Posted on 07/02/2020 9:19:58 AM PDT by nwrep
Chef John Gorham
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Wife and Restaurant Group Leader Renee Gorham
Toro Bravo Restaurant, Portland, OREGON
Toro Bravo Inc., a restaurant group that once included nearly a dozen restaurants and a gleaming Pearl District “gastronomic society,” will be dissolved in the wake of a Facebook outburst directed at a trans woman of color by chef John Gorham, his wife Renee Gorham told staff at a meeting Wednesday morning, sources told The Oregonian/OregonLive.
The closures will include destination Spanish restaurant Toro Bravo, brunch-focused sister restaurants Tasty n Alder and Tasty n Daughters as well as the Pearl District events space Plaza del Toro. John Gorham had already struck a deal to divest his interests in seven other restaurants within the Toro Bravo Inc. group.
Plaza Del Toro, Portland
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Tasty n Alder, Portland
The decision, which was confirmed by Renee Gorham on Wednesday evening, puts an end to one of the most successful Portland restaurant groups of the past decade. And it comes after a widespread departure of staff, many of whom left after the offensive nature of Gorham’s private Facebook messages was revealed last weekend, according to a half dozen current and former employees.
The saga began in May, after several Toro Bravo Inc. vans parked near Southeast Portland’s Tasty n Daughters were tagged. According to the Gorhams, the graffiti was part of a string of break-ins and vandalism that had cost the company a combined $75,000 as they struggled to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, leaving the chef on edge.
Gorham took to Facebook on May 23, floating the idea of starting a “vigilante” neighborhood patrol to keep properties safe and offering a $5,000 reward for information about the vandals. That post caught the eye of a trans woman of color, who said she decided to “mock” Gorham with a separate post, which offered to leave a box of free spray paint for any street artists who might need it, while captioning a photo of Gorham’s tagged vans with, “Art fills me with such joy.” The woman asked not to be identified after receiving harassment.
Gorham was soon alerted to the woman’s post and, along with his followers, began to release personal details about the woman, apparently thinking she was responsible for the graffiti, including a picture of her and another of her SUV, license plate visible.
A series of heated exchanges followed both in public comments and private messages, as Gorham and his followers made veiled threats against the person behind the mocking post. Though John Gorham claimed he did not know the woman’s gender at the time, the chef threatened to “kick you in your little man (vulgar term for a woman’s genitalia),” according to screenshots of private messages she provided to The Oregonian/OregonLive. Last week, she approached the Gorhams for money, saying she planned to take the story public.
The Gorhams offered to donate $5,000 to the charity of her choice as an apology; she asked to be paid directly, promising to donate half, according to emails the Gorhams shared with The Oregonian/OregonLive. Ultimately, the Gorhams said they made a $5,000 donation to the Native American Youth and Family Center and issued a public apology.
On June 24, Renee Gorham announced she would take over leadership of Toro Bravo Inc., saying she did not condone her husband’s behavior.
In an email to The Oregonian/OregonLive last week, John Gorham announced he had checked into the hospital and would “not be returning to the company.” In a separate announcement posted to the company’s website, he apologized for his “extremely immature outbreak and misguided anger via Facebook.”
According to a current employee, Renee Gorham met with staff at 10 a.m. Wednesday at Plaza Del Toro to announce that the restaurant group would be dissolved and that Toro Bravo, Tasty n Alder and Tasty n Daughters would not reopen. She also announced that Plaza Del Toro, which has been acting as a community kitchen during the coronavirus-enforced shutdown, would also close after fulfilling its contracts with nonprofits through its Feed It Forward meal train sponsorship program.
That is so true it is not even funny.
I thought is was funny because I couldn't believe it's true
“Protected class” doesn’t mean “protected from prosecution”. Not legally, anyway.
If he is being protected, he’s being protected by the fiat of the local prosecutors. However, I believe extortion is a federal crime if the demand is transmitted across a computer system, as it was in this case. So federal prosecutors could step in any time they please, if we actually had a Justice Department interested in prosecuting anyone besides conservatives.
Hilarious....Sooo...glad we got out of Portland. ..but sad for what it’s become
SHE was encouraging vandalism & she was using extortion against the van owners.
I am old enough to remember when a person used the word TRANNIE-—they were referring to the transmission in a vehicle.
Why are you calling the man “she”? It was born with a frank ‘n beans.
Blackmail, anyone?
Is it a felony? (if you don't have a "Get Out of Jail Free" card or two)
Most states treat blackmail as a type of extortion or coercion, which involves threats of violence or other harm in order to compel a person to do something. Blackmail is generally classified as a felony, which could result in multi-year prison sentences and large fines.
Dk...maybe plausible cover of a “nervous condition” for the public sin of confronting a black trannie making inciting texts about destroying your business?
Ping
If you would like more information about what's happening in Oregon, please FReepmail me.
Please send me your name by FReepmail if you want to be on this list.
I call them “the minority from nowhere.”
Here in central Kentucky, if you call someone a “Trannie” or “Transy,” it doesn’t refer to sexual orientation. It means the person in question went to our oldest college, Transylvania University!
Congratulations on your 1000th, nwrep ... notwithstanding that you have angered this morning’s admin-mod cop. How will you ever repent for your overt mis-demeanor you little ol’ rule-breaker you? Cheers!
Thanks. Not sure why the AdMod is upset. I put this in Front Page because it was a story on the front page of a major metropolitan newspaper here in Oregon, and thought it belonged on the front page.
Cheers.
Us too. We left PDX and headed to TX. We were just so sick of Portland/ I-5 corridor politics. But they do have some great restaurants.
These restaurants were his life’s work. He must have spent years working hard to build them up. Probably is a good liberal. Now all ruined by a crazy trans sicko person. What a shame.
More proof that miserable people want others to be miserable too. Misery loves company.
So, to hoist the liberal creepozoids on their own petard, shall we now change the name of every city, county that starts with ‘San’ or ‘Santa’ (San Francisco, San Diego, Santa Barbara, etc.)? After all, evil religious people named these places after evil Christian saints. The list of micro and macro aggressions is endless: Christian, white supremacy, white privilege, Western culture, and on and on.
What is supposed to go in Front Page?
Where are the rules listed?
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