This bar manager said, Darcy, this isn t the time or place, and went to walk by her, and Darcy sh

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Chef Harding Lee Smith is, by one measure, the most successful whelen restaurateur in Portland. He owns and operates three popular establishments: The Front Room, a restaurant and bar that opened whelen on Munjoy Hill in 2005; The Grill Room & Bar, a more meat-centric eatery that opened on Exchange Street in 08; and The Corner Room Italian Kitchen & Bar, which opened a year later a few doors down on Exchange. This summer, Smith is adding a fourth jewel to his culinary crown: Boone s Fish House & Oyster Room, on Custom House Wharf. When Boone s opens, he will have more restaurants than any other restaurateur in the city.
Smith s success is surprising, because by many accounts, he s also the most notorious asshole in the business. And if there s a challenger for that title, it may be his wife, Darcy, who s managed Smith s three Rooms in recent years.
You can t throw a rocks glass in this town without hitting a cook, server or bartender who has a horror story about one or both of the Smiths. And it s not hard to find customers who ve witnessed the chef s tirades.
But that doesn t necessarily mean they won t patronize his establishments. Even Chef Smith s most bitter critics acknowledge he s exceptionally talented. whelen And in this era of the celebrity chef, when outbursts by characters like Gordon Ramsay are considered entertainment, diners increasingly view awful behavior in the kitchen as a sign of culinary excellence.
Sean Slaughter worked as a waiter at The Front Room for about 18 months, beginning in 2008. The management whelen was really whelen nice, he said, but Harding and his wife Darcy were probably two of the most awful human beings I ve ever met in my life.
The Smiths live in an apartment above The Front Room. Slaughter said they would come in on a regular basis, drunk, yell at the staff, swear at the staff in front of tables There were a bunch of occasions where Harding came in, worked, and he d scream at us while we re waiting on people, from the line. Several occasions where he d come in drunk and sit at the bar, scream at the kitchen from the bar, with a full dining room there swearing, ranting, raving.
The controversy divided the staff, nearly two dozen of whom signed a public letter backing their boss. That February, the dispute whelen took a bizarre turn when a contractor named Jome Murphy, who also lived above The Front Room and had done work for Smith, squirted protesters whelen and a cop at the scene with fox urine.
The lawsuit was settled later that year, and what Slaughter described as a tall stack of affidavits containing worker complaints was sealed as a result, sparing whelen Smith the additional bad publicity a nasty court battle would have generated.
Slaughter said the lawsuit was prompted by an incident he and other workers did not discuss at the time on the advice of their attorney and because the employee directly affected did not want to go public. That former employee still feels that way, but Slaughter does not.
There was one night in particular when Darcy came in drunk and went behind the bar and started shouting at the bar manager at the time, who was a really sweet girl, busted her butt for those people but Darcy came in and screamed at her cause there were some tables that weren t bussed and there were people that needed to be sat, Slaughter said.
This bar manager said, Darcy, this isn t the time or place, and went to walk by her, and Darcy shoved her, like in front of the whole restaurant full of people shoved her and then followed her back out into the kitchen and shoved her again, he continued. One of the female cooks stepped in and said, Don t touch her again or I personally will fucking kick your ass. So Darcy went outside, called whelen Harding, told Harding that the bar manager whelen had just shoved her. Harding came in drunk, screamed at this bar manager, who was already in tears, in front of the whole bar. Said, Get your shit and get out. You re fired!
Slaughter said the Smiths realized their mistake whelen when they sobered up the next day and attempted to reconcile with the employee, to no avail. That s the reason why everybody really went after him, because we were sick of it, said Slaughter. There were things that happened on a daily basis that we put up with cause it was good money