I always wondered why we never heard from Carole Greenwood, former co-owner of Comet Ping Pong. No interviews? No defense of James? Early Pizzagate investigators had uncovered the interesting relationship between the two and the history of their eventual partnership. As usual, it involves art, art galleries (Strand on Volta), and restaurants. Here's what I found and am reposting:
Plus Ça Change...
TODD KLIMAN MAR 5, 2004
"When Greenwood, the sensuous, Berkeleyesque restaurant in Upper Northwest, shut its doors for a couple of months last year, rumors abounded. Would chef Carole Greenwood, whose restless soul had driven her to open three different incarnations of her restaurant in three different locations in less than 10 years, return with a fourth Greenwood in a new part of town?"
BUCK'S FISHING AND CAMPING
"An answer, of sorts, arrived in October, when the curiously named Buck’s Fishing and Camping opened its doors—the very same doors that once belonged to the old restaurant. In fact, aside from a couple of thematic touches, such as the large canoe above the canopied communal table in the center of the dining room, the new restaurant looks an awful lot like the old. And the chef’s sensual, personal cooking remains much the same:"
"In fact, there is a dramatic difference, though one perhaps undetectable to the casual observer: It’s the first time Greenwood, a self-described “control freak,” has ever ceded command of the business end. That task falls to James Alefantis, formerly of Johnny’s Half Shell, Greenwood’s new co-owner."
"Greenwood was, she says, as good as gone this past summer, determined to start over and begin a new life for herself as a full-time artist."
ART DEALER/ STRAND ON VOLTA
"It was Alefantis who drew her back. He was, he says, “maxed out” on his job at Johnny’s, longing to strike out on his own.
He took a step toward fulfilling his dream of greater creative autonomy when he opened an art gallery, the Strand on Volta, in Georgetown. He took another, unwitting step when, on the lookout for artists, he decided to become Greenwood’s dealer. When the gallery launched last May with a group show titled “Ground Work,” Greenwood was one of the three featured artists. A one-woman show of her pieces followed in September."
ALEFANTIS "ARRANGES" CO-RUNNING GREENWOOD
"she was essentially working two jobs at the restaurant but also that her rent there was “ridiculously high.”
He immediately got on the phone with her landlord to negotiate a new lease for her. There was only one hitch: If she wanted this drastically reduced rent, this lease without which he’d told her she couldn’t keep on doing business—well, she couldn’t keep on doing business as she was. Discussions revolved around a single, nonnegotiable stipulation: that Alefantis would be “actively involved” in the restaurant."
JAMES/CAROLE AND TEEN SON
"...having sublet her house in Mount Pleasant for the summer, Greenwood was now without a place to stay.....Alefantis stepped in, taking in Greenwood and her teenage son, Dylan, at his apartment in Georgetown. One Saturday, typically the busiest day of the week for a restaurant, Greenwood came down with food poisoning. As it happened, Alefantis had a rare night off and so, with an assist from Dylan, he took over the kitchen at Greenwood."
"Returning to cooking with Alefantis alongside her, she says, was a way to “make a more gradual transition” to her eventual life as a full-time artist."
"She may have agreed to let him adjust her prices to reposition the restaurant as a neighborhood eatery"
"She casts a glance at Alefantis. “Would I have stayed in Washington without a gallery show of my work?” She pauses. “No.”"
https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/food/article/13028600/plus-ccedila-change
SHOWS AT THE STRAND
"Illicit Encounters" at Strand on Volta Owned by James Alefantis
"if you look up Strand on Volta... all the links are dead...
Weird."
"Artists, writers, politicos, lobbyists and educators gathered at Strand on Volta Gallery to celebrate the opening of cutting-edge works by three international video artists.....allery owner and restaurateur James Alefantis said "Moving images are so stunningly contemporary. It has been incredible to see the response of Washington art collectors to this art form." Media Ma ers for American President and CEO David Brock, lobbyists Heather and Tony Podesta, The American Prospect senior editor Garance Franke-Ruta, The Washington Post editorial cartoonist Tom Toles and Sculptor Jeff Spaulding were also spotted studying the video works displayed on TV screens and projected onto walls of the gallery."
https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/5gtf4l/illicit_encounters_at_strand_on_volta_owned_by/
Strand on Volta Cuts In To Some Meaty Issues
By Michael O'Sullivan October 10, 2003
"ODDLY ENOUGH, amid all the images of flesh on view in Strand on Volta's latest group exhibition, shown along with examples of some less readily identifiable bodily tissue/fluid sculpted from molten glass -- teeth? a jawbone? sperm? tears? -- the word that springs to mind is not "meat" but "plastic." As in pliable, capable of being molded, able to deform continuously and permanently without rupturing."
"This is, I think, central to the point of "Meat and You," a smart if somewhat esoteric show organized by artist James Huckenpahler to underscore not only our relationship to meat but our embodiment of it."
"Meat, after all, is not so much a solid, static thing -- Frank Day's grotesquely lovely photos of pig feet and dried dog heads notwithstanding -- as it is a kind of energy."
"While the artist has been known to make installations that evoke, in no uncertain terms, bloody entrails draped over meat hooks, that's not what he's showing here. Sure, the hooks are still there..."
