AU REVOIR???

BREAKING

UPDATE: CONFIRMED- The ten year run is over. Au Bon Pain is closing down in the REGJB today. They were already out of salads, and coffee. A new mysterious establishment will be opening up in several weeks (read new year? perhaps) as per our sources in the Administrative Judicial chambers.  And no, there is no chance for Cazzolis or The Pickle Barrel returning.

Several unsubstantiated rumors have been circulating that Friday October 16, 2016 will be the LAST DAY of operations for Au Bon Pain.

Bad coffee. Good Cuban coffee. Fair food. Won't get you very far in life these days.

More when we know it.

A BLACK MARK

So this is what Thanksgiving has come to: not giving thanks, but fighting with our neighbors to save a few bucks over some cheap item made in China. Disgusting.  The above video is from a Walmart in Georgia.

AU BON PAIN in our stomach: Speaking of black marks and disgusting, an alert reader sent us this link which gives the report on the health violations at Au Bon Pain which serves the REGJB community. It is NOT just a licensing fee issue. Apparently, the county is upset because the cockroaches found residing in the  troubled estaminet were not paying rent.  So far in our poll, the clear winner is bringing back The Pickle Barrel at 49% with keeping ABP at 33%. Nate Silver now puts the chances at a final vote surge for getting rid of ABP at 74.23% based on the release of the health report. 

From the report

Critical. Observed employee engage in food preparation, handle clean equipment or utensils, or touch unwrapped single-service items, without washing hands before putting on gloves. Corrected On Site.
22-23-1		Critical. Observed encrusted, soiled material on slicer.
32-10-1		Critical. Covered waste receptacle not provided in women's bathroom.
32-16-1		Critical. Hand wash sink lacking proper hand drying provisions. mens Corrected On Site.
35A-03-1		Critical. Observed dead roaches on premises. storage room area, kitchen , on floors.
35A-05-1		Critical. Observed roach activity as evidenced by 15+ live roaches found in the kitchen on floor and walls.

What Rumpole is reading: We're going to try and end on a good note. We took a break after the battle of Britain,  and put down for a moment William Manchester and Paul Reid's  Defender of the Realm to pick up Julian Barnes'  "A Sense of an Ending" : a powerful 163 page novel about  a man looking back on his life. The story is compelling and we read the book -cover to cover- on Friday while digesting our thoroughly vegan Thanksgiving day repast. 
From the NY Times book review: What had happened to the energetic boy he used to be, “book-hungry, sex-hungry, meritocratic, anarchistic,” who thought of himself as “being kept in some kind of holding pen, waiting to be released” into an engaged adult life of “passion and danger, ecstasy and despair”...The Sense of an Ending” is a short book, but not a slight one. In it Julian Barnes reveals crystalline truths that have taken a lifetime to harden. He has honed their edges, and polished them to a high gleam."
NB: The novel was recently espied on President Obama's desk in his study in the residence at the White House. For whatever that is worth. 

The weekend is just beginning. It's a nippy 20 where we are. Stay warm, stay out of Walmart et.al.,  stay out of Au Bon Pain, and enjoy the weekend and see you in court on Monday. 



tday/wal/abp/ru-vaca.12910