A6
From Page One
S
KLMNO
Getting from a seat in court to the chef’s table
donna from A1
ing repossessed; he’d stopped making $2,000-a-month pay- ments on taxes he owed to the IRS; and he was being sued, “like always” — this time by a Galileo investor.
At the very moment when Don- na was stuck in the courthouse, on the ground floor of an office building just a mile away, contrac- tors worked on what the chef hopes will be his grand comeback stage, Galileo III. After repeated delays, its opening in the 14th Street NW space that once housed the restaurant Butterfield 9 is said to be weeks away. It might be the city’s most an-
ticipated opening of the year, but not merely because of Donna’s dazzling culinary skill, which in 1991 inspired Washington Post dining critic Phyllis Richman to write that “Roberto Donna has practically become a national treasure.”
Whereas Washingtonians once
discussed the greatness of Don- na’s risottos and house-made pas- tas, the chatter about him now of- ten centers on his court cases and debts — for instance, the $157,984.21 he owes to Arlington County, where the common- wealth’s attorney prosecuted Donna for collecting meal taxes at Bebo but neglecting to turn them over to the county. Donna pleaded guilty to felony embezzlement in June and received a suspended five-year sentence. Donna’s treatment of employ-
ees is at the heart of allegations in two federal cases. In Virginia, five former Bebo workers last year won a judgment against Donna, who was ordered to pay them nearly $25,000 plus more than $17,000 in attorney’s fees. Last month, in the District case
involving the wages and tips of 11 ex-Galileo and Bebo workers, Chief U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth ruled that Donna had violated minimum wage and
overtime requirements and should be held personally liable. Lamberth has scheduled a hearing for Aug. 24 on how much to award the plaintiffs, who are seeking $463,948.43 plus legal fees.
Some in District restaurant cir-
cles say Donna was never much of a businessman, that his skill was always far greater in the kitchen than at a desk. But others say it wasn’t until his empire blos- somed in the ’90s that his finan- cial controls began to fray. Donna’s own version of events is not yet clear: After agreeing to be interviewed, Donna changed his mind, writing in an e-mail that “A story just before I open a res- taurant I think is not fair. . . . Res- taurant is already a super difficult business and to want to sabotage it before it opens I think is not the right thing to do to me. I gave all 49 years of my life for cooking!!!!” He referred questions to attor-
ney Danny Onorato, who repre- sented Donna in the Arlington case. “My goal is to keep Roberto out of trouble and get this restau- rant open quickly and successful- ly so he can meet his financial ob- ligations,” Onorato said. “We’re trying to get through a dark pe- riod for him. These topics just don’t help him.”
Donna recently told associates
that the wages case is “old news” and that he’s focusing on Galileo III and a new version of Lab- oratorio del Galileo. Donna also told associates that he’s no ogre, saying: “If I’m a bad boss, how come I have my staff hired?”
‘Noise about the tax stuff’ But not everybody is convinced
that an opening is imminent. “There’s so much noise about the tax stuff and Roberto’s other is- sues that people don’t actually think it’s going to happen,” said Don Rockwell, founder of the free-wheeling Washington-foodie discussion board, DonRock-
well.com. “I’ve never seen a res-
SUNDAY, AUGUST 8, 2010
LINDA DAVIDSON/THE WASHINGTON POST
After delays, Galileo III’s opening on 14th Street NW is said to be weeks away. But the restaurant’s chef, Roberto Donna, is embroiled in tax and legal issues. Last month, in a case brought by former employees, a judge ruled that Donna violated minimum wage and overtime laws.
“Just because you’re a good chef, that doesn’t make you a good businessman.”
taurateur fall from grace like this. Roberto was possibly the most important chef in D.C. 20 years ago..”
Bill Miller, the leasing executive who brokered the deal to bring Galileo III to 14th Street, remains optimistic: “Everybody, including Roberto, hoped and expected that the restaurant would have been open by now. Roberto has stubbed his toe umpteen times, but I think everybody will still go to his res- taurant once he opens.” Donna’s problems are well- known in the business. Twice in the last month, when he posted job openings on
donrockwell.com —for a mixologist and a line cook —the listings were met with read- er comments questioning Don- na’s managerial skill. Jeff Chandler, president of
—Tony Spagnoli, who worked at Pesce, Barolo, Galileo and Il Radicchio
American Technology Services, replied to one post, asking Donna to contact him about a bounced check. In an interview, Chandler explained that his company had done IT support work for Bebo and had problems collecting pay- ment. When the company finally received a check from Bebo, it bounced — twice. “It’s small pota- toes — only $270,” Chandler said. “In the grand scheme of things, it’s not a big deal. But it’s pretty annoying and just not good busi- ness.”
Roberto Donna was born in Tu- rin, capital of northern Italy’s Piedmont region, where his par- ents owned a grocery store and he spent most of his free time play- ing in the restaurant next-door. He decided before age 5 that he wanted to be a cook; by 13, he was enrolled in culinary school; by 19, he was in Washington, working as a sous chef at Romeo & Juliet, an Italian place on K Street. In 1984, less than five years af- ter arriving in the United States, Donna and Savino Recine, a col- league at Romeo & Juliet, opened Galileo in Dupont Circle. The res- taurant, which barely seated 50 and featured an ever-changing northern Italian menu emphasiz- ing local, seasonal ingredients, was an instant hit, turning Donna into a star well before he hit 25. “He was achieving a quality and a sense of Italian food that we hadn’t seen before,” Richman said. “It was exciting for Washing- ton.”
