2 weeks….and i don’t think those people are going to forget what you wrote.
Good luck…and DUCK!
12 Days of Christmas
Fill in the blanks you get The Point.
On the first day of Christmas Beena gave to me
My back tips and salary
2nd Day
Two lines of coke
3rd Day
Three shots of Cuervo
4th Day
4 ex-boyfriends
5th Day
5 Piece Drum Set
6th Day
6 Swingers Swinging
7th Day
7 Couples Dancing
8th Day
8 More Excuses
9th Day
9 Stitches In My Forehead
10th Day
10 Dealers Dealing
11th Day
11 Ida Board Tapes
12th Day
12 Grams of Blow!
For a guy who knows so little, you sure do have a lot to say. The owner said within a week that everybody would be paid within two weeks. Now it’s less than a week later and she’s ready to pay today.
Dude, when everybody bails and you have to shut down your club for a week and a half, there are a few things you have to do. I couldn’t even get a call back for more than a week and I has a pre paid party scheduled to go down.
You totally have goosed this piss in the food concept. Starting with Craig. Now I’m the guy bringing the good news that she wants to pay everybody today and you want them to piss in mine?
No wonder you cower behind so many silly, fake names.
You can’t be this naieve
For the owner who was so proud of her bookkeeping before when she claimed to owe less than $800, she now claims to not know how much she owes? Are you going to mention that 4am is only an hour after the restaurant closed? This is the equivalent of being at the office until (gasp) 6 pm. I am sure you have never been at Jardines “illegally” drinking after close. Were these calls to the manager along the same line as the disjointed and angry messages she has been posting on the former employee’s facebook pages at 1:00 and 2:00am? Are the former employees’ lawyers allowed to come too? If so, the turnout might be bigger than your “wilding.” Does this include paying you for the PR services you will provide in responding to this comment?
Screen cap taken.
Why don’t you spend less time making screen caps – like I care – and try making a few phone calls if you want to play reporter. Like the ones I made to Jardine’s staffers – most of whom did not return them. But one did and laid things out for nearly an hour giving me the staffer’s side of things. And I made many to the owner, who did not return calls for nearly a week while I wrote pretty much what everybody has since written about the joint imploding.
Needless to say she didn’t like it.
Thus you, my screen capture obsessed friend, are left to rely on little more than third party information. Including mine. The $800 figure was a hip shot early on before she’d collected herself and had a chance to poke around and try to sort through the mess left behind. A later guesstimate was in the area of $2,000.
As for finding Jardine’s staffers drinking in a locked club at 4 a.m., Dave Stephens show was over at 11:30 p.m. that night. It was Thanksgiving Day at midnight, remember? The bar was supposed to close by 1 a.m. at the latest. Wanna make any more guesses about what did or didn’t go on before you grab a few more screen captures?
The employees were also supposed to pay for their drinks (half price) in a jar behind the bar. Zero money was in it. I have no idea how dramatic the calls to the manager were, but knowing Beena anything is possible. I’ll most definitely give you that.
Did you really just ask if employees were allowed to bring a lawyer to a meeting with another lawyer? You didn’t, did you?
Of course they are. But I’m not sure after paying an attorney there’d be much money left from their Jardine’s earnings.
Look, you’re a waiter and write a waiter blog. I get that. But I’ve covered both sides of this story unlike you. You made up your mind after hearing only one side. And you didn’t even put in a call to try and get the other side. So allow me to give you a, um, tip. Try harder next time if you want readers to consider your writing credible.
There’s no way Beena liked my first report. No comment from her and quotes from a musician and staffer dissing her. Why don’t you take a screen capture of that story and read it in your spare time.
I don’t run a PR business, so there’s no charge. How about you? How much you getting for your single-sided, slanted PR work? Are screen captures extra?
Don’t be Hayden!
Good job rippin ass HC. That was at least a triple sodomy response. Well done!
Chuck you may wanna give that trophy back.
Public Relations
For someone who doesn’t run a PR blog, you sure run a hell of a lot of PR trying to respond to every comment that might be interpreted as negative. Always have to have the last word. I actually posted a fairly innocuous comment saying the same thing a few days ago — no name-calling, lies or nothin’ — and lo and behold it was deleted.
The Tips guy obviously struck a nerve with his screen-capture comment. I don’t blame him, because it’s true that you do censor things that you don’t already have some ready-to-post excuse for.
Is it really that hard for you to see that your credibility on Jardine’s is not so great after years of posting tons of promotional stuff for them?
Before any of the reporting / posting you did about the close, you or your staff on KCConfidential posted OVER 110 ARTICLES ABOUT JARDINE’S concerts, promotions, specials, personality pieces, and general puff-ery. Think I’m exaggerating? It’s all in your archives: http://kcconfidential.com/search.php?searchbox=jardine%27s&page=1 .
