“Thank you, Bates.” I’m going to need it.
Adam adjusted his tie, smoothed his jacket, and steeled his nerves. In a little over two weeks, he’d made a complete one-eighty about his decision on which restaurant would be best for the Magnificent Mile property. Now he needed to make sure the others saw it his way.
He opened the door and strode into the boardroom with his head held high. “Good afternoon, gentlemen. Thank you for coming today.”
“We’re glad to have a chance to speak with you,” Raymond Vilowski, a member of the Chicago City Council and a longtime business partner, replied, “especially after hearing the disturbing news Mr. Schlittler has been sharing with us.”
Adam glanced across the room and found himself staring to the cold blue eyes of Amadeus Schlittler.
Shit!
“Hello, Mr. Kelly,” the chef said with a ripple of his fingers. “I hope you don’t mind my presence today. After all, you’re here to discuss the location of my restaurant, the one you’ve convinced all these men to invest their money in, right?”
Adam’s jaw tightened, holding back every expletive he’d wanted to hurl at Schlittler over the last week. Instead, Adam held his gaze as he sat at the head of the table. “No, I don’t mind at all,” he said in an even voice.
“Marvelous.” Schlittler rose from his chair and circled the men at the table with slow, long steps like a sovereign deciding how to deal with a band of traitors he’d just captured. “As I was telling you, Mr. Kelly enticed me with the prospect of opening my latest restaurant on the top floor of his building on Michigan Avenue. Naturally, I expect only the best, and even though that property barely lived up to my expectations, he then tried to convince me to consider several....” He paused, rubbing his fingers together as though he’d just touched something covered with filth. “...less desirable locations.”
The men all turned to Adam, their eyes asking why. But it was Ray who finally gave them words. “I thought you had this all laid out, Adam. You said you’d be evicting the current tenant when the lease was up, making way for Chef Amadeus.”
“That was my original intention, but it seems the current tenant, Chef Lia Mantovani, has been making quite a name for herself lately.” He opened his folder and found the article Bates had so cleverly inserted for him. “Just this week, she got rave reviews from a food critic at the London Times.”
He handed the article to Ray first, followed by the feature in Food and Wine talking about how Lia was one of the hottest new chefs in America. He waited as the pieces of paper circulated the room. Schlittler pretended to buff his nails on his sweater while the men read them, his expression of annoyance speaking volumes even though he remained silent.
The articles had almost made it back to Adam when Ray spoke. “That’s all well and good, but she’s not the same caliber as Chef Amadeus.”
“Thank you, Mr. Vilowski.” Schlittler gave Adam an “I-told-you-so” smirk.
“Perhaps not yet, but she is local talent.” A few of the men nodded, and Adam saw the table slowly turning in his favor. “That got me to thinking—why should we destroy what she’s built in less than a year to make way for an outsider? Chicago’s always had a proud Italian heritage, and she’s taking it to the next level.”
“Adam brings up a good point, Ray,” Thomas Blakely said from the opposite side of the table. As one of his father’s oldest friends, Tom had more than once served as the voice of reason when the Kelly family was deciding where to place their money. “In an economy where small businesses are suffering, there’s more pressure from the voting public to have the government’s support and nurture local businesses.”
Ray shifted in his chair. “But as Adam pointed out when he got us to sign on to this venture, the appeal of Chef Amadeus’s restaurant would help all the businesses in the building.”
“Perhaps, but you’re up for re-election next year, right? How do you think your opponents would use the fact that you were willing to force a local girl out of business in favor of a foreigner?” Tom propped his elbows on the table and clasped his hands together loosely while he waited for Ray to respond to his question.
Ray took on the challenge and leaned forward, mirroring Tom’s stance. “I’m not the only person at this table, though.”
“Ray’s correct,” Adam said, hoping to swing the momentum of the conversation back in his direction. “All of you have agreed to invest money into Mr. Schlittler’s restaurant, and if he decides to pull out at the last minute, I wouldn’t hold any of you responsible for the previously signed contracts.”
“But why are you making him move?” Ray asked. “Why not relocate La Arietta? Then you can have the best of both worlds.”
“If I make La Arietta move, that would be a considerable expense, both for Chef Lia and for us. Not to mention, it would require her to close the restaurant for the time it took her to move everything.” Adam leaned back in his chair, hoping the move would encourage the others to see this as a closed argument. “I’ve spent the last two days showing Mr. Schlittler every upscale commercial property I own, including the one in Lincoln Park, and he refuses to consider any of them.”
Now all the heads turned to the chef, who rolled his eyes. “Apparently you have a different definition for upscale here in Chicago. I am Beverly Hills. I am Fifth Avenue. I am not Lincoln Park.”
“You’re also Las Vegas Strip last I checked, so don’t go throwing around all the locations of your other restaurants in an effort to impress us.” Adam drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair. “You want to be where the money is, and I’m more than willing to put you there.”
“Just not willing to let me have the location you promised me.”
“What it sounds like to me is that Adam made a bunch of promises that he’s now trying to back out of.” Ray pushed back from the table. “If that’s the case, I need to remind you that we all signed that agreement to encourage Chef Amadeus to open his restaurant in the Michigan Avenue building.”
Adam nodded. “I understand, Ray, but I also wanted to let you know what I’ve discovered in this process and ask all of you to consider my new proposal.”
“The time for this information you’re presenting should have been before you promised Chef Amadeus that location, not after.” Ray stood and looked to the other men. “I don’t know anything about this Chef Lia what’s-her-name and frankly, I don’t care. When we have someone of Chef Amadeus’s caliber available, my money’s going with him.”
He turned to Adam. “I’ll give you until Friday to decide what you really want.”
“Finally, someone who speaks sense.” Schlittler walked around the table and looped his arm around Ray’s. “Let’s go and talk about some of the menu items I’m creating for my Chicago restaurant. The others will follow.”
They walked out of the boardroom, leaving Adam and the three other investors in silence. “Do you all feel the same way?” he asked.
Tom pressed his fingers against the tip of his nose as he looked up at the ceiling. The other two men stared at their laps. After a minute, Tom said, “You’ve brought up a few things to think about, Adam.”
“I know, but I didn’t want to keep plowing into this headfirst once I unearthed this information.”
“About Chef Lia?”
“And about Chef Schlittler.” Now that the arrogant prick was gone, Adam could at least speak openly about him. “As you can see, he’s very demanding and difficult to work with. As big a name as he is, I’m beginning to wonder if he’ll also become a big problem.”
“Meaning?” one of the other men asked.