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Andelman brother who couldn't stop hating Black Lives Matter leaves Phantom Gourmet and family drive-in
By adamg on Tue, 06/16/2020 - 7:48pm
Phantom Gourmet announced today:
Effective immediately, Dave Andelman will step down as CEO of Phantom Gourmet, Inc, the company he founded in 1993 and he will no longer appear on episodes of the Phantom Gourmet television show. In addition, he will not be involved in any day to day operations and he will relinquish ownership in the company. Dave Andelman will also resign from the Mendon Twin Drive-In.
Dan Andelman, the host of the television program will take over as company CEO.
The company also announced that, should it get back on the air, it will prioritize finding and reporting on black-owned restaurants
Dave Andelman apologized Saturday for daily posts on his personal Facebook page bitching about Black Lives Matter vigils and protests, but WBZ pulled the family restaurant show off the air to consider whether he meant it and whether it's worth bringing the show back.
The Phantom Gourmet announcement continues:
Dan Andelman: "I'm proud of the company my brother Dave helped build and for all our show has done on behalf of local restaurants and employees in the foodservice industry, especially during this challenging time. But, Dave's recent social media statements made it clear that he cannot stay in a leadership role or any role with this company. We are passionate about food and restaurants, but we also vow to dedicate ourselves to advancing the causes of diversity, social justice, and equality. We plan to listen, learn, and act, while we also continue to entertain and inform our loyal food and fun loving fans.
Phantom Gourmet fans are the lifeblood of our company and we deeply apologize that so many have been hurt. This is NOT what Phantom Gourmet is about and we are very sorry. Our hard-working employees and loyal fans deserve better. So, we are taking swift and decisive action today and we want to make it clear that these types of divisive comments are not consistent with our core values."
In addition, Phantom Gourmet is committed to the following:
-Prioritize finding and promoting local black-owned restaurants and foodservice companies owned and operated by minorities and people of color.
-Provide diversity and inclusion training for all employees of Phantom Gourmet, Inc.
-Further educate all employees on Black Lives Matter and systemic racism.
-Complete a stem to stern review of company policies and corporate culture to make sure controls are in place so nothing like this ever happens again.
Dan Andelman: "At our core, Phantom Gourmet is about bringing people together to share good meals and great times. We look forward to using our platform for positive change."
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Comments
I apologize
For not caring about these people.
NOT!!!
What a load of horse hockey!
Dave will still draw cash out of the grift he and his idiot brothers have been running for years. This apology only came because the scam they’ve been running shaking down restaurants to be on their stupid show and who join their “restaurant association “ was threatened by their own innate racism.
They’ll be back on TV in a few weeks where they always feature chicken parm, but never tandoori chicken.
Hmmm
Roseanne made it back into syndication, after all, and that's not a giant infomercial, so you may be on to something.
roseanne
tom werner
Good.
Good.
Dave Andelman's apology was infuriating.
He's, what, 50ish years old? And multiple facebook posts are a "mistake?" To say nothing of decades spent neglecting nearly every Black-owned restaurant in Boston. The only mistake that Dave regrets is saying his quiet part out loud. His posts whining that people were allowed to protest against police treatment that threatens their very existence, while his freedom to have an overpriced steak in some waterfront travesty of a restaurant was being trampled, were the WORST.
Of course, it's all staying in the family-- no doubt Dave'll be kept around as hair-gel consultant or something.
Something to think about
If people of color stopped preparing his food, he'd starve.
The food industry and the restaurant industry are enormously dependent on the labor of POC and immigrants.
Missed opportunity
Is this really a punishment? We all know this is not going to affect him financially. Is the Phantom brand still that important? Show has been a joke for years at this point. It's called Phantom Gourmet but they no longer actually have a "phantom" reviewer. It's like a extended infomercial. Can you imagine what they could do with a new host and with an actual undercover food critic? Nobody ever mentions that you could probably show Mcdonalds and Wendys food getting made in the Phantom Gourmet time slot and get viewers.
What to eat and what to leave on your plate.
Listening to the PG on the radio, I heard one of the family members not being in favor of then President Obama for how his measures were not good for his business.
Once I heard someone would say, "We're Jews." A real non sequitur that would just hang there, some dead air on radio.
I can remember the Delicious Dish of the late 90s on Saturday afternoons.
Then 9/11/2001 came and the schedule was cleared for round the clock 'why do they want to kill us.'
So David Andelman fuming about BLM 24/7 didn't surprise me. The Globe didn't mention him withdrawing from operations of the Mendon Drive-In.
David removes himself from the scene and the other Andelman's can hope for a return to the air.
They'd probably rather you didn't
"We're going to have more black owned restaurants on the show."
Read: "Our racism prevented us from realizing there's an entirely different group of restaurants we haven't tried to bilk out of their money for an ad on our show."
Or maybe
Or maybe they already tried, and the black owners all told them to beat it.
The show is a scam.
It's a local shakedown racket, nothing more.
Like when several random 'Fraternal Order of Police' organizations call your office for donations.
If they can come up with a production budget that doesn't include a line for the Andleman Brothers putting the squeeze on some Drive-In up in Downeast Maine then the Phantom will live to eat another day.
Otherwise (and what my money is on) the brand will slowly disappear but for brief mentions on the back of menus at Twin Rivers for the Freddy Smerlas' Southeastern Massachusetts Karaoke Regional Championships
Notable omission
Missing from their list of pledged actions: a commitment to hiring Black and other minority employees, and ensuring that they are treated fairly. Many white-dominated consumer media companies (such as Bon Appetite, Refinery 29, and now ABC) are getting called out by current and former employees for doing performative diversity while actually maintaining racist workplaces-hiring Black employees for photo ops while limiting their actual opportunities to grow within the company. If the same situation exists at Phantom Gourmet, they need to add it to their list of problems to address.
This isn't redeemable. It's
This isn't redeemable. It's pretty unlikely that one brother would hold bigoted views while the others don't. And I don't think there's been anything in their public history that shows otherwise.
Best case scenario, any businesses of theirs loses all support and shut down. And we don't see them for a while. It'll take more than a few days for that family to grow past this.
I'm sure this will impress
I'm sure this will impress the folks at WBZ. Nothing says a break from the past with new management when the best your company can do is to switch the name of the sibling at the helm and hope that people are going to take that as a sign of seismic shifting of the corporate culture from the very same partners running the grift.
Since I haven't seen an episode since Billy Costa interviewed a friend of mine way back when and I cannot recall any other, I cannot speak intelligently to the decision making processes of the smart people at WBZ but I'm thinking this may be a case of them taking the opportunity to unload a piece of business that no longer caters to the average viewer. There are only so many times you can sell frozen mozzarella sticks in a wood-paneled suburban strip mall restaurant to the viewers before they doze back off to sleep.
Slow Service
I went out with friends and our service suffered because they had to serve the Andelman group instantly. He was clearly loving the special treatment. The staff was annoyed and apologized.
I am surprised he did not join forces with Guy Fieri for a guest special.
I will not book any advertising.
when did people stop making
when did people stop making mistakes?.....and when did we stop accepting apologies?.....people are human and make mistakes.....that is how we learn.....Boston is one of the most racist cities in the country for supposedly being one of the most liberal.....take a look at yourself and your neighbor before not accepting someones apology