Despite Reports and Rumors, King David's-Chipotle Deal Not Yet Complete

King David's Restaurant, a familiar Marshall Street sight for the past 36 years, has been in the Univeristy news lately with rumors floating that Chipotle, a popular Mexican food restaurant chain, would be taking over the coveted Marshall Street location.

"We haven't made a deal yet," owner Milad Hetem said. "We're almost there, but not yet. We're studying the lease agreement still, we have been since May. But no, we haven't come to an agreement."

That's good news for the loyal patrons of the middle-eastern restaurant that's been on Marshall Street since 1974 when Mr. Hetem stopped his dry-cleaning business and decided to try out owning a restaurant. What emerged from this departure has been, with the exception of Varsity and the University itself, a constant in Syracuse amid its constant change. This center of gravity has meant a lot to the University itself, adding to the culture and ethos of an updating Marshall Street.

Mr. Hetem, now 76 years old, has grown his family and his business around this location, and a few years ago opened a stand-alone restaurant in Fayetteville. He admits he prefers a location that stands alone, because Marshall Street is terrible for parking and he feels that a location that was the restaurant's alone, with a parking lot, would be good for business, like in Fayetteville. He owns the building on Marshall Street, and though it's sad to think of being elsewhere, business-wise, leasing the location makes sense.

His profits on Marshall Street have gotten smaller in the past few years as most people are paying with credit and debit these days, he says. The charges that credit card companies impose on businesses add up over time and it's quite different from the cash-heavy business he used to see in the early days of King David's.

Estimates vary that between 80 and 90% of undergraduates carry credit cards. In an $827 billion revolving credit-debit market, a market that only became viable in the late 1980s when credit card companies opened exponentially higher numbers of cards each year, credit has become a necessity to business. Today, there are more than 610 million credit cards in the United States alone, and their prevalence has affected many small businesses who now have to pay fees to get their payments processed. With supplier costs rising and credit charges increasing, small businesses feel the pinch as the market shifts to adapt to these new trends.

Hetem loves the business, though. He loves to make food, to see the same people, to have a relationship with an area as diverse as the University. Sometimes, however, businessmen have to make business savvy choices, and negotiating a lease with an outside source is smart. He laments that Chipotle would come in and remodel the whole building, erasing the 36-year familiarity of the location.

"I would prefer a smaller business with a similar menu," he said. "My customers don't want Chipotle to come in." But come in it may, depending on negotiations of said lease.

But don't worry, he assures people, King David's will still be a part of Syracuse. "I'm not closing the business, I'm just moving."

Unrelated Food For Thought

With Congress split, unless there is a drastic change in the rapport of the Legislative Branch, the next two years will be a giant waste of time, money, and sanity. If this country continues to be run by a stalemate government, we're all doomed. Or you all are, because I'm moving to Chile.

Now, this may get too political, seeing as how I'm so far left I've come around to the right with a shotgun, the Declaration of Independence, and a life-sized poster of Thomas Jefferson that I use to get me "amped up," but I hate Congress. I do. They're all a bunch of idiots, getting paid off by lobbyists and doing absolutely nothing. They never work together, and they get paid entirely too much money for the job that they're actually doing. They are all self-serving, methodical capitalists sent from hell to destroy America. That's a hyperbole, for the record. They have so much power but they all use it to serve themselves and smear each other.

I think that Congress should be a no-pay job. The taxpayers should pay for everything that they do (travel, groceries, etc), but there should be an oversight committee to prevent them from misspending. Their spouses should have to keep their day jobs, and their kids should need student loans. Like teachers, they should get sick days and vacation time. They are public servants after all, and should be treated as such- they should take public transportation to work, but taxes should buy their Metrocard or Bus Pass, and they should be allowed to invest as they see fit and maybe something like a $20,000 personal expense account (used for vacation, abortions). All business conducted should be paid for by the people. We should not pay for things not involved in changing policy and affecting our lives.

Congress should be full of real people, not politicians. That's what I'd like. I really think it was designed to be that way, I mean look at the power it has, and the way it's set up to be a proper representation of a canvass of America.

The news coverage of the election was horrible. "In depth" was a term my friend Howie used to describe it. "Total crap," I said. The conversations that I had with the four other pothead college kids I was watching the elections with were equally, if not more, enlightening than the coverage on CNN and MSNBC (and don't get me started on Fox News...). In fact, we were discussing what Congress really has the power to do, debating as such a conversation would suggest, when CNN decided to have the same conversation. I think our's was more stimulating, interesting, and compelling. It's all well and good, but none of us are passing ourselves off as "experts," we are self-proclaimed idiots. Either this country needs more experts who can articulate themselves on television, or we need to cover the elections differently, as a media.

