

Article by Joshua Fitzwater and Josh Gregory

Lead photo of pre-made southern style biscuit dough in the Cotton Kitchen provided by Steve Jefferys

Rocco DiSpirito once claimed that “Nine out of ten restaurants close in the first year.” While not accurate, (in reality, 60% of restaurants close in the first five years) it highlights an irrefutable point; opening and operating a restaurant is difficult when done with the very best business practices. And to wit, one imagines that the odds of failure only increase when ownership makes questionable choices. Are we then to believe that the only measure of success is simply keeping the open sign on?

On January 27th of 2016, by order of the Virginia Tax Commissioner, Cotton Southern Bistro at Hilltop in Virginia Beach was padlocked shut due to $32,620.00 of unpaid taxes dating back to a June 2015 court case. The next day it was reopened. Just over a week later, on February 5th ― first on Channel 10 and then again on Channel 3 ― stories ran detailing unpaid employees protesting outside of the other Cotton location in Chesapeake after having arrived for work to a locked restaurant with a sign reading the restaurant was “closed for renovations”.

The longer of the two spots, Channel 3, featured Chesapeake Cotton servers Lahoma Dixon and Jessica Miele recounting their experiences regarding issues of non-payment for their work and overtime with checks issued to each of them bouncing. Prior to these stories breaking, I, the editor at Southern Grit, had heard of similar issues with receiving payment for work in 2015 privately from Joshua Gregory, the former kitchen manager at Cotton’s Hilltop location and the recently added contributing head Virginia Beach writer to Southern Grit. In addition, I had in months previous been in conversations with Cotton’s Owner Chef Jeff Brown concerning advertisement. Due to those ties, we at Southern Grit hesitated in following up on the information we were privy to and that, in hindsight, was a mistake. We (Gregory and I) encourage you, however, to make up your own mind after reading this article, knowing in advance of these noted connections.

A little under a week ago, Gregory and I began contacting Cotton employees to see if others would be willing to go on the record as Dixon and Miele had with Channel 3. We also spoke with both Dixon and Miele to learn more about their claims. In an effort to ensure both sides had a voice in our reporting, we also tried to elicit Jeff Brown’s side of this story. After several attempts to get him to speak with us on the record he stated, “No, thanks.” As of the time of publishing, the offer still stands to Jeff Brown to speak with Southern Grit magazine on the record if he would like to.

Miele was the first employee we spoke with and she informed us that “Problems have been going on for months. Every paycheck I’ve had for the last 6 months has bounced. In December, we could no longer cash out our tips and were switched to cards for payment instead, which caused a lot of problems.” In reference to being switched to cards and not being able to cash out at the end of the night, both Dixon and another Cotton server, Alina Puckett, (not featured in the Channel 3 report) told us that when customers would use credit cards the 3% processing fee was taken entirely out of their (the servers) tips. Dixon and Puckett both informed us of grievances that they had with not being paid around the Christmas pay period. Dixon telling me, “Between the 23rd to the 30th of December I was not paid. I cannot work for free. I am owed 79 hours of overtime in total.”

After speaking with some of the servers, we decided to attempt to speak with some of the cooks and chefs that had and still worked for Brown at Cotton. We spoke to former cook Paul Roberts, former Kitchen Manager Steve Jeffries, former line cook Justin Robinson, former cook Nic Hagen, line cook Arrol Britton who quit two weeks ago, and a still employed member of Cotton at Hilltop who, due to their job, wished to remain anonymous.

Roberts, who worked as a cook from January until April 2015 and did shifts at both the Chesapeake and Virginia Beach location, informed us that he was not compensated for shifts at the Hilltop location. Further, he told us that after restaurant week, he had a verbal argument with Brown about not getting paid and ended up, “[…] putting it in writing.” Roberts informed us that to date he is still owed payment for 63 hours of work.

Jefferys, who was a kitchen manager at Cotton from November 2014 until June 2015, also explained to us that he had issues with being paid for his work, “After 6 checks bounced, I ended up going to his [Brown’s] bank.” Jefferys further explained, “[Brown] would change salaries without notice, saying that business is not looking good and then give you $300 less. He would also wait until the bank closed on the weekends to issue checks to allow for extra days [before payment].”

Passionately, both Jefferys and Roberts also detailed how, despite Cotton’s marketing ― heavily consisting of being “from farm to fork” and championed on the restaurant’s website ― nothing could have been further from the truth. Jefferys informed us that, “After a month working there, it was obvious that Jeff [Brown] was being dishonest to the public. Just about everything was canned and pre-packaged: Sysco eggs, the sausages, the pickles, most all of it. I can’t lie, I was embarrassed to work there. I’ve worked in the industry for 20 plus years now and Jeff was lying to the public.”

