What's on the plate at Rendell fund-raiser?
Probably beef. Contractors, who say they are owed millions of dollars for their work on the swanky Del Frisco's steakhouse, have gone to court.
What'll be on the plate? Probably lots of beef. The timing of Monday night's $5,000-a-head fund-raiser for Gov. Rendell at Del Frisco's Double Eagle steakhouse comes at an interesting time.
Contractors who built the steakhouse -- who tend to roll in these political circles -- say they are still owed millions for their work. Eight court filings now surround the project, as fingers are pointing between Del Frisco's and its general contractor, Lorient LLC of Plainfield, Ill.
See my article from this morning's Inquirer.
One contractor circulated this e-mail last week:
In the past, I have donated thousands of dollars to Mr. Rendell's campaign and because of that, I have been privileged to learn that I have been invited to his latest fundraiser. I urge all of you to make a large donation to the Governor's good cause and if possible, attend this very special event. Fortunately, it is being held at The DelFrisco's Double Eagle Steak House (borne out of the Lonestar Steakhouse fast food chain) where the food is hot, the drinks are cold, the artwork is beautiful, the décor is detailed, the environment is comfortable, the climate is perfect, the lighting is soothing and the dishes and glassware are spotless because the water is hot. The second and more inexplicable irony is that only approximately 60% of the cost for this venue is paid for to the companies who were hired to build it for them. And there are no scheduled future payments in sight even though some contractors who worked so hard to finish made it clear that they may go out of business as a result of this!! I sense DelFrisco's needs our help and monetary donations as well despite their menu options. Maybe their other 26 locations can participate in helping the contractors as well.
You all may not know it, especially those who attended the opening ... but DelFrisco's ownership was dedicated to the grand opening of this venue on November 20, 2008 beyond your understanding. They hired a national general contractor whom which they have used in the past for such hurried schedules (Lorient, LLC), an nationally known real estate and construction management consultant (Jones Lang LaSalle) and placed their own project management team on site to oversee the construction and the execution of that outrageously aggressive schedule. They had expressed the utmost confidence in us contractors and pushed us hard and heavy while they witnessed our people working "round-the-clock". They knew that we were going to make that opening date and we did it. Maybe this Rendell fund raiser event would not happened without us?"