Image by Steve Buissinne from Pixabay
After Ms. Thalia Green let the owner of Davis's Delights restaurant know about the old celery in his establishment's salad, Jamison Davis was devastated. He and his family had been working hard making a comeback after the disaster that had wrecked it all – 155 years, working – and now, they were about to lose it all over some celery?
“Jamie,” he said as he called his son, “check the reviews of our restaurant online for me. What is the general trend – anybody saying anything about our salads?”
Jamie called back in ten minutes.
“Yes, Dad, we have a problem – we are down to 2.5 stars over these salads. What in the world?”
Into the back room – Mr. Davis already knew what the problem was … he had seen it coming and for family friendship going back generations hoped against hope it would not come, but … it was the pre-packaged salads.
Mr. Davis sighed, then called out to his whole staff – “This here? Throw it ALL out except for this bag I have in my hand.”
Mr. Davis sat down and took a ton of pictures of the salad in the bag, out of the bag, in the bowl … there was the bad celery, clear as day. He then put that in his office refrigerator and headed out to see his supplier after he printed the bad reviews his son Jamie had sent him.
Luke Northrop ... the Davises and the Northrops had been friends for 160 years, and Jamison Davis had done his best to support the first Northrop in all that time to go back into the food business. Never mind that it had to be 140 years before enough history had been forgotten so that any Northrop in the South could be let back into the food business – time-honored friendship meant it was necessary to be supportive.
But Jamison Davis was not about to go down like his ancestral uncle Jefferson Finis Davis.
Luke Northrop knew by the look on Jamison Davis's face. He had needed his contracts with Mr. Davis to get in the door with other people, and when a Davis stood by you, he stood by you. But, his food service had grown too quickly for his revenue, and he figured Mr. Davis would put up with just a little bit of trouble.
He hadn't accounted for the effect of Yelp; no restaurant could afford even a week of bad salads. Thalia Green had done what others had not done; she had respectfully reached out to Mr. Davis, but others were posting up vigorously and not saying anything to him. Mr. Davis not knowing would have let Mr. Northrop to get through his bad month, but it would have ruined Mr. Davis's restaurant.
The thing was, Mr. Northrop and Mr. Davis both knew that Mr. Northrop had taken advantage of their friendship … history had repeated in the worst way. Yelp had taken the place of Secretary of War Breckinridge and Confederate commander-in-chief Robert E. Lee in February 1865 and yanked the chain of Mr. Davis about it. Mr. Davis was too sad to be mad. He just presented the photographs he had taken, including of a couple of pieces of discolored salary.
“Luke,” he said, “ Get that contract and tear it up, and I won't put these pictures out to the public. Try me and I will destroy you. Uncle Jefferson lost his war because of your Uncle Lucius, and we've been having to work ever since. That we can't change, but you will be dead and buried before you will wreck my family's work in this generation. Get out that contract, and tear it up.”
Mr. Northrop did as he was told, and Mr. Davis walked away, his heart broken … their families had been close for 160 years, and that was all done. But Uncle Jefferson had carried it to his own derision and destruction, and the Northrops' gratitude had allowed them to continue to take advantage. No more. Not even 160 seconds more. Luke Northrop had thrown that away over some old celery. If it wasn't worth more than that to him, it couldn't be worth more than that to Jamison Davis.
Mr. Davis took his cash reserves and went to the nearest food supply store and replaced all the salad for that day, and went back the next day and the next day and the next day until he got a new supplier … and, his restaurant began to climb out of the fall it had been in. It would eventually be, as he had promised Ms. Green, a five-star restaurant.
Who knew that celery had that much power?
So, @owasco asked me about happened to the celery at the restaurant and how the owner saved his restaurant after Ms. Green brought the old celery in the salad to his attention ... this is the answer!
160 years! Good comeback woman! love it.
Thank you ... this was on my mind because the real General Northrop's foul ups are why today is Juneteenth. The man's incompetence LITERALLY starved out Lee's army ... so Jefferson Davis's old friend (it may actually be 190 years!) is owed a tongue-in-cheek word of thanks today, and here it is!
Well done! You often have layers I know are there but can't really identify. Thanks for taking on my question!
Thanks to @owasco, this cleared things up for me, too.
Glad it helped, and thanks for reading!