Soon, Donna presided over a lo- cal restaurant empire that includ- ed, at various points, Primi Piatti, i Matti, Il Radicchio (multiple lo- cations), Pesce, El Patio, Arucola, Barolo, Cesco and Vivo! But crit- ics concluded that Donna was stretching himself thin, paying too little attention to too many restaurants. There were also whispers about
financial problems — and they were confirmed in 2004 when Ga- lileo’s parent company, SER Inc., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the face of nearly $2.5 million in debt. That in- cluded a seven-figure District tax bill that Donna had to address un- der threat of losing his liquor li- cense. “You could tell there was trou-
ble,” said Tony Spagnoli, who worked in Donna’s kitchens at Pesce, Barolo, Galileo and Il Ra- dicchio from 1995 to 2000. “Ro- berto kept saying, ‘Everything’s fine.’ But I saw it in my own deal- ings with purveyors who wouldn’t accept an order or they’d put us on COD. Or a line cook would come to me and say, ‘The bank won’t cash my check; they said there’s no money in the account.’ ” Spagnoli said he once ran an
atypical errand as executive chef of Il Radicchio in Arlington: “I had to drive all over D.C. one day picking up bottles of wine from this [Donna] restaurant and that [Donna] restaurant and then take them back to my restaurant be- cause the wine people wouldn’t sell us any wine.” Spagnoli quit shortly thereafter
“because I didn’t want to deal with all the financial issues any- more.” He is now executive chef at Pascal’s Restaurant and Tavern in St. Michaels. “I have a great deal of respect for Roberto as a chef,” he said. “But just because you’re a good chef, that doesn’t make you a good businessman.” Jordan Lichman was a grill chef
at Galileo in 2001 when, he said, the supplier who sold gourmet
BILL O’LEARY/THE WASHINGTON POST
Donna once cooked nightly at Galileo and its restaurant- within-a-restaurant, Laboratorio del Galileo. Both closed in 2006.
chocolate to the restaurant “put us on hold because they weren’t getting paid. So the executive chef and myself, we went to the Costco in Pentagon City and bought two- pound tubs of Nestle Toll House chocolate chips. This is the ‘high- quality’ ingredient that was used in the chocolate desserts for a few days.”
‘Chef’ also means ‘chief’ Lichman said Donna fired him
after four months on the job when he challenged the chef about the legalities of docking pay. Now dean of culinary arts at Stratford University, he places students in restaurants. But not Donna’s. “It’s not the chocolate,” he said. “It’s how he’s treated employees. He’s an excellent cook, but the ‘chef’ also means ‘chief,’ and in no way is he a leader. I think he’s somebody who is out there for himself and only himself.” Donna’s financial problems fol- lowed him from Galileo to Bebo Trattoria and seemed to worsen — particularly after the economy cratered. In addition to the Ar- lington taxes, Bebo apparently fell behind on state sales taxes: a week after Bebo closed, Virginia’s tax department filed a lien against RD Trattoria, Bebo and Donna for $275,762.36.
At the hearing last week, Don- na testified that he owes the IRS an unspecified amount of employ- ment taxes from Bebo, covering at least two years. “But I cannot af- ford to pay them now,” he said. Hemingway once wrote that a
man goes broke “slowly, then all at once,” and the drip-drip-drip seems to became a gusher for Donna at some point. In a deposi- tion last fall, Donna testified that he’d exhausted his savings and re- tirement plans and that, with no restaurants open, his only income came from periodic cooking class- es he taught at his million-dollar house in McLean. The classes cost $85 to $120 per person, wine in- cluded, and were therefore almost certainly in violation of state code prohibiting selling alcohol with-
out a license, according to Philip Disharoon, special agent in charge of the Alexandria division of the Virginia Department of Al- coholic Beverage Control. Donna said in the deposition
that he won’t have an ownership stake in the new Galileo III (“I wish,” he said) and instead will be a salaried employee earning $50,000 per year. (Donna said his salary at Galileo, where he was majority owner, was $120,000 to $200,000 a year.)
Licensing records show that
the new restaurant is owned by RCR LLC. At Wednesday’s hear- ing, Donna’s longtime business partner and occasional bookkeep- er, Corrado Bonino, who lives in Italy, testified that the chef is his “best friend” and godfather to Bo- nino’s daughter. Bonino said one of his companies owns Mabel LLC, which owns RCR LLC. Ac- cording to papers filed with the D.C. Alcoholic Beverage Regula- tion Administration, Mabel’s oth- er managing member is Nancy Sabbagh, Donna’s wife. With his felony conviction in the Arlington County tax case, Donna might not have been eli- gible to secure a liquor license in the District if he’d been made a partner in Galileo III.
Once Galileo III opens and Donna begins to receive pay- checks, a long line of people will stake claims on those dollars. “He seems to have everybody and their brother after him,” said Arlington County Treasurer Frank O’Leary, who noted that Arlington has yet to receive a dime from Donna after his conviction. “I al- most feel sorry for the guy. But ev- ery single one of these problems, he brought on himself. This is not an innocent, good-natured chef who got in over his head. Roberto Donna deliberately cheated peo- ple. Now he’s getting his just des- serts — and I don’t mean Jell-O.”
dulacj@washpost.com
Staff researcher Meg Smith and staff writer Philip Lucas contributed to this report.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152