“I don’t get it,” Jason said, not really in the mood for this discussion.“You’ve done fine with me coming in and out as I choose for years, Steven.Greenblatt’s is your baby, your interest.You take the lead in it.”
“But to make it great, to make it better, I need you.”
Jason sighed.There wasn’t going to be enough of his brother’s brunch food to get him through this conversation.“You have my yes votes for whatever you want to do; you know that.I don’t understand why they need more than my approval.Hasn’t that always been the case?”
“It has,” his brother said, bringing the bagels to the table, placing them around the smoked fishes and spreads.“And I appreciate it.But that’s not what’s going on here.”
“Then tell me,” Jason said, regretting the words immediately.“What?”
Steven sighed.“Dad is coming in and the New York family want ameeting.”
The tone made Jason feel like he was in a cross between a movie set on the Lower East Side in the old days and an old classic of a different culture.“You sure our family business is just knishes?”he said with a laugh, attempting to defuse the tension in his brother’s voice.“Come on, Steve.Seriously.”
“Seriously, Jason.You need to take this seriously.I can’t do what I want with the business, and that includes the shop in Briarwood, if you’re not there, demonstrating…whatever it is you’re doing, can be considered an active part of the business.”
Jason wondered whether he was living in a twilight zone.“Haven’t I said that you have whatever support I can give you?My vote, even more than that if you need.But what do you mean active part of the business?”
“Before the New York family signs off on us for real, they need to know exactly what you’re up to.Because all of that ‘jet-setting’ you’re doing…don’t get mad—Dad’s words not mine—needs to ‘create a positive impact on the business’.”
And if anybody had ever felt more ‘hit by a truck’ with information before, that would be him right then.Which meant he had to dig out of it.“First of all, I thought they’d signed off on us already.”
“I thought so too,” Steven said, “otherwise I never would have opened Briarwood.But that’s neither here nor there.”
“But that’s the whole point.You thought they’d signed off.So, what brought this on?”
“Family doesn’t have to play by any legal rules, especially when there apparently haven’t been any legal documents involved.”
Which set off bells and alarms to Jason, but that was another question for another day, and another person.But this was now, and he had to untangle the mess that seemed to be emerging in the intersection between business and family.
And unluckily for him, his brother had become the deliverer of bad news.
“So,” Jason finally said, trying to get a hand on what his brother wasn’t saying, “suddenly we’re at the end of the transition period, and instead of just inspecting what you’re doing in the business, they’re looking for information about what I’m doing outside of it?”
Steven nodded.“You got it.”
“What I want to know is why,” Jason replied.“What inspired this?What catalyzed this whole…shebang?”
“Well,” Steven said pushing a paper across the table, “it’s this.”
The paper Steven passed in his direction was gray and looked like an oversized magazine, with bold headlines that were just this side of a tabloid.A single column.
NEPO-BABY CHEF JASON GREENBLATT MAKING HEADLINES FOR HIS CONNECTIONS AND NOT HIS FOOD
Jason Greenblatt, a member of the family that owns Greenblatt’s Knishes, has been moving and shaking.Reports are the chef, the younger brother of Steven Greenblatt, who has been touted as the next-generation head of the family business, is selling his services to the highest bidder.And boy has he sold high.Is his food a party in the kitchen or is he just partying in the sun all winter long?
The photos that accompanied the cut piece of newsprint were taken in rare moments when he wasn’t in the tiny makeshift kitchens he’d put together, on a movie set or TV set with Sam Moskowitz or backstage at a concert venue with David Streit; or even using broken-down equipment in need of major repairs, if not replacement, to feed people who desperately needed a good meal.He was wearing a shirt that stuck to him, standing under sunlight, guzzling down as much water as he could after spending hours in chef’s gear.
It was clickbait, gossip, and complete bullshit.“What the hell?”
The gust of wind that emerged from his brother’s mouth could have caused a tornado.“Yep,” Steven replied.“The New York family has concerns about chefs who aren’t stable, people who havevagabondlifestyles, especially those who are tied to the business.”
Vagabond.
Nobody used that word anymore, unless their ideas were stuck in the era that word was created.
Apparently, the New York family was that kind of family.
“You mean they think my behavior might reflect badly on the name?That I might do something to put the business in the newspaper for the wrong reasons?”