Hmmm… wonder why people are skeptical that you are running a PR and not a reporting game here. I dare you to show me any other venue that has received anything close to comparable promotion here on this site.
You can delete this, since it is your site, after all, but I’d prefer to hear your side of things. Why so much coverage of this place if you don’t have some kind of personal or financial interest in the place?
Do you really think people are buying it?
Do you honestly think anyone who has followed your coverage of this feels that you are trying to tell both sides of the story? Just because she wasn’t happy with the original post does not mean that you accurately told the employees’ side. You did contradict her “repairs” sign, but you did very little to tell the story of what happened. You have followed it up with several very biased storied that reflected well upon her. Do you honestly think you have given equal time to both parties? If she wouldn’t speak to you, the news cameras, the journalists that wrote up the story, or the former employees, do you really think she was going to talk to me? I am at least willing to admit that I took a side on this issue. You have clearly taken a side, but refuse to admit it or did I miss where you told the hour long tale you were told?
I will leave pretending to be a journalist to you. I do have a side in this fight. I think anyone who has read any coverage of this story beyond yours knows that it is the right side. I told it in an incredibly measured way. I never said her name, mentioned the substance abuse stories I was offered, I didn’t run the story of alleged assault that Fox 4 ran with. I haven’t told most of the stories I have been offered. It is a very clear cut situation when you look at it and don’t have a vested interest in trying to cover for an advertiser and friend. You have clearly taken a side as well, I don’t envy you for having to find a way to spin your side.
I wouldn’t have to screen capture anything if comments didn’t keep disapearing around here. I know it is annoying to have to respond to those who point out your bias rather than just deleting them. Such are the problems that come with being “unbiased.”
Harley = Oral Diarrhea
Good God, Harley. Buy some punctuation, a dictionary and possibly some Ritalin. Trying to weed your way through one of your grammar-murdering posts is exhausting.
Wow, you admit you didn’t even try to call her because you assumed she would not take your call? So you merely went with the one side? Classy.
Look David, when only one side of the story is getting out, somebody has to try and the get the other out. Otherwise there’s zero balance. If I wasn’t able to draw out what her lawyers asked her not to talk about, all there would be is your and my initial stories bagging on Beena.
Funny how that works, isn’t it?
And I confirmed that the staffers were inside drinking illegally and not paying for it from three independent sources. A dude who worked at but has now left Jardine’s, the owner and the hairdresser that was with her when they returned that night.
Funny how you dodge specific details like that when they don’t serve your purpose. But you don’t seem to mind pulling a couple of them out of context when they suit you. People get fired for doing what those servers were doing. But the best you can offer is questioning me if I’ve ever done the same. Gone into somebody else’s bar and drank up their booze without paying and nobody knew about it? The answer is no.
As for my having a vested interest, it’d be far easier and probably safer to just stay out of all this. My vested interest as you put it has been on life support ever since this story broke. I haven’t even been into Jardine’s except to pick up or make a drop for a very few minutes in well over a year.
And I can’t give equal time to the other parties if they don’t return calls. I have some of their cell numbers, but they stopped returning my calls the minute I allowed the owner’s side of the story to begin to be told.
As for pretending to be a journalist, I have 16 years writing and reporting at the top news organization in town. And not just writing columns, but news stories for the front page and in every section of the paper but the opinion section. I also ran and built up the Pitch from a record store rag into a full fledged alternative publication. I currently write for a news weekly and a local magazine.
That said, I’m sure you’ve waited lots of table.
Most of what I write on KCC are columns embedded with news and opinion. Similar to what I did in the Star. In column writing you are allowed to include your viewpoint unlike a straight news story.
So don’t worry about me having to “spin” my side. I can’t believe your head is still on the way you’ve been spinning your one-sided, under reported efforts.
But all in good fun right?
Remember, for every person who resigned or walked out of Jardine’s there’s a job waiting for someone else who wants and needs it. Capture that
I think you need to redo your search and look a little closer, but I’ll answer you. One, it’s by far the top jazz club in town. Two, it’s in a very prominent location. Three, depending on who was there, the stature of the artists like Marilyn Maye and Karrin Allyson, the coverage would default to them.
And finally, some of the people that have commented on this topic sure seem to be ultra sensitive. Could it be that you’re either one of or associated with the “Jardine’s 15”?
OK I just took a look as you advised and here’s the answer to your question. But first I’d like to know, how much time do you have on your hands? You must have one helluva hard on to wade thru the KCC clips files.
Ok, so 110’s the number, huh? Well, 50 of those range from incidental calendar mentions in Mark Edelman’s jazz calendars, to concert heads ups by Matt Donnelly, Brian McTavish’s Marilyn Maye review, 14 blowjobs of Dave Stephens and Lucky Deluxe by Tony and the nine stories pertaining to the current confusion.
We have had quite a few writers who – independent of one another – have reviewed or previewed shows and/or had mere mentions – myself included – over a three year period where several writers write several stories 365 days a year.
