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OMG closed due to unpaid rent
12/22/2012 12:19 PM by John M
We were trying to go to OMG last Friday before vespers and the parade and it was dark at six p.m. The last time we saw Deandre he told us that once his other restaurant, Johnson’s Southern Comfort, was open if he hadn’t sold the OMG business that OMG would just operate as a breakfast and lunch place and that’s what we thought the deal was. This is sad. 25th Street is turning into a haven of good eats–Cucina, the Roosevelt, Sub Rosa–and OMG always got snubbed because people thought it looked “ghetto” but they were there first. If we can help, Deandre, let us know!
The Johnson’s Southern Comfort building has the curb appeal that OMG lacked. If the cooking at the operator’s new venture is as good as it was at OMG, they are bound to succeed.
To the owner of the OMG building: you will never get a successful tenant until you knock out the brick closing up the original big windows.
Yeah, what he said (re:#2).
Aaaaand both of you are part of the problem.
Trish, the well established factors to a successful restaurant aren’t my fault. Merry Christmas and congrats to Johnsons on their awesome soft opening today!!!
Curb appeal is what draws people in to your business. Its what makes people who do not know the owner or the establishment take a chance and come through your door because your business looks cute or interesting or inviting or whatever. But not scary or sketchy. Scary and/or sketchy is not curb appeal for attracting a successful customer base.
So true re curb appeal. We ate at OMG and it was great but the outside decor does not lend itself to people just stopping by and checking it out – also, it was hard to tell when it was open. Again, living local, this is not a hindrance but to grow a business, it is.
OMG cafe had the best food EVER!!! there mac and cheese, chicken, potato salad, and the famous chicken and waffles was unbelievable. It was wonderful delicious unpretentious s food. I hope they re-0pen! I think it had plenty of eye appeal….have you all ever heard of the C&O in Charlottesville? hahaha it actually was made famous by its unassuming exterior…..
By their own words on this blog, business was good and they were doing well financially despite the lack of curb appeal. You have to pay your rent and utility bills in order to stay open and maintain that success. You don’t just abandon ship and try again three blocks down the road. That lack of integrity shouldn’t be tolerated in a small community like ours.
curb appeal isn’t always necessary….Mamma Zu has made it just fine and they have very little, if any, curb appeal. Driving by, it isn’t a place you would scramble to get inside…but once inside…oh my
You’re absolutly right @church hill neighbor and it shouldn’t allow slum lords either.
Do any of the Church Hill residents wonder why so many tenants don’t last? well let me be the first to say the rent is not worth the leakage coming from the raggedy roof, the HVAC system barely works, the ceiling that continously falls in everytime a customer closes the btheathroom door the leakage in the basement from the faulty gutter in the rear of the building that constantly leaks when it rains.
Unfounded claims in an effort to slander a landlord and try to excuse the non-payment of rent reveals a lot about a tenants character. The condition in which a property is left reveals even more. Enough said.
Regardless of whatever everyone is talking about, it is unfortunate to see any legitimate business that added something unique to the neighborhood go. Hope Johnson’s is a success and I’ll have to try it out soon.
I can truly understand about a property owner not wanting to fix up a rental property but to stop paying rent is only a “last” resort and I am sure there are city codes as well as legal avenues you could have taken.
And as many have mentioned here and what I said years ago about this location, the front needs to be changed for a customer based business.
When I say I understand about a property owner and not fixing a property I mean I understand your view and frustration against the property owner’s lack of responsibility.
I wanna start off by saying thanks too everyone that expressed there over all concern about the business & i truly hate the fact OMG is gone, but the truth is I feel FREE!!! again.
@ church Hill (A.K.A ) landlord…let me tell you all my story of the past two years of my life..surfing on Craigslist I found a place on line for rent that needed a some TLC & I fell in love immediately with my dreams, get it (dreams) with hopes and expectations to go forward and overshadowing the gloomy past the last tenants left behind such as the drugs & prostitution out of the business or the fights that spilled over to the street outside. First thing was first which was rehabbing the restaurant by adding some welcoming colors. 2nd.thing was going out meeting other business owners in the community & trying to restore the honor of the property by letting the community feel reassured that it was new owners with a new brighter idea for the place. As business kicked off in March 2010 things were great it was truly a blessing that people in the neighborhood walked down to support me by becoming regular patrons.
As June came & school let out that was the first time i experienced my first problem. My AC went Down in mid summer causing food to go bad because the when it was 100 degrees outside our thermostat read 106 degrees inside putting me out of business 26 days until my my AC was repaired to be looked in the face & be told it was our fault because i was told to try out the AC before signing the lease, Oh!!!!
And they say when it rains it pours well it rained and poured right in the restaurant above the front window and in the bathroom above the toilet and if you look theres no gutters on the building causing the water to roll down the outside wall into the basement flooding it time after time creating Nats to fly around, i complained & complained to be told according to my lease all repairs was on behalf of tenant @ that point depression began to set causing me not cook any longer feeling as if i lost a handle of my business @ that point because the thought of me fixing a roof of a building i did not own just so my business can operate.
I survived the next few months just to see the building on chpn for sale to be told if i wanted to buy the property i had the first right of refusal but the building was in negotiation to be the parking lot for the theater beside the post office & i my heart was shattered but i think God was on my side because the deal fell threw and the buyer lost interest once the post office was saved.
But things got worse the tree growing on the side of the building root grew so thick over the years causing a gaping hole on the side of the basement inviting more water to the basement & field mice at that point i was tired and notified the city about the problem so the owner of the Post Office paid for the repair cause it was his parking lot. 4 mos. passed with very little rain but winter was here & my heat wasn’t working then i paid for that the motor for the exhaust began to decline cause everyone to smell like what ever we cooked making people not wanna eat there anymore causing my business to rely on take out aspect.