Roberts in turn referred to Brown’s claims of being “from farm to fork” as “[…] complete hypocrisy.” Roberts and Jefferys were the first of the employees from the Cotton kitchen to also inform us that the heralded Cotton biscuits, featured prominently in Distinction Magazine’s “Biscuit Tour” article, were, as Robert’s stated, “vacuum sealed pre-made Pillsbury biscuits.” A claim that Jeffries first mentioned when telling us, “Jeff [Brown] likes to blame staff for issues at Cotton, but it comes down to putting bad things on the plate. He was serving Pillsbury puffy frozen biscuits to the public. I ran to Walmart to get them.”

Both Jefferys and Roberts however worked at and left Cotton before the Distinction article was actually published. So it is feasible that Brown could have switched up the biscuits he served and began making them from scratch, using a recipe his “Nanny” as a child taught him, by the time Lorraine Eaton at Distinction met with Brown in July for the article. So we asked line cook Justin Robinson who was an employee working in July and through October 2015 at Cotton in Chesapeake when the Distinction article was published. He informed us that he himself went to Walmart to grab the biscuits, corroborating that they were pre-packed and frozen. Robinson also has outstanding issues with being compensated for his work at Cotton. Server Dixon, who was employed in November of 2015, also informed us that she was “[…] sent to Walmart to pick up biscuits in a red bag.” However, it is true both Robinson and Dixon worked at the Chesapeake Cotton location and Eaton visited the Virginia Beach Hilltop location for her article, so we spoke to line cook Arrol Britton who was a line cook at Hilltop in July during the creation of Eaton’s article for Distinction and he informed us of the following:

“I can estimate that over 95% of the time they [Cotton’s biscuits] were frozen/premade. I’ve seen them made [by hand] twice. But to be honest that is because we were out of the Pillsbury frozen biscuits.”

We then reached out and spoke to the current Cotton employee at Hilltop who chose to speak on the condition of anonymity. They also confirmed that the frozen biscuits were being served to the public at the time the article was written and that the biscuits have been served continuously that way since.

Based on Facebook posts of Cotton and related supporters, Brown is often represented as championing the importance of the “from farm to fork” food movement and sourcing local. Most recently, the general manager at the Cotton Hilltop location, Tiffany Ross posted a photo of Brown with Cape Henry student’s with the caption, “Chef Jeff Brown teaching Cape Henry students the importance of from farm to fork, local & veggies.” Nic Hagen however informed us of a contradictory experience when he was briefly hired as a cook at Cotton in Chesapeake in 2012. He explained to us:

“I read that Cotton was from farm to table. I also heard it from others in the business. I truly went in there thinking it was from farm to table. But when I walked in the kitchen it was all canned vegetables and frozen food. At first, I was thinking of ways maybe I could help turn it around, but by the end of the day, I knew there wasn’t any hope. I asked Jeff why he [ran the restaurant] like that and was told, ‘That’s what the public wants.’”

After completing his first full shift at Cotton, Hagen quit. Hagen, who ― after watching him work and documenting many of the dishes which he makes as the now chef and owner of HomeGrown in Portsmouth ― is soundly one of the staunchest supporters and practitioners of “from farm to fork” that we have covered. During the interview, Hagen also explained that, “So many people these days claim to be from farm to fork, but it is hard to do and a lot of work. I work really hard with local farmers and it hurts when others claim to do it but don’t.” A sentiment echoed by others in the industry with a strong commitment to the practice.

To date, Lahoma Dixon, Jessica Miele, Alina Puckett, and Justin Robinson, all employees at the time of the Channel 3 and Channel 10 pieces, have told us they still have not received their final paychecks, in addition to the claims of payments in arrears for other hours worked as previously noted. Paul Roberts also has told us that, to date, he has not been compensated for the shifts he worked at Hilltop. With one in six restaurant workers living below the poverty line in the US, [Economic Policy Institute, 2014] and with up to 46% below the poverty line for families where both members are industry workers for their primary source of income, we feel an impetus to report on any substantial new information as we speak with other employees in the coming days concerning outstanding pay for their work.

We, to date, have attempted through several channels to contact Lorraine Eaton for comment and have not been able to reach her. We spoke briefly with Clay Barbour the current editor of Distinction Magazine via email who informed us, “Hey, thanks for reaching out to us. I appreciate the position you’re in, but I’m afraid we just can’t comment on something until we have all the facts.” We hope after reading this article Distinction will look into the statements of so many of the cooks/chefs/employees that worked under Brown at Cotton and gather more facts to ascertain if the dish represented in Eaton’s article is accurate to the customer experience.

Link to the Distinction “Biscuit Tour” article distinctionhr.com/2015/10/biscuit-tour/

Link to Distinction feature video on Jeff Brown’s Miss Mary’s (Nanny) biscuits www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckjOu8-C9hk

Link to Channel 3 news report on Cotton wtkr.com/2016/02/05/cotton-southern-bistro-employees-demanding-paychecks-after-doors-temporarily-close/

Link to the Channel 10 news report on Cotton wavy.com/2016/02/05/chesapeake-restaurant-temporarily-closes-some-employees-not-paid/

