Michael Hebberoy is Back
For those who can’t stand the idea of life without news from Mr. Hebberoy, of the late Ripe , I’ll close with this. If you aren’t interested, stop reading here. keep in mind, by reading what follows, you will be participating in what “might be a fairly historic event”.
hello friends
i think this might be a fairly historic event. It might be the first time a major cross section of “the underground food community” or whatever you want to call it have been connected through email.
please read on – there is some info below but also a request for pics and information.
introduction
if we haven’t met my name is michael hebberoy, and about six years ago I started a black market restaurant called family supper (aka ripe) in a portland rental house. things got bigger, and not unlike what happens when an indie favorite signs with a major label – shit blew up and I am now working on various independent projects. the project in question: kill the restaurant (a substantial book endeavor on the underground movement) is well underway. for more info on KTR read below.
what i need from you1. if you have run, or are running an underground restaurant (we need a better name for these happenings) i would love to have menus, various pics, any information you think i might lack. I am in the middle of finalizing the first three chapters of the book and wrapping it up into our final book proposal to secure the publishing contract. in addition to the three chapters we are filming a short dvd that proves the depth and breadth of the underground movement. essentially i am going to lay out all of the pictures i have from around the country in a big white room, scatter menus around, names of establishments, maps with dots, and slowly pan over all of the accumulated information. this dvd will be used exclusively for the purposes of the book proposal and the imagery and menus will not be published in any way shape or form. All photography in the final book will be personally taken by my partner in the project Jeremy Bitterman.
I have hundreds of pics already – but am hungry for more.
you can upload pics and menus and whatever to www.box.net. just email me for password and login information
it is simple and easy to use. or if it is easier send me a cd at the address below…
2. if you know of any underground activity please shoot me over any details. information will not be published without the consent of the practitioners in question. so far I have identified about 75 “establishments” nationwide – and have yet to focus on the south, the midwest, or much of the northeast. I am not creating a tour guide, so no need to worry about locations being unearthed and busted, having run a speakeasy establishment I understand the importance of discretion.
Kill the Restaurant update:
for those of you unfamiliar with this project, kill the restaurant is a in depth chronicle of what has come to be called “the underground food movement”, which is best described as any individual or group that is operating a dining (and sometimes drinking) establishment without the proper consent of the various bureaucratic agencies that govern such things. essentially those that are working off of the radar, “illegal” is not a necessary descriptor as many of the food/liquor/business laws in this country are gray at best.
in addition to the book – a lovely website will also be launched (in a couple weeks) www.killtherestaurant.com – and I will be traversing the country giving lectures at colleges tentatively titled “how to start your own illegal restaurant now…” (thinking the word illegal while not neccesarily an apt descriptor will appeal to college folks).
our publishing contract should be finalized by january and then we will be headed out to capture the stories of about 20 of the leading practitioners in the country. documenting recipes, attending events, photographing every inch of the process, interviewing everyone, drinking heavily and causing much damage to self and country along the way.
this is not a tour guide – identities will be protected, locations obscured, names falsified if necessary – this is an all access pass to the public, a bit of gastronomic voyeurism meant to inspire the next generation of would be underground restauranteurs. the mainstream needs us – it is stale and nearly dead – every craft/every art needs a vital underbelly…
i think that is all for now, but if you do have pics, please upload them, or send them, the more the better…
xo, m.
will someone please show him where the “SHIFT” key is? By the time he gets this book written, the restaurant will be dead.
apollo says
Noooooooooo!!! Can’t this guy shut up? I can’t believe I read this whole thing. Too much cured and smoked turkey in my system… I hope everybody had a happy Gobble Day. I killed the restaurant today, does he want to hear from me>
nancy says
Bet you a nickel the proposal sells, which, b/c the author comes with media creds, will generate further buzz, and ensconce the work/movement/auteur in the pages of the New York Observer and Vanity Fair, for as long as he can deliver. He’ll have to follow up, but it needn’t be with food. So long as he’s good for a column here, a feature there, he will get press. Anyone who cries this isn’t fair is being willfully naive about the media, which needs subjects/topics to write about, and any that arrive young/attractive/smart and talking a good game are grist for the mill. Again, for a while. Look at George Michael.
As for the book itself: I think it’s a cool idea, and nicely presented here, as the restaurants and their creators are allowed to take center-stage, rather than merely the author.
haddock says
Would someone in Seattle please beat Michael Hebberoy’s ass? Unlike indie rock which at it’s worst can just bore you, “indie food” can kill you. There’s nothing DIY about publishing a book about “underground” restaurants. Hell, even Greg Norton, who has more cred in his little finger than Hebberoy will ever have has a restaurant that’s inspected, pays fees, sales tax and no doubt pays it’s employees as well. Norton’s
mfkfisher says
The new Joy of Cooking has received pretty awful reviews. Do check them out before buying.
