Interesting Updates:
1. The PR company they hired has since quit, citing "differences" between how the PR firm thought changes should be made, and those by Amy & her husband .
Amy's Baking Company Cancels Press Conference After Legal Threats From Fox - Feuds - Eater National
2. The press conference scheduled for today has been cancelled, after Fox has threatened to sue them for breach of their film contract, if they disparaged Kitchen nightmares, talked about their time while filming, ect.
http://ftpcontent.worldnow.com/kpho/KPHO NEWS/legalletter.pdf
3. The are still going to be holding their "Grand re-opening today" which has been changed to a Grand Week long reopening.
4. They apparently held a career fair over the weekend, hoping to hire 30 people. Servers, will not be paid $5 an hour and receive all their tips (apparently Sammy won't be pocketing the money anymore).
Amy & Sammy had a radio interview
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVYOtvaea1Q]Monti with Amy's Baking Company in Scottsdale, AZ - Part 1 of 7 - YouTube[/ame]
1. They claim Kitchen Nightmares approached them, after Kitchen Nightmares posted a poll asking who needs the post help on Yelp. And they got the overwhelming recipient of votes from people.
2. They both apparently are avid fans of Kitchen Nightmares and watch it regularly.
3. When contacted by Kitchen Nightmares, they said they had problems with "online bully's and yelp" and had a clean kitchen and excellent food. So they really were not sure what the show could help them in regard to their food or service.
4. They both thought the entire show would be about their Yelp problems. And figured Kitchen Nightmares, would help assure the "world" their food is beyond excellent. Even despite mentioning they watched the show Kitchen Nightmares and the whole stick of Kitchen Nightmares is to say horrible food a restaurant has, get irate customers complaining, and make fun of their cleanliness.
5. Amy always makes fresh pasta, they only reason she used store brand pasta was because there was not enough time to prep. Though the store brand pasta is the best there is.
6. Amy always bakes all her cakes herself and was surprised they didn't show any of it on the show, since they recorded hours of her prepping and baking cakes.
7. The reason the cops were called during filming, and everyone escorted out of the restaurant and the production company had to pay for everyone's meals. Is because "haters" came in from Yelp, she "recognized them and had their posts" so she was upset. And when she approached the production company about it, they did nothing "which again she was surprised at."
8. The reason the waitresses don't get tips, is because their are "no waiters or waitresses" they only have busboy's and "runners" (food runners). Sammy takes all of the orders, the only reason the one employee took the order, was because they are busy. So yes, Amy and Sammy take all the tips, because they do the work. The runners should be lucky since they are paid $8-14 an hour, even when they are not busy...
9. Now they have changed their policy and Sammy will hire "waiters and waitresses" and if "they will do the work" he will pay them $5 an hour and they keep the tips.
PR Firm person had issues himself with negative comments
Jason Rose, which was in charge of their PR for the week or so roughly, has some of his own issues with negative PR. In 2011, he was fired by one of his clients the Special Olympics of AZ after tweeting " about a 'knucklehead he saw at a sporting event "usc-ucla? Felt like was sitting at a newport beach yacht club. Coyotes? Midgets, special ed and axel rose wannabes nearby,"
When asked by reporters about the comment he stated : ""I was thinking of criticizing a knucklehead who was at the Coyotes game and obviously garbled and mangled a tweet,"
Jason Rose, Valley PR Bigshot, Canned by Special Olympics for Comparing "Knucklehead" to Someone With Special Needs - Phoenix - News - Valley Fever