9 food-related true crime stories that aren't Bad Vegan
Make yourself a snack and settle in
the true crime that's worth your time
Sarah’s birthday week continues, which means you’re still stuck with me (Eve) today. Don’t worry, she’s back next week! But if you want to give her a present…
As you know, I was not a fan of Bad Vegan. Here’s my writeup:
Which some of you disagreed with! I always love it when that happens — it’s a reminder that there are few true crime stories that appeal to/are hated by everyone, and that we’re not one big weird mass of people in “True Crime and Wine” sweatshirts (see this week’s gifts thread if you want to be, though).
One of the things that made Bad Vegan more interesting than a standard “woman meets bad guy then does bad things to give him money” story is how it’s rooted in the popularity of NY raw food restaurant Pure Food and Wine, a place with a long-dormant Instagram account that’s since been comment bombed by Netflix viewers.
I’m not just saying this because I’m a food writer by day (I don’t think?), but crimes that have a relationship with restaurants, food, or dining always have a little extra zing. Maybe that’s because, per the FBI, restaurants are the “the eighth-most likely place for Americans to be attacked.” Or maybe it’s just because we haven’t all been a con artist/conned, but we all have to eat? These stories feel more engaging and accessible than they might otherwise.
So, if Bad Vegan made you hungry for more food true crime, here are some ideas. Have some others? That’s what the comments are for.
The enduring mystery of the Hobsonville Point ham [The Spinoff]
Thanks to BE contributor Margaret Howie for this one, a delightful longread about a giant Jamón ibérico mysteriously dumped in an Auckland suburb. It’s a delightful, no-stakes (well, except for the pig) mystery that stumped local cops — but perhaps a true crime expert can make some headway?
Grab your Lactaid, here’s a cheese crime twofer:
Employees caught selling stolen cheese, long-running large-scale operation discovered [CNN/Fox 17]
“After a Central Valley food plant uncovered thieves had been pilfering their cheese for years, a months-long probe ended in the arrest of two men accused of running an operation to sell the product across the state, sometimes even going door-to-door.” The product was typically Leprino Foods brand mozzarella, with an estimated worth of $50,000.
Police in Milwaukee recover stolen cheese worth $70,000 [CBS]
“A 54-foot long trailer containing the cheese was stolen early Friday from D and G Transportation in Germantown, which is northwest of Milwaukee. A semitrailer used to steal the trailer was recovered. Police said the empty trailer, which was found around 10 a.m. Friday in the Milwaukee area. It's not clear exactly where in Milwaukee the stolen cheese was found.”
Fruitcake Fraud [Discovery +]
This Discovery+ doc about the country’s biggest fruitcake bakery dropped in late 2021, and details a $17 million embezzlement scheme. Following the doc, the bakery published its own version of the scandal that answers a lot of the questions the TV version glossed over, and a Texas Monthly story from 2016 also runs at the issue quite well.
From Bar Rescue to claims of coke smuggling. An October 2016 episode of Bar Rescue tells the tale of Russell City Grill, a struggling bar in Hayward, California. “The bar once had sales of about $50,000 a month,” Bar Rescue Updates reported at the time, “but is now supposedly $280,000 in debt due to bad ownership and bad customer service.” Per Reality Tv Revisited, owner Lee Bellot bought the bar in 2014 with “money inherited from his deceased mother,” and borrowed $100,000 from his dad to help service his debts.
Host Jon Taffer changed the bar’s name to Fogline Bar & Grill as part of the “makeover” thing he always does, and that appeared to “save” the bar, which has remained in operation since. Another Taffer miracle, right? Well…
Hayward bar owner convicted for trying to smuggle cocaine through SFO [KTVU]
In a DoJ sting operation, Bellot would meet with a federal informant…
at his Hayward business, the Fogline Sports Bar and Grill, where he told the informant that he used to run "bricks" -- or kilograms of cocaine -- from Bay Area airports to cities across the country. Bellot told the source that his contact was arrested and that he had taken a break, but was starting up again now that he had found a new airport contact.
