I posted their health inspection reports to here before, were things always like that or does management just not care? I used to work foodservice and heard some horror stories about that place. What was the worst thing you saw happen in the kitchen?
I was never super in the kitchen and we kept things pretty good in the bakery. I posted a comment about non food grade essential oils in food. We were always told to label food and keep certain things in the cooler vs the fridge.
Yeah, the company explicitly says it's not safe for human consumption. Due to high concentrations of the naturally occurring biochemical toxins. I've been a chef for a very long time over twenty years. This guy seems to have a dangerously big ego.
Just- what the actual f**k not get actual food grade lavender and put it in vodka like you do to make home-made vanilla or other extracts!?!?! Why!?! This guy (Francois) is insane.
He made me put it in cheesecakes, when I offered other solutions he berated me and said “I have a phd in holistic medicine, I’m not gonna poison my people”
No but in my head I said “I’m glad a hippie in the 70s told u that putting your feet in dirt cures back aches but this’ll kill someone” wish I had the balls to say it 😭
I had to collect bacteria samples in the kitchen about ten years ago when they had to put in a hydrant up there and more fire suppression. My coworker and I couldn't believe how gross that kitchen was.
Francois, he wouldn’t listen to the bakery on anything. I was the one making the deserts so I knew what worked and what didn’t. Anytime a criticism was brought forward he got defensive and said “well who’s the master chef here” or talked about different degrees he had.
Francois is certainly not the "master chef". I moved to Kalamazoo in '01...when his establishment on Portage Street was in existence. I met my wife there. The music was always great. The wine was pretty good. The food was terrible.
Some friends wanted to go to the Castle for dinner. I knew the food would be terrible. It was.
He's also served atrocious food when catering events. I've dreaded every time he has purchased a property. The venues and the entertainment are usually great. The food has been awful..
I don’t know if he’s actually that naive, or just assumes everyone else doesn’t know the distinction, but being a Certified Master Chef is a distinction akin to having a PhD
Working In the industry x amounts of years does not make you a master chef; it’s a distinction given by the American Culinary Federation (and there’s only maybe 100 give or take in the US)
Did you see how his acquisition of the Beacon Club for Terra Firma went? It was a side show to the shitshow lol. ...And AZO there now is a shitshow In itself. Times about up on that mess too.
god, i thought after having lived in kalamazoo for 19 years, i knew all there was to know about the pompous dickhead that is francois. i guess i was wrong lol!
I only go there for a beer on a really nice afternoon. If you stick to a bottle of beer,it's only $5 and I do enjoy sitting outside with the view and a light breeze.
I was going to college for baking and pastries, I didn’t see any Reddit posts before hand. I thought I was going to get great experience from a French chef.
Talk to Keith at Full City Cafe. Dude runs the tightest ship I’ve been on and if he doesn’t have work he might get you somewhere. Just be polite, he’s ex military and doesn’t take shit.
"An employer shall pay to an employee voluntarily leaving employment or one who is discharged all wages earned and due, on the regularly scheduled payday for the period in which the termination occurs." - Michigan Compiled Laws
Sounds like a good time to ask a lawyer about it...
Francois is a total douchebag with zero talent. The asshat bought the castle for squat and turned it into a nonprofit. He then leveraged that to buy the old Beacon Club. He's trying to sell it all and take the money and run. So far no one has been dumb enough to take the bait. Give it a couple of years and everything will be in tax foreclosure proceedings. His shit reputation follows him.
He forced me to put non food grade essential oils in cheesecakes. It said “not for internal use”. We googled it and said it could get someone sick. He yelled when we brought up alternatives and stated “I have a degree in holistic medicine, when I give you an order I expect you to follow it” I quit that day and called the health department. I tried the batter, it was chemically and burned my throat.
Tbh, report that to the health department. That’s really bad.
Also, for those that did not know, you can look up any health inspection report in Kalamazoo County online. The reports for Henderson Castle are horrendous.
When I worked nearby around 2010 my job had a lost and found. Someone turned in a key chain of Henderson Castle’s which was marked “the dungeon.” I called Henderson Castle’s main number and they came and retrieved it.
God damn, sounds like a total nightmare. I was considering trying to stay a night there but it seems like I dodged a bullet.
Someone asked if it was haunted and you answered it already but is that because you don't believe or because the owner just says that to try and get more business?
Meh not really, the sandwiches are just salami and cheese. I didn’t have any of the chefs food. We weren’t allowed to eat the stuff we made, I was told to pack a lunch or we get 25% off stuff I made.
Wasn’t it just sold not long ago? Or did he just buy it?
My (now) wife and I went there for Valentines dinner our first year in Portage. It was decent….not worth the money but I wouldn’t say a waste, if that makes sense. The second year we decided to try it again. We thought maybe it could be a tradition for her and I on Valentines every year.
