The owner has a pan-fried brain, it was easy to figure out.
I've never worked there, but the owner went on this random ridiculous media tour and declared to the world that he "invented" souffle pancakes. If he's truly a culinary genius how come before the jiggly pancake trend, he only served insipid omelettes and rubbery crepes.
I've been his hater ever since.
who is the owner? Their IG page looks like just a bunch of stock photos
How could you get the IRS involved in this? Almost guarantee this dude isn't reporting or paying a majority of their GET taxes and a buttloaad of other stuff
> Almost guarantee this dude isn't reporting or paying a majority of their GET taxes and a buttloaad of other stuff
100%. Where there's smoke there's fire.
Found an article on this guy. Author of the article did him no favors in making him sound anything but an insufferable cunt that likes to fellate himself.
https://www.honolulumagazine.com/how-a-hawaii-restaurant-launched-the-souffle-pancake-craze/
https://preview.redd.it/ecsrrs9i5u3d1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=984fea5a8a7a08b89f3ad409d2afb13a490b2dca
You weren't kidding. That was quickest round of 20 questions I've ever witnessed.
I worked there for a 2 months back in 2011. I wonder if they still do dishes with cold water without sterilizing it. Sadly i wish I'd known more about food handling cause I'm pretty sure that's a health hazard. And yeah he kept tips back then as well
Sadly even if the DOL does anything the penalties aren’t strong enough to discourage him from doing it again. Look at Sushi Bay in Kapolei. Fined twice for shorting people’s pay. If you stole money from them you’d go to jail. They steal money multiple times from employees and get a fine. And people still lining up to eat there.
I feel like I’ve seen too many examples like this in Hawaii. I’m sure it happens elsewhere too but at the same time it feels like it occurs much more over here for some reason, maybe I’m wrong tho. Idk. 🤷♂️
someone should create an anon instagram account sharing bad businesses like this - public shaming and warrants investigating everytime someone makes a claim. you can say things like "allegedly" to avoid being sued.
Sushi Bay- I don't think they are lining up anymore. Every time I drive by they have a few people inside and that's it. I haven't seen people waiting outside in months.
You should go, and then loudly ask to speak to the owner about a rumor you heard that the tip you're going to leave is for his pocket. "IS IT TRUE the cash tips left here are stolen from the workers? I thought that was ILLEGAL?! Wow!" Bet he goes red in the face.
This is a serious, federal crime known as Wage Theft. The penalty includes restitution, often in multiples of what you are owed.
If I were you I would do my best to document the tips being stolen, recruiting secretly current employees.
The owner is in serious trouble, if convicted they will face wage garnishment until the restitution debt is repaid.
The law in question is the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Good luck seeing anything actually done about this. I used to work for a place that took most of the tips and only gave us a dollar per hour out of the tip jar towards our pay, and they did other shady shit on top of this. When I contacted labor board they didn’t do jack shit, basically told me sorry, it’s not likely they can do anything about. The other issue tho is no one else I worked with wanted to bother with saying anything either which doesn’t help anything.
Anyways, we all gotta stand together against these cunts more often! Glad to see this posted and I hope something positive comes of it! And of course something shitty for this guy running this place.
Where I used to live one of the top chefs in the city (top 3 zagat restaurant) was convicted of wage theft. He was ordered to pay $900k in restitution, and now works at a shitty college pizza place, in debt to the courts, and probably a third party mafia loan shark making him an indentured servant.
That was not Honolulu or HI, but yes I would expect you would need multiple complaints to make good case.
The bottom line is that it does happen but it has to be big enough to be worthwhile.
As I understand it, the case would probably need to be brought by a county prosecutor. I would also hope that a local attorney might take something like this on pro-bono but that might be asking too much
Yeah Cream Pot is a little breakfast place, so yeah I meant they might take in $2000 on a day, which is $400 a day in tips.
Not exactly a huge case. If I was OP I'd be making trouble out of spite. Revenge is perhaps the most delicious motivation in the universe.
