John Turner

The Detroit News is reporting that the La Shish chain of restaurants is closing for good. While it is bad news to the hundreds of workers that worked in the restaurants and commissary (especially in this economy), I am very happy that this chain is gone.

I have refused to eat there for the last several years because its owner not only owes millions of dollars in back taxes, but instead of standing up like a man and getting his affairs in order, the guy fled the country to Lebanon. While everyone deserves their day in court, you have to admit that running away and leaving your wife and the rest of your family to deal with the fallout is pretty suspicious and just downright weak. The owner has also been involved in some shady real estate deals in my local area that have ended up costing cities millions of taxpayer money.

I personally boycotted this restaurant chain even though I loved the food and even though it cause some minor grief for me at work. It was a popular lunch spot for group meetings and special occasions, and refusing to eat there often forced my co-workers to settle for someplace else. But, I felt the minor grief was worth it to make a point that if you’re going to take people’s money and run a business, then you do it straight and you don’t run halfway around the world and hide.

It appears other people felt the same way as I did, and this caused business to fall off more than 50%. That is too bad…if only the owner had acted according to the law and stayed to protect his family and his reputation, the guy could have done much better, probably even taking the chain national.