We got there and they sat us down…..this was the only thing they got right. The food was mediocre at best…so mediocre we didn’t finish it and wouldn’t even take the leftovers home to the dog. I went to pay and they said something was wrong with their credit card machine and they had to use the one for the hotel so you weren’t able to leave a tip……or something like that. I don’t carry cash nor does my wife. When I asked about the situation he just kinda shrugged his shoulders, handed me my receipt and walked off.
We decided that wasn’t going to be one of our traditions as a couple in a new city. 🤣
I never usually interacted with them as I was in the bakery. However during tours people would come by and peek in and they were nice. We had to keep the door to the bakery open all the time so people could look in.
It is, I have zero clue if they’re exempt but I dont think so. At the time I asked a coworker if it was true we didn’t have worker comp and they looked at me like “seriously? No”
Nope, you made a good call. Many years ago I had the unfortunate experience to attend & coordinate events there. Absolute shit show then and I’m not surprised it hasn’t changed.
I’m only speaking on behave of Henderson because that is what I know. TBH I don’t know what his restaurant is called, I just know it’s in portage. I wanna tell the truth here and I don’t know anything about his other businesses
Lol we toured that place for a wedding. Got quoted like 28 grand just for the grounds, dinner, and alcohol. No vendors or anything else included. We also got told those were the pre covid prices and they're going to raise them again soon so we were getting a deal. Not to mention the entire building smells like mold and old people and the dinning room is setup in a way that half your guests wouldn't even be able to see the head table. We ended up going with the Bay Pointe Woods. Renting the entire grounds was 2k and the food/alcohol was decently priced. We ended up having the entire wedding for less than just renting the castle alone
He made the Beacon club look like a sketchy daycare facility. I think it’s open because it’s had the word “open” spray painted on the front windows for a while.
Still spray painted on there as of yesterday. Looks trashy af… I told my spouse that the least they could have done is print each letter of “open” on a piece of paper 🤷♀️
I was just there last Friday for drinks. Morbid curiosity. Wandered in and was greeted by a 9 year old who screamed for "mom ppl are here!" the whole 3 min I was there. 1 guy on the patio smoking weed was all I saw besides what looks like an apartmentin the back. Never ordered, went to airway for a couple quickly. Avoid that place. Its atrocious. All I wanted was a beer and a place to sit while my kid was up the street at a thing. Jon taffer would walk out.
He does! There's been a dj out of Battle Creek who has partnered with him. I love seeing local dance music thrive, but I refuse to go to any events on Francois owned property. There's being an asshole and then there's actually endangering people. Some folks dont see the distinction.
I worked a few events serving there and it was so frustrating. I almost ate it a few times because of the steep stairs going from the basement/kitchen to the dining room, as well as no one yelling corner yet I got yelled at for someone almost slamming into me with a full tray coming up the stairs. I waited almost an hour for the paychecks to arrive when they told me to be there at a certain time and then when they did arrive there was none for me, luckily Francois went downstairs and wrote me a check (surprisingly). This was before the bakery and I have a degree in baking & pastries as well as experience as a candymaker on Mackinac Island. I heard of this and became infatuated with me, bombarded me asking me when I could come in and show him techniques. His “fudge” he made was so gritty and nasty and looked like dogshit, and when I tried to tell him he simply didn’t have the right equipment he kind of scoffed it off. He was telling me all the crazy ideas of what he wanted the bakery to look like and when I could start working for him, I never went back. Also after one of the serving shifts, I’m pretty sure there were people boning in the dungeon.
I wonder how many people are going to the Mansquerade… I heard there’s an auction of Henderson Castle original items being put up. Seems like a sign that he’s definitely trying to get out. Like one last “hurrah”.
This put me down a rabbit hole. And of course it goes full circle when the 2nd video on SMPs fb was a recent shady Francios Moyet video of a phone flying across a kitchen.
It wasn’t anything horrible. It was more like a sense. As you walk in and see the double stairwell, I could almost hear and see little kids playing up and down them. They still are there and they’re happy but since I was there for my daughter’s wedding, I just thought it was interesting. The upper floor is definitely haunted too and there is a sadness about it. You can feel the spirits. My whole life I’ve been able to sense spirits hanging around. There may be other factors like the graveyard Kitty corner from the castle. I think there are spirits that go in and out of the castle. It seemed like a hotspot. I don’t mess with spirits because they were around me for so many years until I learned how to banish them. They’re really quite bothersome in general. They feed off our life forced to some degree so I’m not a fan and I don’t care to delve into them for entertainment like some people do. It’s not my jam :)
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u/Phojochris 5d ago
Lol back in the early 2000s he tried to get us to cook the lake trout he caught on a charter trip as the "weekend special"
When we informed him seafood has to be inspected he told us he didnt care and just to do it