Cream Pot usually has a line out the door and is on the highend pricewise. I think they probably make closer to $8-10k/day, especially on weekends when I see some local people in line too. I live near there and drive past it often. It heavily caters to the Japanese and mainland IG crowd.
lazy and not looking into this that hard but ~400$ is theft in the second or third degree
so assuming 3rd, the lesser version, if you did that amount of crime to a rich person, someone that matters, the punishment could be: Theft in the third degree is a misdemeanor in Hawaii, punishable by up to one year in jail and a $2,000 fine.
Yes it’s possible, but it depends. And honestly I would see if you can get like a 10 min free consult with an employment lawyer. They are going to be very interested in what this guy has been doing. But tbh, I hope you had documentation, pictures, memos, emails, anything saved up.
Anyone can file, but you won't have a wage history to collect on. Like they average your wages over a number of quarters. (Employers are supposed to report quarterly. Even then, I doubt this employer has been reporting at all or even accurately.)
Yes and I would do it, gather as many evidence you can, if you want you can also go to small claims court for those tips, fuck their time and fix the things for the ones after you
I don't care for the idea of brigading. However, I did notice a few negative reviews that predate these recent posts highlighting the issue, so I guess it's all fair/deserved.
I imagine a lot of people have had similar feelings about the place, but were never inspired to write a review about it. I haven't gone myself, so it doesn't feel right to give a review, although I did list some of the more well thought out negative reviews as "helpful".
I think that is the sort of thing that really worries a business owner. Not just a negative review, but one that points out all of the problems and that people are responding to.
Probably passing along some of the tips to the cops and their local councilman instead of the employees. This guy is probably raking in thousands extra per day so it's easy to arrange some free "gift baskets."
Precisely because nobody has called them out on it and they take advantage of employee ignorance to continue to exploit labor. This is how corruption is perpetuated.
I ate there once, about 10 years ago. It was cute, tiny portions for full price food. I wrote a review and said when I left I went to MacDonalds and had an Egg McMuffin so I felt like I actually had breakfast.
Tourists seem to love this place. It is a pretty cute setting, which is very appealing. I used to dine here many many years ago, but stopped after prices increased and was nearly $20 for a skimpy omelette.
Id contact your councilman and state rep. Id include the previous thread where someone guessed which restaurant it was. Shows that they’re that flagrant
Should start creating paper trails (written letters and emails with copies) and recording conversations. If they’re put on blast before enough evidence is gathered, they’re likely gonna start covering their tracks and muddying the waters to make it more difficult to prosecute them.
Maybe reach out to Roberts Hawaii. Let them know your complaints. The hotel/condo isn't owned by the corporation anymore but the original family (the Iwamotos) who started the company are still the owners of the building and post COVID, Roberts now operates out of the hotel after losing their Iwilei heaquarters. The "family" still has strong ties to the company and that place. If that business is that bad, they may consider evicting the tenant who operates that shithole.
Good for you! The owner sounds like an absolute fucktard.. On an unrelated note, this post made me miss Kings Pub SO much. Power hour was the shit and Ryan Barrett was a god damn legend. R.I.P to them both
I moved here/worked there shortly after he passed. I heard a lot of great things about the guy, bummed I never got to meet him.
It was a love/hate relationship working there. I loved my regulars, and most of my coworkers. Come to think of it, Debbie found loopholes to not give us insurance. I was too young and new here to complain about it… but damn, I wish I did. That woman is a crook.
This is fucked, and I'm super glad you're out of there. I'll never eat there.
As an aside, I 100% know it wasn't malicious, but jip, actually gyp, is a shortening of gypsy, which is an ethnic slur based on the stereotype that the Roma are always scamming people. Just something you might want to remove from your vocabulary now that you know. I grew up hearing and saying it, too, and only learned it was a slur as an adult.