As for the Boy Wonder, I’d love to see the writers at the New York Observer get ahold of him.
Atlas says
I wonder how many people who operate these “underground” dining occasions are all that interested in the attention he is proposing.
Not that they are fearful of being shutdown, but do they want or wish to be highlighted or would they rather continue doing their little private/public thing sans the fanfare. I guess I am questioning their potential desire to join Hebb in the role of provocateur.
In order for those solicited to jump aboard Hebb will have to appeal to varied “underground” personalities he encounters. While I don’t doubt his past charming… I do question the future.
In that Seattle radio interview earlier this year the host was doing all she could to contain her laughter at what he was going on about. Reading his recent blathering, I wonder if he will have that “knack” he had in his earlier days…
I also question his brush off of his past, he is discarding his history without fault and making a daft analogy. I would suspect if questioned all those involved in Ripe would detail a far more involved situation than that of an indie band signing with a major label. In a way he is rewriting history, “historic event” indeed.
Regarding the college lectures, I wonder if PSU, Reed, or UP will be on the list and if so, will there be a Q&A session?
Vapid1 says
I was suffering from an irritated underbelly. The doctor suggested some sun and vitamin D. It is important to have a vital underbelly.
well seasoned says
Oh, jeez! I’m sorry, Nancy, but “kill the restaurant” is NOT a “cool idea,” either as a book or as a way to feed the public.
Here’s what I would say to “the next generation of would be underground restauranteurs [sic]”: Think it’s hip and fun to evade the health inspectors? Even though I’ve been pretty annoyed over the years by inspectors who think I haven’t cooled my stocks properly, as a diner I’d much rather know that the places with rat turds in the flour bin and meat juices dripping into the salad tub have been inspected and shut down. Rather not declare your income or pay payroll taxes? You’re hurting the employees you’re paying under the table, since what they’re receiving won’t be added to their lifetime earnings when the amount of their Social Security checks is calculated. Can’t be bothered with workers’ comp? Then I hope you’re ready to dig into your own pocket when one of your cooks slips on the slick floor of your spottily cleaned walk-in and breaks a wrist – or will they have to pay their own medical costs out of the pittance you’re paying them?
Look, there are a myriad little chef-owned restaurants out there doing exciting, inventive food and presenting it in imaginative ways, and they’re doing it WITHIN THE LAW. We don’t need “illegal” restaurants.
swonder says
This little peanut needs to shut up and get to work to pay his debtors.
Food Dude says
Hey, it seems everyone else who worked for Keller exaggerates. I figured I’d do it for you ;)
That’s what I get for relying on my rapidly aging memory. Especially after have a bottle of wine. I fixed the post.
shuna fish lydon says
Eek! As nice as it is, as wonderful as your words are, I was never the pastry chef at The French Laundry. I was the pastry sous there and then the PC at Bouchon for the next two years, working for Chef Keller a total of 3 years.
Thanks for the link! I have recently tried to start a conversation with a post called “should I go to culinary school,” hoping that all those commenting will weigh in on this very question.
schnitzel says
i worked for the hebb. one day an employee at cl complained bitterly about him and i reminded him that michael will always take care of michael. he will always land on his feet no matter how many people he leaves in his wake, employees, business partners, friends etc. no one should be surprised at his recent actions since his earlier attempts to woo the publishing industry with the kill the restaurant project failed completely. the real story here (come on you portland food writers!!!) is about how his restaurants exploded onto the national restaurant scene and then imploded as businesses. it is a story with many willing local contributions, one very telling about michael, american restaurants and ego. someone tell the tale and the hebb will disappear into the annuls of american restaurants, hopefully quietly
-s says
“shit blew up…” but he forgot to add “cause my ass is dy-no-mite!!!”
tup? says
Up close, I loathed him. Now that he’s far away I find him amusing.
nancy says
the real story here (come on you portland food writers!!!) is about how his restaurants exploded onto the national restaurant scene and then imploded as businesses.
To date, no publication in this town will run it (and I mean, the real deal, not some kinda-sorta truncated limning), and no publication outside of Portland cares enough to devote the word space. Believe me, it will give me great good hope when a local editor says, damn the torpedoes, let’s do it.
The Dude and I had this conversation when the empire came tumbling down. (There was even some talk from a certain paper about doing the story. But ultimately, no.) At the time, I said, were we in LA (and I’m sorry to beat that drum, but it’s the one I know), you’d have had all the alternative papers gunning for the story, and allotting 8,000 words to tell it. Where are you going to do that here? Who’s going to pay you to do it? No one. We’re not there yet.
