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Miss Adams: Frying pan to fire?

Category: The Diner Industry

Published on Wednesday, 28 October 2009 14:50

Written by Randy Garbin

The news about the Miss Adams Diner makes for some interesting reading. Some very telling lines. I especially like the math.

Whenever I think “justice” may have finally prevailed, I’m all too often wrong. More wishful thinking than reality.

Case in point: Jae Chung. He bought the Miss Adams for $98K, then re-​fianaced it to a value apparently exactly 200% — double what it was really worth, then ran it into the ground and walked away. That sure reads like Jae pocketed the $ 72gs difference. So that numbered company is bankrupt, and that’s that. That’s simplifying matters, but I’m sure alot of Jae’s math is like that.

The 1998 – 2008 real estate boom finally imploded. A house of cards. The legacy of Jae Chung is textbook. Here’s a guy who bought buildings and left them empty, bought things and ran them into the ground. A guy who wrecked what he had. All the while, the banks were falling over each other to lend lend lend people like Jae more money. After all, real estate was a license to print money, right? 20% or more equity growing every year. Yesssir. A scenario that was out of control, and obviously unsustainable.

In the end, it is the locals who will pay for the lending officer’s greed. They will make all their customers pay for their bad decisions. And Jae will be reappear somewhere else, and do it all over again.

So the Miss Adams is bought by realtors who are not restauranteurs, not diner operators, but opportunists. Hmmm, what’s the first item on the new menu? I believe the recipe calls for disaster…

Poor little diner.