Seen a Rogue on the loose? Get in touch with our Roguemeister: JOHN SCHRAG jschrag@wweek.com (503) 243-2122 FAX: (503) 243-1115 The waiters at Sammy's Restaurant and Bar on Northwest 23rd Avenue are a pretty careful bunch, so managers were surprised by a recent letter of complaint from Eric Washington, of Bronx, N.Y. Mr. Washington explained that he had visited Sammy's on a business trip in January and discovered that some "red sauce" on his chair got all over his dinner jacket and pants. His server, when apprised of the mishap, suggested he send the cleaning bill to the restaurant. Enclosed with the letter was a receipt from John's Cleaners of the Bronx to the tune of $25.95. Like many restaurants, Sammy's picks up the cleaning tab when customers' clothes are accidentally soiled. So last week managers asked servers if they remembered the incident. Waiter Scott "Scooter" Hameister was intrigued by the letter. "It just seemed so vague," he says. "I thought, this can't be right." Scooter called a friend at L'Auberge and told her about the letter. By amazing coincidence, he discovered, Mr. Washington had also dined at L'Auberge on his business trip and also had an unfortunate encounter with some red sauce that resulted in a $25.95 cleaning bill. But Mr. Washington's heart-rending string of bad luck did not end there. WW has confirmed that he sent identical letters to at least a dozen of Portland's top restaurants, including Chez Grill, Chez Jose (East and West), Jake's Grill, Higgins, Pazzo, Wildwood and Zefiro. To sit in red sauce once is unfortunate. To sit in red sauce a dozen times--well, that suggests roguishness of the highest order. In fact, WW found that virtually everything in Washington's letter is bogus: His "apartment" is actually a mailbox at the Budget Copy Center; John's Cleaners is actually Eddie's Cleaners, which charges just $7 to clean a suit; and we're willing to bet Mr. Washington never set foot in Portland. Luckily, Portland restaurateurs weren't taken in. "I just laughed," says Wildwood general manager Hal Finkelstein, who keeps a log of customer spills in order to weed out shysters. "It happens maybe once a month. I remember them all." "It was pathetic," says Paul Mallory, co-owner of Higgins, who also logs spillage incidents. "This letter was so obviously fraudulent I just threw it away." Variants of this particular racket have been around a long time, according to Chuck Gohn, a consultant with Restaurant Associates NW in Beaverton. "It's an easy scam," he says. "Most restaurants are susceptible because of the mentality that the customer is always right. A lot of them just write the checks. Even if they suspect fraud, they won't do anything because he's in New York." Here's a suggestion for our readers: Send copies of your unpaid bills to Mr. Washington at Box 258, 4355 White Plains Road, Bronx, NY 10466. Think of it as a Bronx Cheer, Portland-style. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Willamette Week | originally published March 8, 2000