Signatures Restaurant
Encyclopedia
Restaurant
A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...
opened by Jack Abramoff
Jack Abramoff
Jack Abramoff is an American former lobbyist and businessman. Convicted in 2006 of mail fraud and conspiracy, he was at the heart of an extensive corruption investigation that led to the conviction of White House officials J. Steven Griles and David Safavian, U.S. Representative Bob Ney, and nine...
. Expensive and lavishly appointed with expensive memorabilia, Villeroy & Boch
Villeroy & Boch
Villeroy & Boch is a large manufacturer of ceramics with the company headquarters located in Mettlach, Germany.-Company history:The company began in the tiny French village of Audun le Tiche, where François Boch set up a pottery company with his three sons in 1748. Later, the company moved to...
charger
Charger (table setting)
Charger plates or service plates are larger decorative plates used to dress up dinner tables at parties, weddings, and other special events. While the charger plates have been around since the 19th century, they returned to popularity in the late `90s. Since food is not actually served on chargers,...
s and Christofle
Christofle
Christofle is a manufacturer of fine silver flatware and home accessories based in France since 1830. They are renowned for their sterling, silverplate and stainless flatware. Among Christofle's product lines are silver picture frames, crystal vases and glassware, porcelain dinnerware and silver...
flatware, Signatures was used by Abramoff in coordination with his skyboxes and foreign trips to spend money
Monetary influence of Jack Abramoff
The monetary influence of Jack Abramoff ran deep in Washington, as Jack Abramoff spent millions of dollars to influence and entertain both Republican and Democrat politicians. Abramoff had a reputation for largesse considered exceptional even by Washington standards...
primarily given by Indian tribes
Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal
The Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal is a United States political scandal relating to the work performed by political lobbyists Jack Abramoff, Ralph E. Reed, Jr., Grover Norquist and Michael Scanlon on Indian casino gambling interests for an estimated $85 million in fees. Abramoff and Scanlon...
on politicians. During 17 months between 2002 and 2003 Signatures gave away $180,000 of food and drinks.http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/8/4/152337/8867
Signatures rivaled the Capital Grille, opened in 1994, as the premier high-end GOP restaurant in town. It was more successful than Abramoff's other Washington D.C. food ventures: Archives Restaurant and Stacks Delicatessen, both kosher eateries.
The political website PoliticsPA
PoliticsPA
- Content :The website focuses on news aggregation, linking to major political news making headlines across the state. The editors write occasional features, like the weekly "Up & Down" scorecard and one-off lists like "Harrisburg's Smartest Staffer" and "Best Dressed Lobbyist" lists...
named it to their list of restaurants frequented by politicians.
Abramoff's scandalous dealings
Abramoff billed his tribal clients hundreds of thousands of dollars for meals at Signatures. Billing, campaign finance records, and restaurant records show, for example, that the Mississippi Band of Choctaw IndiansMississippi Band of Choctaw Indians
The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians is one of three federally recognized tribes of Choctaw Indians. On April 20, 1945, the tribe organized under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. Also in 1945 the Choctaw Indian Reservation was created in Neshoba and surrounding counties...
paid Greenberg Traurig over $5,600, and that the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians
Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians
The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians of the Agua Caliente Indian Reservation is a federally recognized tribe of Cahuilla Indians, located in Riverside County, California.-Reservation:...
paid as much as $20,000 for dozens of luncheon and dinner events a month.
Abramoff's preferred table was Table 40, where Tom DeLay
Tom DeLay
Thomas Dale "Tom" DeLay is a former member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Texas's 22nd congressional district from 1984 until 2006. He was Republican Party House Majority Leader from 2003 to 2005, when he resigned because of criminal money laundering charges in...
, Dana Rohrabacher
Dana Rohrabacher
Dana Tyron Rohrabacher is the U.S. Representative for , and previously the 45th and 42nd, serving since 1989. He is a member of the Republican Party...
, Bob Ney
Bob Ney
Robert William Ney is an American politician from the U.S. state of Ohio. A Republican, Ney represented Ohio's 18th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 until November 3, 2006, when he resigned...
, and John Doolittle
John Doolittle
John Taylor Doolittle , American politician, was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1991 to 2009, representing . In the 109th Congress, he held a leadership role as the Deputy Whip for the Republican party in the House...
were his regular guests, getting their meals comped. Rohrabacher ate as Abramoff's guest at least monthly, claiming the friendship exemption to House ethics rules. Bob Ney
Bob Ney
Robert William Ney is an American politician from the U.S. state of Ohio. A Republican, Ney represented Ohio's 18th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 until November 3, 2006, when he resigned...
paid Signatures about $1,900 for meals and events between 2002 and 2004 in addition to many comped meals. Restaurant records show that Team Abramoff
Team Abramoff
"Team Abramoff" is the team of lobbyists assembled by Jack Abramoff when he worked at Greenberg Traurig, primarily of former aides to prominent Congressional politicians...
members Neil Volz
Neil Volz
Neil Volz was Chief of Staff to Representative Bob Ney , staff director of the House Administration Committee, and later part of Team Abramoff, when he left Capitol Hill in February 2002 to work for Abramoff at Greenberg Traurig LLP...
and Tony Rudy
Tony Rudy
Tony Charles Rudy , an American lobbyist and an associate of Jack Abramoff. After serving as a staffer in the office of U. S. Representative Tom DeLay from approximately 1995 to 2001, and rising to deputy chief of staff, Rudy joined "Team Abramoff" at Greenberg Traurig. Rudy was implicated in the...