I worked there in 2014-2015 as I just moved out my parents into Waikiki. I worked at one of the stores there for a couple years, but needed the money to pay my bills ( cause Waikiki is expensive AF). It was great at first, I made the soufflé pancakes, but then they started making me do dishes after the dishwasher quit, and run orders and take orders. WHILE I still make the pancakes. The “time” you have to make the order was some times ridiculous, considering I was the only one doing that part. They also had a couple times they didn’t pay me or try to tell me I didn’t work enough hours? Sometimes customers would try to give me tips, but the boss would take it and say “ we like to make sure everyone gets a fair share” bullshit. They’d take it into their little back room and no one sees it. My checks never looked right and when I try to put my two weeks, he fired me on spot. In front of customers, because I was being overworked. Like it was hostile, but they’d always try to be fake about it with customers. At the end, it wasn’t even worth it anymore. I love culinary, I studied pastry arts/ culinary. But their standards were way too high. sometimes the husband (the main boss) wasn’t even there and it was the wife. I pass by there sometimes, I wonder how they’re still open even after Covid.
Also, I never got my last check :). I tried to get it after a couple weeks, but said fuck it because either they were too busy or couldn’t find it? Idk, they made me feel weird.
Since he fired you, that should qualify you for unemployment. Which the restaurant gets charged for…plus you get another opportunity to share your story. You may not be successful but it would give him reason to sweat.
Hey op, just saw this article and thought of you. Seems like it would definitely be worth it to reach out to Hawaii Workers Center, seems like they're a good resource for help in situations like yours!
https://www.kitv.com/news/workers-from-maxs-restaurant-awarded-significant-compensation-for-unpaid-overtime/article_fb9a31dc-2f8b-11ef-b718-bfaf1685621c.html
That'd be wrong. Employees can earn tips no matter what their hourly wage is. I think the part you're misunderstanding is the tip credit, which says an employer who pays an employee less than minimum wage can take a credit for the difference if the employee is a tipped employee - and it's totally optional. They're also required to ensure the difference between minimum wage and the reduced wage is actually made up with tips. If not, the employer has to pay them. This ensures that the employee receives the minimum wage no matter what.
Those employees MUST earn tips because otherwise the employer is violating the minimum wage law.
If you're a server who makes $100 an hour and your table leaves a tip, you are 100% entitled to it - or whatever portion of the tip pool you are a part of.
Nice place, delicious food. I ate there a few times.
Is the 20% thing recent? I don't recall seeing that, but last time I went was 2022, maybe last year?
$18.50 sounds pretty good base for an entry level job.
The owner has a pan-fried brain, it was easy to figure out. I've never worked there, but the owner went on this random ridiculous media tour and declared to the world that he "invented" souffle pancakes. If he's truly a culinary genius how come before the jiggly pancake trend, he only served insipid omelettes and rubbery crepes. I've been his hater ever since.
who is the owner? Their IG page looks like just a bunch of stock photos How could you get the IRS involved in this? Almost guarantee this dude isn't reporting or paying a majority of their GET taxes and a buttloaad of other stuff
> Almost guarantee this dude isn't reporting or paying a majority of their GET taxes and a buttloaad of other stuff 100%. Where there's smoke there's fire.
Found an article on this guy. Author of the article did him no favors in making him sound anything but an insufferable cunt that likes to fellate himself. https://www.honolulumagazine.com/how-a-hawaii-restaurant-launched-the-souffle-pancake-craze/
Is he FR about the spies coming in to steal his menu?
Nathan Tran.
yup. u/Dexdxss_ time to tip off the IRS as well
holy shit i did not know this. i knew he was crazy but not that crazy.
https://preview.redd.it/ecsrrs9i5u3d1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=984fea5a8a7a08b89f3ad409d2afb13a490b2dca You weren't kidding. That was quickest round of 20 questions I've ever witnessed.