"MEAT AND YOU -- Through Oct. 25 at Strand on Volta, 1531 33rd St. NW. 202-333-4663. www.strandonvolta.com. Open Tuesday-Saturday 10 to 4. Free."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2003/10/10/strand-on-volta-cuts-in-to-some-meaty-issues/8a433284-af01-4d27-aff1-2afd819a815b/?utm_term=.4e8646efdccf
"Meat and You: Works by Graham Caldwell, Frank Day, Stephen E. Lewis and William Newman"
2003-09-29 until 2003-10-25
Strand on Volta
"Frank Day�s images of animal fetishes are part of a larger series set in the West African city of Accra. His earlier work includes a study of the persistence of memory amidst the rebuilding of east Berlin in the 1990�s"
https://www.absolutearts.com/artsnews/2003/09/29/31401.html
"2003 GROUND WORK: Recent Work by Margaret Boozer, Carole Greenwood and Erin Root, Strand on Volta Gallery, Washington, DC"
http://www.zenithgallery.com/pdf%20resumes/Boozer,%20Margaret.pdf
MORE RESEARCH:
"James Alefantis used to own a DC Art Gallery named Strand on Volta! Now owns Transformer gallery. MUST SEE its disturbing!" https://voat.co/v/pizzagate/1654738
David Ibata: I See A Darkness http://www.transformerdc.org/exhibitions/overview/exhibition-david-ibata-i-see-a-darkness
"Homage to Noble? Alefantis' knowledge of Art Brut suggests this poster, made for the weekly Sasha Lord Presents events at Comet Ping Pong, are referencing Satanist abuse.
But it goes deeper. Apparently, The University of London is the world's most important producer of art gallery curators. They are colloquially known as the "Courtauld Mafia". We can see fairly easily that they have graduates working at the TATE, MoMA, Guggenheim etc.
But the school, located on the Strand, seems to be some sort of dogwhistle, because Alefantis' old gallery--Strand on Volta--appears to be referencing the area. Not only that, but he refers to himself as James Strand Alefantis in the story. If one knew a thing or two about the art world, this would be an obvious reference." READ ALL!
http://svvordfish.blogspot.com/2018/01/explosive-new-evidence-links-tony.html
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Yuke ago
Every time I've ever read about how Alefantis got Buck's it makes me wonder a couple of things:
1.) How could he afford to open up an art gallery if all he was before, at best, was a restaurant manager (at the half shell)?
2.) It seems he at least used Greenwood, and at worst, completely conned her out of her own restaurant.
3.) To have expanded as rapidly as he has done means that again, at best, he has been money laundering, dealing drugs or something, and at worst...well, pizzagate.
I didn't realize that he had actually played a part with regards to Greenwood's art dealings. That obviously gave him info and an angle to get in. Then there's the stuff about supposedly getting caught with her son as well.
Shady, shady stuff. We'll crack this bastard one day.
septimasexta ago
Yep. Great comment. And it appears that he is still at it. Friends in high places. It would be great if a real journalist could track down Greenwood and get her on record.
septimasexta ago
WOW! Found this detailed Q & A with Carole Greenwood from 2008. AMAZING FIND! Lots of info including STORY OF COMET PING PONG SAUCE! It certainly does involve Toigo Farms:
"As to the photographs, they are from the first canning of Comet sauce, the tomato sauce i made for the pizzas at Comet Ping Pong. Attached are some newer images from this year's batch. So the story begins with Mark Toigo, a trusted friend and co-conspirator, who tried and tried to talk me into buying all of his tomatoes at the end of the season to make the pizza sauce....I could have the same consistent sauce for an entire year, made from tomatoes that I had seen, worked with, tasted- and of a quality and consistency I could manage. So I drove to Punxatawney, Pennsylvania (yes, the same place where the groundhog sees his shadow) and labored (in a hairnet no less) with my friend and colleague - chef David Hagedorn, now a columnist for the Washington Post, to achieve something that would satisfy my idea for the pizza sauce - a pure flavour of tomato. It was strange to can something on such a large scale - cases and cases rolling out of these seemingly antiquated machines...."
"Mark Toigo is a very close friend - someone I consider a member of my extended family- we have known each other for a long time...back to Mark- as oddly enough as it may sound, I deliberately avoided this charismatic man at the markets for a couple of years- I dunno, in some ways I am shy, and his exuberance made me a little nervous. Many chef friends of mine knew him well, had been to his farm in Pennsylvania, and encouraged me to meet him. One sunny Saturday, however, I pulled up to the Falls Church market in my 65 Ford Falcon convertible and he came over to chat. I think he knew who i was, but he made it easy for me, admiring my car- whatever. Well the rest is history.Mark is part of both restaurants- part of who I am as a chef and a person."
"my business partner, James Alefantis- " Carole didn't consider him a chef or cook.
"One summer (2003-2004), the summer we turned Greenwood into Buck's Fishing & Camping, Dylan and I stayed with James and David at their grand house in Georgetown." One might assume the David is David Brock. Was he behind funding for Strand on Volta and Comet and Bucks? He and the Tony Podestas showed up at an art opening there.
"As to the Comet sauce - though I gave the narrative of how and where the idea of it came from, I never really gave any sort of recipe- though to give you the actual recipe would be misleading as the first ingredient for the 2007 batch is - 2200 pounds of fresh plum tomatoes, peeled and seeded.....This is the basic recipe for the sauce i use on the pizza. I must admit that the 2007 sauce is different from 2006- last year we used a hybrid tomato, this year we used San Marzano plums." NO MENTION OF HEIRLOOMS.... http://archive.vn/Gr7CT
Lansing-Michigan ago
Or a citizen journalist.