According to the FBI, Bellot had been paying airport employees to allow drugs to be smuggled past security for several months in 2018. He has yet to be convicted, but “faces a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison and a fine of $250,000, plus restitution on the first count, as well as life in prison and a fine of $500,000 on the second count.”
I checked Taffer’s twitter feed, and he has yet to comment — but one has to wonder if Fogline Bar & Grill’s sustainability was because of his intervention, or because of its owner’s side hustle.
What Happened When MeToo Took Down Mario Batali [The Daily Beast]
This is an excerpt from Workhorse, Kim Reed’s 2021 memoir about her life as assistant to New York restaurant magnate Joe Bastianich. TDB describes piece as “a dramatic insider’s account of how the misconduct scandal played out within the Batali & Bastianich Hospitality Group.” A snip:
Aside from a handful of what I’d consider inappropriate comments scattered over the years, Mario really didn’t bother me.
“Hee hee—here comes Joe’s other wife,” he’d yelled across the room at the opening of Eataly Downtown. “Hee hee, go fuck yourself,” I said—only in my head, of course. I wouldn’t dare.
All Joe kept saying over the next few days was, “Jesus Christ. I can’t believe this,” over and over again. “This is a nightmare.”
Joe asked me to put up a sign in the Corporate elevators listing his cell phone number and inviting staff to call him directly if they were upset and wanted to talk. I appreciated the gesture but pitied the fool who dialed that number. Joe was not a nurturer. He’d been going around to all the restaurants to talk to the staff.
Workhorse isn’t a true crime book in any sense of the word, but if you’re into inside NY restaurant world baseball, it’s a fun, fast read.
Bar owner linked to over 20 sexual assaults may have more victims in Oregon, deputies say [KGW 8]
I know lots of totally wonderful, ethical, great folks who own bars, so I feel bad that I’m hitting their profession again, but here we are. Christian Sayre owns the century-old Anchor Pub, a beloved beer-centric bar in Everett, Washington. As of January he’d been arrested twice, the AP reported then, “on allegations that he drugged and raped patrons, and investigators say they believe he committed additional assaults in Washington and Oregon dating back two decades.
The 35-year-old “used his position as the owner of the pub to commit the crimes, authorities said. Patrons, male and female, began making reports as early as 2017 that they suspected Sayre had secretly put drugs in their drinks.”
He remains in custody pending trial, and the bar’s social media pages have all been deleted. But its Yelp remains up, since that’s not something that’s controlled by a business owner, and, yikes.
McMillion$ [HBO]
I discussed this 2020 HBO docuseries on the plot to game the McDonald’s Monopoly contest with Sarah, Tara and Dave on the Extra Hot Great podcast at the time, and as I recall it was a good podcast even though my canon submission did not succeed. I was thinking about this show because I just tried a McPlant, the fast food chain’s faux meat Big Mac. It is pretty good, as is this series.
18 workers at JFK Airport charged in theft ring of airline mini-bottles of alcohol [CNN]
Y’all, if they can make a movie about a coupon scam (Queenpins), then they can make a movie about “Operation Last Call” (not making this up), the 2012 sting operation by the NY Port Authority’s Office of Inspector General. Here’s a snip:
Prosecutors allege that 15 employees of LSG pilfered bottles of alcohol left over from various American Airlines flights and sold them on the underground market to local liquor stores and bodegas. Taking place over many months, these thefts yielded an estimated retail value of $750,000.
Law enforcement sources said the ring revolved around Domingo Duran, a retired LSG Sky Chefs employee.
An early morning raid on Duran’s home in Queens uncovered more than 50,000 mini-bottles of alcohol and $34,000 in cash. Duran faces 15 years in prison on charges of grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property.
According to this only tangentially related report, Duran “pleaded guilty to related charges in 2013 and served a six-month prison sentence.” A public records search suggests that he remains in the area, so a producer probably wouldn’t have to try too hard to find him and buy his life rights for a tiny booze bottle theft series that I would watch the heck out of.
Thursday on Best Evidence: Brace for The Duke
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