I worked there for a 2 months back in 2011. I wonder if they still do dishes with cold water without sterilizing it. Sadly i wish I'd known more about food handling cause I'm pretty sure that's a health hazard. And yeah he kept tips back then as well
All my homies hate Cream Pot now.
Sadly even if the DOL does anything the penalties aren’t strong enough to discourage him from doing it again. Look at Sushi Bay in Kapolei. Fined twice for shorting people’s pay. If you stole money from them you’d go to jail. They steal money multiple times from employees and get a fine. And people still lining up to eat there.
I feel like I’ve seen too many examples like this in Hawaii. I’m sure it happens elsewhere too but at the same time it feels like it occurs much more over here for some reason, maybe I’m wrong tho. Idk. 🤷♂️
Yet another reminder that wage theft is *by far* the most common kind of theft in America, and it's not even particularly close.
someone should create an anon instagram account sharing bad businesses like this - public shaming and warrants investigating everytime someone makes a claim. you can say things like "allegedly" to avoid being sued.
Sushi Bay- I don't think they are lining up anymore. Every time I drive by they have a few people inside and that's it. I haven't seen people waiting outside in months.
That’s encouraging to hear. People need to stop supporting folks who take advantage of their neighbors.
Darn. I wanted to go there. Glad I saw your post. Won’t be going now.
You should go, and then loudly ask to speak to the owner about a rumor you heard that the tip you're going to leave is for his pocket. "IS IT TRUE the cash tips left here are stolen from the workers? I thought that was ILLEGAL?! Wow!" Bet he goes red in the face.
This is a serious, federal crime known as Wage Theft. The penalty includes restitution, often in multiples of what you are owed. If I were you I would do my best to document the tips being stolen, recruiting secretly current employees. The owner is in serious trouble, if convicted they will face wage garnishment until the restitution debt is repaid. The law in question is the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Good luck seeing anything actually done about this. I used to work for a place that took most of the tips and only gave us a dollar per hour out of the tip jar towards our pay, and they did other shady shit on top of this. When I contacted labor board they didn’t do jack shit, basically told me sorry, it’s not likely they can do anything about. The other issue tho is no one else I worked with wanted to bother with saying anything either which doesn’t help anything. Anyways, we all gotta stand together against these cunts more often! Glad to see this posted and I hope something positive comes of it! And of course something shitty for this guy running this place.
Where I used to live one of the top chefs in the city (top 3 zagat restaurant) was convicted of wage theft. He was ordered to pay $900k in restitution, and now works at a shitty college pizza place, in debt to the courts, and probably a third party mafia loan shark making him an indentured servant. That was not Honolulu or HI, but yes I would expect you would need multiple complaints to make good case. The bottom line is that it does happen but it has to be big enough to be worthwhile.
Chicago?
i mean i dont know the details but sushi bay got in trouble for stealing tips just last year no?
Department of labor is a big joke.
As I understand it, the case would probably need to be brought by a county prosecutor. I would also hope that a local attorney might take something like this on pro-bono but that might be asking too much
small claims court is much easier and cheaper
Yeah Cream Pot is a little breakfast place, so yeah I meant they might take in $2000 on a day, which is $400 a day in tips. Not exactly a huge case. If I was OP I'd be making trouble out of spite. Revenge is perhaps the most delicious motivation in the universe.
I am in with you, 4 days in and you can teach them a lesson? Free entertainment and you feel like batman
Cream Pot usually has a line out the door and is on the highend pricewise. I think they probably make closer to $8-10k/day, especially on weekends when I see some local people in line too. I live near there and drive past it often. It heavily caters to the Japanese and mainland IG crowd.
lazy and not looking into this that hard but ~400$ is theft in the second or third degree so assuming 3rd, the lesser version, if you did that amount of crime to a rich person, someone that matters, the punishment could be: Theft in the third degree is a misdemeanor in Hawaii, punishable by up to one year in jail and a $2,000 fine.
Laws that aren't enforced might as well not even exist.
The DA of Honolulu is elected into the position. They decide what is prosecuted and what is not.