(with Tom Hammond
Tom Hammond
Tom Hammond is an American sportscaster for NBC Sports television. Hammond is one of the network's staple on-air presenters, along with Bob Costas and Dan Hicks...
) organized $1,500 (minimum) dinners for their respective former bosses, Bob Ney and Tom DeLay, in April 2002, though campaign finance records show no payment. Although representatives Roy Blunt
Roy Blunt
Roy D. Blunt is the junior United States Senator from Missouri. He is a member of the Republican Party. His Senate seat was previously held by Republican Kit Bond, until his retirement....
(R-Mo.) and Frank A. LoBiondo (R-N.J.) and former senators John Breaux
John Breaux
John Berlinger Breaux is a former United States senator from Louisiana who served from 1987 until 2005. He was also a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1972 to 1987. He was considered one of the more conservative national legislators from the Democratic Party...
(D-La.), Don Nickles
Don Nickles
Donald Lee Nickles is an American businessman and politician who was a Republican United States Senator from Oklahoma from 1981 until 2005. He was a fiscal and social conservative.-Early life:...
(R) and Tim Hutchinson
Tim Hutchinson
Young Timothy Hutchinson, known as Tim Hutchinson is a Republican politician and former senator from the state of Arkansas.Hutchinson was born in Bentonville, Arkansas, and he graduated from Bob Jones University...
(R) were also on an Abramoff list of people to be comped, Blunt, LoBiondo, and Breaux deny ever receiving free meals.
Over the period of January 2002 to May 2003 Abramoff and his investors put more than $3 million into Signatures, spending 7 percent of revenues on comped food and drink, well above the industry standard.
Who's who and featured memorabilia
The official owner of Signatures was Livsar Enterprises, with Rodney Lane acting as the CEO. The registered agent was lawyer Yale Ginsburg; lawyer Jay Kaplan led the Signatures restaurant group. According to emails sent by Abramoff in 2001, Capitol Campaign StrategiesCapitol Campaign Strategies
Capitol Campaign Strategies was a public relations firm run by Michael Scanlon, Tom DeLay's former press secretary, which Scanlon used in coordination with Jack Abramoff to redirect about $40 million in lobbying contributions from Indian tribes to Scanlon, Abramoff, and their associates, as well as...
transferred money to Livsar, which he planned to have under the control of his wife Pamela.
Signatures was built by John S. Hillery & Assoc. Const. Inc of Sterling, Va. at a cost of $850,000.00.
The original chefs were executive chef Michael Rosen and sous-chef Jeff Ramsey. As of 2006, the executive chef is Morou Ouattara
Morou Ouattara
Morou Ouattara is an executive chef and former-owner of the now-closed Farrah Olivia restaurant in Alexandria, VA. Born and raised on the Ivory Coast in West Africa in a family with 33 children, he combines French, African and Middle Eastern cuisines. He has appeared on Iron Chef America, and was a...
. The main dining room seats 104 (50 seats at the bar), and about 50 on the patio. The private dining rooms seat 15 and 25 people. Amenities included rentable wine lockers and an in-house humidor
Humidor
A humidor is any kind of box or room with constant humidity, and ideal temperature, used to store cigars, cigarettes, or pipe tobacco. For private use, small wooden or acrylic glass humidor boxes for a few dozen cigars are used, while cigar shops may have walk-in humidors, sometimes consisting of a...
.
The restaurant features the rare document collections of Stan Klos and Edward Bomsey, as well as other political memorabilia. The documents on display feature, not surprisingly, famous autograph
Autograph
An autograph is a document transcribed entirely in the handwriting of its author, as opposed to a typeset document or one written by an amanuensis or a copyist; the meaning overlaps with that of the word holograph.Autograph also refers to a person's artistic signature...
s. Most of the items displayed were also for sale. Some of the memorabilia featured included a rocking chair used by John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
($495,000), a signed replica of Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...
's pardon of Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
(sold for $5,000), and signed portraits, letters, and photos of Czar Nicholas, Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
, Gen. George Patton, Rocky Marciano
Rocky Marciano
Rocky Marciano , born Rocco Francis Marchegiano, was an American boxer and the heavyweight champion of the world from September 23, 1952, to April 27, 1956. Marciano is the only champion to hold the heavyweight title and go undefeated throughout his career. Marciano defended his title six times...
, Harry Houdini
Harry Houdini
Harry Houdini was a Hungarian-born American magician and escapologist, stunt performer, actor and film producer noted for his sensational escape acts...
, Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. In addition, he created the world’s first industrial...
and Meyer Lansky
Meyer Lansky
Meyer Lansky , known as the "Mob's Accountant", was a Polish-born American organized crime figure who, along with his associate Charles "Lucky" Luciano, was instrumental in the development of the "National Crime Syndicate" in the United States...
($5,000-$10,000).
External links and references
- http://img.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/Features/CapitalLiving/110404.html
- http://www.forward.com/campaignconfidential/archives/001782.php