Dangerous job

You have to be ready...at all times. Coming to work, in the kitchen, leaving work and going home.

I lost a friend Jose Vasquez when he was robbed in the morning and the robbers gun jammed...it turned into a knife fight...Jose lost.

I don't know this guy, but we're all in it together. I had a festival I worked by myself this past Sunday.

Boucherie chef shot in robbery attempt had just pulled an all-nighter to prepare food for festival

Nathanial Zimet spent hours at his Carrollton-area restaurant late Saturday and early Sunday practicing his life's passion: preparing a feast for the masses at the Bayou Boogaloo Festival.

At the end of the self-imposed graveyard shift, a little after 5 a.m., Zimet made his way from his Jeannette Street restaurant back to his Uptown home to catch a few hours of sleep before an 8 a.m. wake-up call.
But when Zimet pulled up to his home, someone apparently walked up to his pickup truck to rob him, botched the job and shot the chef at least twice.
Paramedics rushed him to surgery at the LSU Trauma Center.
"He's been in super massive pain," Michael Seaman, a bartender at the restaurant, said Monday morning. Hours later, Zimet was moved out of the intensive care unit.
Police could not immediately provide details about the crime, pending completion of a formal report, but a preliminary police log said that as Zimet sat in his truck in front of his house near the corner of Jena and South Saratoga streets, a man walked up to him and said, "Where's the money?"
At that point, the robber opened fire and hit Zimet at least twice, including once in the chest, according to the police log. Initial reports said Zimet, 31, was also shot in the arm, but Seaman said the second bullet hit Zimet in the abdomen.
Police classified the incident as an armed robbery with aggravated battery by shooting. Seaman said Zimet's wallet was still in the truck after paramedics rushed him to the LSU Trauma Center, but his keys were missing.
Police on Monday were working to identify a suspect and were trying to figure out if the robbery attempt was related to three other armed robberies that occurred in the neighborhood Wednesday between 8 and 9 p.m., an NOPD spokesman said. As the investigation continues, a charge of attempted murder could replace the aggravated battery charge, police said.
Zimet, a North Carolina native, opened his restaurant in 2009 after about two years of operating Que Crawl, a purple, kitchen-equipped truck that found its way to the curb of various entertainment venues throughout the city, including Tipitina's and Mimi's in the Marigny. Even with his brick-and-mortar restaurant open, the truck is still used; this weekend it fed Bayou Boogaloo fest-goers.
Now, while Zimet recovers, his co-workers are carrying on his dream.James Denio, Zimet's business partner, said the restaurant will reopen as usual Tuesday -- it's typically closed Sunday and Monday -- and there should be no change in operations.
"We're not being idle," Denio said. Meanwhile, chefs from restaurants across the city have offered to step in to help fill the temporary void.
"They've said, 'Hey, we're willing to come in and work,' " Denio said. "It's an amazing statement of support.'"

 

Since I wasn't assumed to heaven in the rapture...I'm signing up for handgun classes and a concealed permit. But I doubt I'll conceal much. I'll carry in the open coming to and from work.

(I'm looking into opening an Abita
Springs cafe in Gentilly)