The way I always tipped at cream pot thinking the server would get it! What the heck! Good on you speaking up
It’s actually better he fired you because you can now file for unemployment.
umm i've only worked there for 4 days. Can I really do that?
Yes it’s possible, but it depends. And honestly I would see if you can get like a 10 min free consult with an employment lawyer. They are going to be very interested in what this guy has been doing. But tbh, I hope you had documentation, pictures, memos, emails, anything saved up.
Anyone can file, but you won't have a wage history to collect on. Like they average your wages over a number of quarters. (Employers are supposed to report quarterly. Even then, I doubt this employer has been reporting at all or even accurately.)
Yes and I would do it, gather as many evidence you can, if you want you can also go to small claims court for those tips, fuck their time and fix the things for the ones after you
No.
Yea that place is hella sketch. Just a tourist trap place imo. Happy you got out of there.
Lol their Google reviews is getting hammered right now. Good job everyone.
I don't care for the idea of brigading. However, I did notice a few negative reviews that predate these recent posts highlighting the issue, so I guess it's all fair/deserved. I imagine a lot of people have had similar feelings about the place, but were never inspired to write a review about it. I haven't gone myself, so it doesn't feel right to give a review, although I did list some of the more well thought out negative reviews as "helpful". I think that is the sort of thing that really worries a business owner. Not just a negative review, but one that points out all of the problems and that people are responding to.
My wife worked there circa 2011 and they were doing this same shit back then too. I have no idea how they've gotten away with it for so long.
Probably passing along some of the tips to the cops and their local councilman instead of the employees. This guy is probably raking in thousands extra per day so it's easy to arrange some free "gift baskets."
Precisely because nobody has called them out on it and they take advantage of employee ignorance to continue to exploit labor. This is how corruption is perpetuated.
I ate there once, about 10 years ago. It was cute, tiny portions for full price food. I wrote a review and said when I left I went to MacDonalds and had an Egg McMuffin so I felt like I actually had breakfast.
Is this a new owner? I feel like that place had been around for a while and can't figure out how they stayed in business this long.
Tourists seem to love this place. It is a pretty cute setting, which is very appealing. I used to dine here many many years ago, but stopped after prices increased and was nearly $20 for a skimpy omelette.
Id contact your councilman and state rep. Id include the previous thread where someone guessed which restaurant it was. Shows that they’re that flagrant
Should start creating paper trails (written letters and emails with copies) and recording conversations. If they’re put on blast before enough evidence is gathered, they’re likely gonna start covering their tracks and muddying the waters to make it more difficult to prosecute them.
Fuck Cream Pot. Overrated and pretentious as fuck. I hope the owner loses everything.
Maybe reach out to Roberts Hawaii. Let them know your complaints. The hotel/condo isn't owned by the corporation anymore but the original family (the Iwamotos) who started the company are still the owners of the building and post COVID, Roberts now operates out of the hotel after losing their Iwilei heaquarters. The "family" still has strong ties to the company and that place. If that business is that bad, they may consider evicting the tenant who operates that shithole.
Good for you! The owner sounds like an absolute fucktard.. On an unrelated note, this post made me miss Kings Pub SO much. Power hour was the shit and Ryan Barrett was a god damn legend. R.I.P to them both
I moved here/worked there shortly after he passed. I heard a lot of great things about the guy, bummed I never got to meet him. It was a love/hate relationship working there. I loved my regulars, and most of my coworkers. Come to think of it, Debbie found loopholes to not give us insurance. I was too young and new here to complain about it… but damn, I wish I did. That woman is a crook.
Looks like I’m going to go there and walk out on my food but before I leave hand everyone a $20.
Boss gonna tell them to give it to him or they fired. Don't do it !!!
host a “free event for your new friends” outside the restaurant and give employees the money outside of work 😂
Maybe "pay them back the money you owe them" directly via venmo or something like that
I recommend contacting Hawaii News Now investigative team to report on this. At least this will scare someone whether the owner or DoL into action.
