THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, April 4, 1995 TAG: 9504040354
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LON WAGNER
STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
Wilma Stock put much of herself into a new restaurant that opened on Colley Avenue last fall.
She quit her job at Paddy's Pub to be the cook. She moved from Little Creek road to a house behind the restaurant so she could keep a close watch on operations.
She even gave her name to Wilma's Chili Parlor.
Friday, she found out she had given too much to a restaurant she didn't own. Restaurateur Mike Cavish told Stock that he was closing Wilma's and moving his jewel Felini's into the Wilma's building. Wilma's closes today.
``I don't know how I feel right now,'' Stock said Monday. ``I just feel I should have been informed of this earlier. That's what hurt me most.''
Cavish made his decision to move Felini's from 21st Street in Ghent to the 3900 block of Colley Ave. after he was unable to come to terms on a lease at Felini's. He hopes to buy the Wilma's building. After renovating Wilma's, Cavish wants to open Felini's at its new spot next month.
``Wilma told me Saturday,'' waitress Mary Forgacs said of the closing. ``I thought it was an April Fool's joke. I didn't believe it. I won't work for him again.''
The short notice to the 25 Wilma's employees was intended to keep the restaurant open as long as possible, Cavish said. When a restaurant owner announces a place will shut down, Cavish said, normally the wait staff quickly jumps ship.
He was still negotiating on the Felini's lease until recently, hoping to keep both restaurants open, he said.
``I was not trying to be underhanded with anybody; basically you don't want the restaurant's atmosphere to be disturbed while negotiations are pending,'' Cavish said.
``People get a little excited when the move is thrust upon them in a sudden fashion,'' he added. ``As I told Wilma, loyalty in this business is almost non-existent, and if you don't have a wait staff, you can't keep a kitchen open.''
Wilma's, operating from the former location of the Main Event, was just starting to get a word-of-mouth reputation for its heaps of chili, fried Southern food and cheap prices.
The wait staff seemed more upset with Cavish for turning out Wilma Stock than they did about losing their own jobs. Diners at the restaurant on Friday could hear the staff complaining about the short notice of the closing.
``He said he was going to keep key people and he asked me to work for him,'' said Karen Moreno, a waitress at Wilma's. ``I told him I had no respect for him. I'd follow Wilma wherever she went.''
Stock and Cavish go back 20 years, when she cooked at his downtown Norfolk restaurant called the Judge's Chambers.
Though Stock is miffed at Cavish's short notice on the closing, she doesn't rule out working for him again. They have looked at a building for a new Wilma's, but no firm plans have been made.
Cavish praised Stock for the loyal kitchen crew she had put together.
``The staff were a hell of a lot more dedicated than normal,'' he said, ``and a lot of that had to do with her name on the restaurant. Let's face it, good cooks will always find work because there's so few of them - the pain is in not being able to keep the crew together.''
If Cavish and Stock open another restaurant together, Stock said it will be under different terms.
``If he walks in and says, `I'm shutting the doors,' I want to have a say-so,'' Stock said. ``The only thing I had this time was the authority to run the place. We had no deal. But we will next time.'' ILLUSTRATION: BILL TIERNAN/Staff
[Color Photo]
Wilma Stock
by CNB