When my brother Antwan entered stage 2 of cancer my life to a turn and I had a major decision I had to make immediately which included a fresh new business but after a year i almost was ready but not quit financially ready but i was forced to close once the sewage began to back up into the basement causing my staff to question my accountability wondering if I would sell food with feces down below. So at that point it was only one choice close down myself or the health department would have closed me down!!!!!
Deandre,
That sound like a nightmare. But having lived next to a slumlord owned house that eventually changed hands, the first red flag for me would have been the drugs and prostitution issue. If the building owner didn’t care that only reflects his personality and priorities.
If I “lease” anything that is supposed to include maintenance. Not sure why they didn’t take responsibility for that and added into the lease. Did you find this out after the fact?
Interesting about the building going up as a parking lot for Josh Bilder’s theater (which is still an ongoing issue). I said something along those lines in a blog and got shot down as not being so. This was before the P.O. was saved.
It is unfortunate you were caught in this kind of situation. Hope you read the lease thoroughly on the new location!
Let’s do a call out and Deandre, let us know if this is correct.
The building is shown under owner SMK Enterprises LLC. That is registered with the Virginia S.C.C. as register agent Michael G. Bowen of law firm Bourdow, Bowen & Ellis, PC.
Now you would think someone involved with a law firm would know better about ownership responsibility.
Is this him?
http://www.bourdowbowenellis.com/attorneys/MBowen.asp
Anyone else think the landlord is going to have a hard time filling that spot after Deandre’s message about feces filled basements? I suspect even if he does, the next tenant will have an even shorter tenure than most in this spot have had.
On a somewhat related note, perhaps the sewage leak could be diverted a few doors down to the empty theater. It might improve the place. Or maybe it wasn’t really crap, it was just all of Bilder’s claims that something would be done soon oozing out from under the theater…
The registered agent for a company is not the owner, merely the person on whom notices may be given for company purposes. Usually the lawyer who helped them form the company, almost never a principal of the comapny itself. The registered agent on the state website is, again, not necessarily the owner. So Eric, you are calling out someone who is almost certainly not an owner. Not cool.
May not be cool but even if this lawyer is representing the owner, they too have an obligation to make sure their client abides by certain criterias and not cast a blind eye or not know their client… correct? That said, do you know who the real owner is?
@Eric S. Huffstutler from reading the posts it sounds to me that Dear Neighbor is the owner HE/SHE seems to have all the answers to everyone questions so can you please answer this question what does posting that sign says about the landlord character?
I apologize to Dear Neighbor it’s so many neighbors i got confused
I am not condoning what the tenant did by not paying rent. I know they most likely did it out of frustration and possibly to break the lease. But there are better ways to handle the situation because…
The owner of the building isn’t completely in the right either. I can understand adding things like the A/C unit or refrigerators, toilets, and such like that on the lease because they can go bad due to use and neglect. But building structure issues is another story like the roof leaking or the basement flooding due to exterior wall damages (not talking about things like doors, cabinets, etc…). These structural damages are problems that accumulate over the years (most likely in the making long before the Johnson’s occupied) and by no fault of the tenant so should be the responsibility of the building owner (aka Church Hill Neighbor?).
I’m not the owner, I just know that any registered agent is probably not an “owner” of a company.
The owner has 30 days after receiving written notice regarding a problem. If it is not fixed within that time a tenant can pay the rent to the count clerk’s office. If a tenant chooses not to do that then they are in the wrong. Legally.
Businesses come and go for a variety of reasons but OMG’s numerous lease violations and these rediculous false accusations now being made in a public forum in an effort to justify non-payment of rent and vilify the landlord will now be handled through the proper venue, the local court system. The true facts will then speak for themselves. Best of luck to the new landlord.
LOL Right @Eric S.Huffstutler I agree with you totally I am a former customer of OMG and i visited often in the winter time and once in the summer time to ordering take out in July due to it being so hot in there wishing the Johnson’s good luck at the new place on better Air circulation and a better relationship…. with the new landlord.
I visited the old OMG place this week and I have to tell everyone there are no leaks. After all the water we had from rain last week and snow this week, the place should be flooded if there were leaks as DeAndre claims. I found the place dry as a frabric sheet coming out with the towels from my dryer. It looks to me like OMG just skipped out on rent while DeAnrde walks around with wads of money in his hoodie pocket. They did leave the place filthy, nasty and dirty. I saw the filth and would never eat at Johnson Southern Comfort after seeing what was behind the counter at OMG
@ Lydia Hope lol aka (land lord)….your Funny I’m glad you know whats in my hoodie because I’m wishing for a wad of money & further more check my health inspections hun there 100% good baby & that’s public records, So do me a favor move on with your miserable lives cause as you see I have.
….May God Bless You
Wish there was a LIKE button for that one 🙂
@Lydia, I am applaud that you visited OMG a week ago to validate they were long gone. Naturally, if they vacated, abandoned, and explored other options of advancement a lack of payment was no surprise. @Diana, I totally agree in the legal aspect of this circumstance but on the flip side of this token – if I were faced and forced with these circumstances I would jump ship too. @Deandre I wish your next venture much success. It is amazing to see an African American male resort to the mental know-how while driving to success.
Lydia , I looked at the building and met with you ,ran over my iPhone and lost most contacts I no longer have your # please give a call to me as I’ve been trying to reach you and the sign is no longer in the window thanks