There’s also the fact that the food community is tiny; the writers who heralded the empire are not of a mind to devote pages to tearing it down. They’d rather just move on and talk about the new great places. And there’s something to that. It’s nice to be nice; to play it safe and not ruffle readers (and advertisers, and other restauateurs who might feel hinky about talking to you in the future, and, and… ). But criminy, the ripe story is such a story; it’s got food and juice and betrayal and hubris and flash and press and naomi, rising from ashes. Or, it was a story; as an editor I would have run it months ago.
blase says
I say forget the book and go straight to the movie. What could he call it? Hmmm?
schnitzel says
alright nancy, don’t write the story. but can we (that’s you food dude), please stop giving the twit any avenue of expression. i liked it better after i quit and didin’t have to think about him anymore. ripe updates have been so juicy up til now that i kept sinking my teeth into the news. many ripe refugees would love news of the hebb to be no news. let this be the last i shall mention the hebb here, anyone else?
Suds Sister says
Nancy,
When a private divorce makes the business section, that’s already TMI. I for one, would not care to read about any more of Ripe in the papers. But hey, you’re finished with your latest project, aren’t you? How about you write the book and dish all the dirt!
nancy says
No, it’s not a book, but it is a feature, and a long one. As for dishing dirt: I don’t see it that way. I see it as following the arc of a business that became as successful and heralded as any in recent Portland memory, and how and why it unraveled. The presence of “dirt” is added spice but not a reason to write. The story is about the players, and the food, and food politics, and publicity, and investors, and how all the little birdies in the media came and went peck peck, thank you, and how the publicity pushed Portland a little closer to the center of the cultural map, and how this made certain factions feel cosmopolitan, and the backlash against that. And what happens now.
But this may be a difference of opinion. I loved Kurt Eichenwald’s Conspiracy of Fools, about Enron’s rise and fall, and don’t consider it dishing dirt but a measured, factual, well-constructed chronicle of power, and in that, a morality tale. I would approach a story about ripe the same way.
orange says
i could imagine
several books…from several peoples
point of view.
never forget it was talented people
that made ripe go.
not just the hebbs/eroys.
pollo elastico says
I would tend to agree that any modern day Icarus parable makes for interesting reading. And while I understand those who tire easily of this guy’s antics, the schadenfreude possiblities are too great to resist.
Dave J. says
Interesting to hear about the reincarnation of Le Couvron. However, Demes is suffering from a bad case of karma, delivered to him by the fates after he and I had the following conversation
When: early spring, 2003
Me: Hello, my wife and I have a gift certificate to your restaurant. It was a wedding gift to us, and we’d like to use it soon, however, I have heard that you might be closing?
Demes: No, that rumor is untrue. We’re not closing.
Me: So you’ll be around this summer, when we celebrate our anniversary?
Demes: Oh, yes, absolutely. You don’t need to worry.
And of course Le Couvron closed a few weeks later. I’ve still got the $150 gift certificate, sitting in a drawer at home–a reminder, of sorts, to never trust restaurant owners. And he’s forever on my list for that nasty little move.
JDG says
Far less expensive a misstatement to us, but on our last visit to Simpatica’s Ten Sandwiches night, which was a bit slow (but as fabulous as ever), I asked our server if they were planning on keeping things going through the winter. “Oh yes,” she said.
The next weekly Simpatica e-mail announced they were shuttling Ten Sandwiches.
I can’t blame them — the staff must have been putting in 14 hour days to keep the brunch and sandwich night going — but a sad loss for Portland diners.
Stevinator says
I will be traversing the country giving lectures at colleges tentatively titled “how to start your own illegal restaurant now…” (thinking the word illegal while not neccesarily an apt descriptor will appeal to college folks).
Hilarious.
The Diabolical says
As an ex-employee of ripe, i was bummed to hear of Hebbs seattle Vagabond bullshit. I heard that you needed to write a letter explaining why you were cool enough to get on their invite list. When he walked away from ripe, and his inheritence checks stopped paying payroll, lots of people got screwed and had to wait for months for their last paychecks. What made me angry about the whole thing was that when this guy who was ‘the face of ripe’, or ‘our fearless leader’ walked, the house came crashing down. Who worked for him whose skin didnt crawl just a little to feel his grease emanating when he was in the room? Pure slime. A whore for attention. I know a gang of cooks who wouldnt mind breaking him down with boning knives and throwing the garbage in the Willamette. For as many people as he screwed over, Seattle dosnt seem far enough away.