Top jazz club in town, top artists, an entertainment-oriented Web site, do the math.
But I think you may be on to something. I feel a conspiracy coming on. Good catch!
sure
Thanks for taking the time to reply. Not associated with the “Jardine’s 15” (silly name that overpoliticizes people getting fired) just someone pointing out why your credibility might not be the same with a site you’ve written about extensively vs. something neutral like, say, The Beaumont. Having dated the owner, posted about the place almost every week, surely you can see how “conflict of interest” might come into play… I wouldn’t even care about running promotion for a friends’ place, but all the damage control you’re running for her (as well as being the only outlet she’ll talk to) definitely makes it look like you have something to lose by them going under.
As for how much time I have on my hands, you do know you have a search window on the site, right? It takes all of 3 seconds to locate it, type in Jardine’s and copy the link. (Heck, that alone probably accounted for a few hundred of your 25,000 daily hits!)
Kinda crowded in Hearne’s Woodshed.
My favorite comment on this story so far, has been Harley talking about his time as a Salvation Army Bell Ringer.
Holy Christopher “More Cow Bell” Walken, I bet Harley is just wearing the fuck outta that bell.
He has gotta have extra bells.
There are probably some minor injuries, as bells crack and finally fail, exploding during the frightening and frenetic paroxysm that is Harley “At His Bell!!!”
One, we have a relationship with the Beaumont, make no mistake. And with the Uptown, Midland and most concer promoters. We / I have never come close to writing about Jardine’s every week. The point being that when several writers are writing for three years all 365 days, there are going to be lots of incidental mentions. Especially when you’re the top jazz club in town, have many of the top artists and its run by a local celeb.
The money involved here wouldn’t even cover Greg Hall’s former three-figure monthly salary. Personally I wrote about Jardines and / or Beena just as often in the Star when no money changed hands at all. Again, because it’s the top jazz club in town and she’s a high profile player.
If there’s such a big conflict, how come I bagged on her like everybody else when I broke the story? Speaking of breaking, have you ever broken up with someone? If anything the conflict of interest most people would suspect of me is that I was gunning for her and why was I always bagging on her.
Most of the employees there have never even seen or met me, except for the older ones who haven’t seen me other than maybe for a split second in well over a year.
So you can drill down all you want to but don’t do it half ass. Note how many mere calendar mentions were in Mark Edelman’s byline, etc. etc.
I guess it’s human nature to wonder and suspect, and that’s fair. But you’re missing the forest here trying to count all of the tree leaves.
The bottom line is this is a big story and no way I’m not going to cover it. For the time being, I’m on good enough terms with the owner to get some insights and details nobody else is getting. Tony doesn’t even try generally. He seldom reports, he picks a side, digs in and then plays out his hand.
Pretty much every story I’ve written so far has brought new information to the table. And I’ve got two more stories that I think readers are going to find very interesting.
Excuse me ,…. but….
is it really that big of a story……
I played in Kansas City for years,.. only got to “sit in” at that “club. I will give you was a pretty “high profile” establishment. but what does “Club closes, Owner fires staff, Musicians loss another stage” have to do with all the personal attacks I see flying back and forth here ??
Everybody wants to get some kind of “two cents” in here… .I have been out of KC for 6 years, but I expect to be back again in about a year. Will there still be places that musicians can perform at that will pay them a reasonable stipend for the years of education and practice that it took to attain a certain skill level.
The same may be said of well skilled wait staff. When I get good service I tip accordingly. however if I see that the owner/manager is not a responsible person or treats their staff and/or musicians with something that might resemble respect I wouldn’t be back
I am sorry to see this happen to all who are involved my sincere regrets. I have talked to a few of my “business associates” that are still in Kansas City and have drawn my own conclusions. None of which will change the events that transpired.
chuck..you daughter works
on the plaza? visual manger.. Nice to know. merry christmas…
and please…your comedy attempts fall really short.
Good that she didn’t take after her mom.
Drinking After Hours
What happened when Beena came to work and found her employees drinking? Why didn’t she fire those employees on the spot?
Hearne hung with his own (skinny) rope
“Why don’t you spend less time making screen caps – like I care – and try making a few phone calls if you want to play reporter. Like the ones I made to Jardine’s staffers – most of whom did not return them.”
In these two sentences, Hearne basically admits (1) he is only pretending to be a reporter, and (2) nobody wants to talk to him.
Anyone paid yet?
Just curious if anyone can report whether they have or haven’t been paid per the headline above? Seems like the longer Beena takes to pay people the more likely the excuse that lack of funds due to all of the bad publicity will be used. In other words, it will be the fault of the former employees if they don’t get their money (that should have already been in the bank; delayed only by a change in accounts). This is, of course, pure speculation and only an assumption based on a report that she was still just waiting for one final document. If everyone already has their money, that’s awesome.