NM: The manager, Harry, has been with you since the beginning?
FM: At La Gamelle! Harry and Denise (the general manager); it will be 26 years we’ve worked together. [Harry has since retired; Denise is still there.]
NM: So what’s the formula? I know a couple of the waiters have been with you a long time… What do you do to keep them?
FM: I delegate. And we’re family. You know, the three of us, we all got along with our ex-boss, who was pretty wild and crazy. And we were very united, we worked well together. When I decided to start this restaurant I went out and said to the staff right away that I wanted my freedom. After two weeks being open, I said to the staff, “On weekends I’m off.” And I didn’t want to count the money.
Early on, I remember, it was like a year after we were open, Dorinka called me at home at around midnight; she woke me up and said, “Florent, there’s a fire above the restaurant.” And I said, “Well, is everything okay downstairs? Do you need me?” She said, “Well, I guess not.” So I said, “Good. Take care.”
So then I tried to go back to sleep but of course I couldn’t [laughs], so I called her back: “Really, is everything ok?” And she was taken aback. But that was my attitude. She handled it, and it was beautiful.
NM: Have there been other nights at the restaurant when they called you?
FM: There was a night when I was away that a major incident … there was an overdose. Someone died in the bathroom. And it was lucky because the police who came into the restaurant that night at first wanted to close the restaurant. But it was 1 A.M. on a Saturday night; the place was jammed. And they wanted to close the restaurant to take the body out. But another cop helped us out. [He points to a picture on the wall that says “Support Your Local Police,” with a photograph of a police officer]. He was the president of the Gay Police Officers Action League. I had met him 22 years ago, introduced to him by the captain of the precinct when I was at a police function. I was talking to the captain, and he stopped and said, “Florent, you have to meet Edgar Rodriguez; he’s the president of the Gay Officers Action League.”
I thought, I’m meeting him at the right place at the right time. And it was incredible that the captain of the precinct was introducing me to the gay cop!
So we became best friends and he was the beat cop of the neighborhood, and he’d have dinner when he was on the beat. He’d come in early, sit at the counter in his uniform and everything. I’d come in, kiss him on the mouth, and everyone would go, “Ahhhh!” And we loved it; the two of us loved the show.
Well, that night when Edgar heard on his cruiser radio what was going on (and by that time he was a sergeant), he knew there was a trap door in front of the restaurant. He said, “No, we’re not closing the restaurant.” He got the body out through the basement. He was right there, stopping people from going to the bathroom as they took the body out. He’d say, to the customers, “Someone is not feeling very well. I’m sorry sir, but you can’t come down here now.”
So when I came in the next day, Harry said, “We had a problem. Something very bad happened. We had an overdose, and somebody died.” Finally, it happened. It could have happened before. But that it happened only once in 23 years is amazing.
NM: When did you start getting politically involved? That’s a big part of your life.
FM: Very big. I’ve always been a political person, since I was young. But early on it started because [designer and former Colors editor] Tibor Kalman, who did all my graphics, and I were political. Very quickly after we opened we started doing political messages with the menu boards, and when I started doing advertising, I didn’t want to do just that. I wanted to do political advertising. I realized that I had a bully pulpit with this restaurant and I should use it.
NM: And you opened in 1985… when HIV was at the beginning. People were dying.
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