You are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

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.