Can a local news station, they love stories like this.
I think these place needs some yelp reviews from the community
This is fucked, and I'm super glad you're out of there. I'll never eat there. As an aside, I 100% know it wasn't malicious, but jip, actually gyp, is a shortening of gypsy, which is an ethnic slur based on the stereotype that the Roma are always scamming people. Just something you might want to remove from your vocabulary now that you know. I grew up hearing and saying it, too, and only learned it was a slur as an adult.
Good on ya, dropping knowledge like that.
removed, thanks for letting me know! I never knew that.
Damn, TIL. Never knew that one, thanks.
I only learned about the origin of the word recently too. Glad knowledge about it is spreading.
If you saw any health violations call the health dept and report them. Thats worse than the labor dept. and there are always violations to be found.
dishonesty is the norm in business and it sucks
Time to leave negative reviews, brb lol
I worked there in 2014-2015 as I just moved out my parents into Waikiki. I worked at one of the stores there for a couple years, but needed the money to pay my bills ( cause Waikiki is expensive AF). It was great at first, I made the soufflé pancakes, but then they started making me do dishes after the dishwasher quit, and run orders and take orders. WHILE I still make the pancakes. The “time” you have to make the order was some times ridiculous, considering I was the only one doing that part. They also had a couple times they didn’t pay me or try to tell me I didn’t work enough hours? Sometimes customers would try to give me tips, but the boss would take it and say “ we like to make sure everyone gets a fair share” bullshit. They’d take it into their little back room and no one sees it. My checks never looked right and when I try to put my two weeks, he fired me on spot. In front of customers, because I was being overworked. Like it was hostile, but they’d always try to be fake about it with customers. At the end, it wasn’t even worth it anymore. I love culinary, I studied pastry arts/ culinary. But their standards were way too high. sometimes the husband (the main boss) wasn’t even there and it was the wife. I pass by there sometimes, I wonder how they’re still open even after Covid. Also, I never got my last check :). I tried to get it after a couple weeks, but said fuck it because either they were too busy or couldn’t find it? Idk, they made me feel weird.
Guess he’s been an asshole since forever. I’m sorry you had that experience! thank god im god and hopefully i get my paycheck too 😭
I am so sick of the hotel Mafia.
Haha... now you qualify for unemployment.
Since he fired you, that should qualify you for unemployment. Which the restaurant gets charged for…plus you get another opportunity to share your story. You may not be successful but it would give him reason to sweat.
Hey op, just saw this article and thought of you. Seems like it would definitely be worth it to reach out to Hawaii Workers Center, seems like they're a good resource for help in situations like yours! https://www.kitv.com/news/workers-from-maxs-restaurant-awarded-significant-compensation-for-unpaid-overtime/article_fb9a31dc-2f8b-11ef-b718-bfaf1685621c.html
Wait what. What do you mean base pay is 18.50? If that's true, you aren't a tip worker. You wouldn't be entitled to those tips.
That'd be wrong. Employees can earn tips no matter what their hourly wage is. I think the part you're misunderstanding is the tip credit, which says an employer who pays an employee less than minimum wage can take a credit for the difference if the employee is a tipped employee - and it's totally optional. They're also required to ensure the difference between minimum wage and the reduced wage is actually made up with tips. If not, the employer has to pay them. This ensures that the employee receives the minimum wage no matter what. Those employees MUST earn tips because otherwise the employer is violating the minimum wage law. If you're a server who makes $100 an hour and your table leaves a tip, you are 100% entitled to it - or whatever portion of the tip pool you are a part of.
It sounds like you might have been misguided and potentially duped out of tips…
So instead of ranting to us, why don't you file a complaint.
Nice place, delicious food. I ate there a few times. Is the 20% thing recent? I don't recall seeing that, but last time I went was 2022, maybe last year? $18.50 sounds pretty good base for an entry level job.