On CNN, amid all the really pretty graphics and interactive information, there was a lack of actual coverage. The two things that pissed me off most were:

1. Paul Begala steering the conversation into the direction of: "You can see a lot of rising stars out there tonight," and CNN actually having a conversation about it. These people are politicians, not baseball players. There is no rookie of the year, and to elevate them to such a high status is a big disservice to America. Leave that conversation out of coverage. Pundits should not be on television, or at least a news channel. They're entertainers, not newscasters. You should have to seek out their opinion, not be force-fed it. I don't care what side of the "aisle" they lean, because I don't believe in aisles, sides or political parties; I believe in united states. United being the operative word.

2. In the three or so hours of watching, I never once learned what any of the newly elected Senators or Representatives actually campaigned on. In three hours, I only heard a bunch of people discuss the same things over and over again, without ever going into actual depth. Explaining someone's credentials isn't coverage, it's recitation of a resumé. I still cannot tell you what any of the people who got elected last night are planning to do with their new power. And for a branch of government that can declare war, raise taxes, enact laws, monitor and survey us, I'd like to be a little better informed.

With that said, let me be more explicit: I am upset that I have no idea what this election really means. It's not that I'm not intelligent enough to know, or to research it. I'd just like to know who is really running a third this country right now, because I have no idea what anyone's agenda is, other than to undo everything that's already been done in the past two years (which is nothing, I think).

If Congress was filled with people like you and me (which it very well may be now, but the coverage did nothing to enlighten us as to the fact), they'd know what this country is like a little better. I'm not talking that TEA party crap of "I'm you," I'm talking people that are really like me, or you.

Instead, we've got people who spend $160 million of their own money to get elected, and still fail (can I just point out that I read this in a newspaper, never heard it on the coverage last night?). What an excessive amount of money. The fact that people have that much money to spend on their own campaign shows how disconnected from the rest of America they truly are. That's like taking the GDP of 3/4 of Africa (I actually have no idea what the GDP of 3/4 of Africa is) and putting it towards a pair of shoes, or any other necessary but finitely enjoyed thing in one's life. Meg Whitman may have lost, but massive amounts of money were spent on getting some of these people into office. Don't people see that curtailing excess of government starts with electing candidates who are, themselves, not excessive? Of course, that then opens the debate for what is excess...

Tipping Norms Varied in the University Area

To tip or not to tip, for many, that is never the question. In the United States, a 15-20% gratuity for food services is commonplace, but worldwide, the act of tipping is varied. According to the University's Center for International Services, Syracuse University currently represents all 50 states and over 115 countries. This blend of different cultures and norms varies the way people tip. To those who work in the service industry and rely on tips, this is at times harrowing.

For Allen Terry, a graduate student in the E. A. Link School of Engineering at Syracuse University and delivery driver for Jimmy Johns Gourmet Sandwiches, he definitely notices the differences between people, though he's quick to say it's not necessarily a cultural issue, but perhaps a socio-economic issue. He argues that with people, especially freshman out on their own for the first time, it comes down to whether the person has ever worked a day in their life.

"Sometimes you can just tell if they have money or not, but most freshman don't tip unless they've already had a job. The kids who are on their parents money don't usually tip, and you can tell who they are," he says. But he laments, and admits that all he's really doing is delivering sandwiches. "If we were delivering something complicated I would expect the tips to be more frequent and better, but we're just selling subs. I know we try to get there in less than ten minutes, but regulars come to expect that and so it becomes less impressive to them, I guess, unless they've worked in a similar job before in which case they're more understanding." But does the service itself actually matter in tipping?

According to a study by Cornell University's Michael Lynn, a professor of economics who did his Master's thesis on the behavior of consumers and tipping, argues that service very rarely affects the tip. His study found that "tip percentages are only weakly related to customers' ratings of service quality in restaurant settings." Interestingly, it appears that restaurant tips are not a good measure of customer satisfaction.

Lynn's study also suggests that tipping is more expected in countries whose populations are based on the possibility of bettering oneself. If a metaphorical ladder exists, people seem to tip, and servers and deliverers seem to work harder to get them.

Terry agrees. "From what I've seen, some Asian students are awful with tipping. They seem to be under this impression that its supposed to be handed to them, like they won't even come down to the lobby in an apartment complex to meet us, we have to go to them. European people tip pretty well, but it depends on who it is," he says.

Josh 'Flower' Sharp, a bartender and manager at Chuck's, says that he has a guy who comes in often and runs up very high tabs, in the area of $100-150, and he never leaves a tip. Obviously he works, and he has money, but he doesn't tip. Flower serves him all of the drinks that can run up a tab that high, but the man never leaves a tip. "It's always like, 'Thanks, but those drinks don't pay my bills,'" he says. Flower says that a dollar per drink or a 10-20% tip on a tab is totally acceptable. "But not everyone does it."

Still the question remains - what earns a tip? Terry and Lynn agree that tips depend on the quality of service, and that 15-20% is a fair gratuity. "If the service is great," Terry says, "I'll even go higher, like 30% for a waiter who was really attentive."

And, just for fun, here is Quentin Tarrantino's take on this (warning, it's explicit):