I don’t think I have to tell any of you that working at Citi, particularly over the last year or so and especially if one is the CEO, can be kind of a bitch. Obviously Uncle Vik knows what we’re talking about. Still, those closest to him know a few never fail tricks for getting Pandit to give us a smile. A pony ride around the lobby. A tickle of his vickles. A visit to the set of Two Coreys. A desktop Zen Garden for him to practice raking sand on until the real thing comes through. Nothing gets VP to bust out a wide one, though, like a surprise lunch order from his favorite restaurant, Sylvia’s. Crain’s reported yesterday that the head of the Big C is a huge fan of the Queen of Soul Food, so much so that he placed an order from the restaurant for forty executives visiting his office last week. Since we count ourselves among those who like our Vikram jolly and round, we obviously had to get in touch with Syl to find out what the Pandito Special entails, so that we might keep it on file, and call in the order as a li’l pick-me-up on a particularly low day for VP.
According to a rep for the eatery, Vikram “likes the classics– Southern fried chicken, collard greens, potato salad, mac&cheese, and banana pudding.” Pandito first tried Sylvia’s a few months ago when he was visiting a new Citi branch in Harlem, got “hooked” and has placed “a lot” of orders ever since (not just for big groups but also “parties of four” and sometimes just himself). And he’s not alone! Supposedly Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch have both held “Sylvia’s Days” wherein the restaurant takes over the firms’ cafeterias, with an SD being planned for the Big C soon. We were also told by people familiar with the matter– VP’s gastroenterologist– that he’s a huge fan of barbeque and typically requests it when traveling, though Dinosaur BBQ is yet to be thrown any love, an issue one would hope will be rectified during Vikram’s Upper Manhattan Food Tour of 2010 (an experience no to be missed– tickets go on sale tomorrow).
Soul Food Coming To Your Door [Crain's via NYM]
dino bbq ftw
Once you go black… you will NEVER go back.
-mrp
@2 don't I know it.
-dick bove
Dick Parsons: [watching Vikram squirt catsup into his mouth] Ugh, I can actually hear you getting fatter.
Wow, so hilarious. I mean he likes a restaurant that serves BLACK soul food! LOL!
Bess, let me guess…your parents had no problem letting the n-word fly around the house when you were younger?
Way to be another jew that finds it funny to make fun of black people…grow up cupcake.
@5 Dad?
Yo, chef, Vik want more fatback with his collards.
@5 Nothing says Paragon of Race Sensitivity like the phrase "Way to be another jew that [insert generalization]"!
@5 holy shit please give me a hit of whatever you'd have to be on to have made those 8 leaps in logic.
5 is the same guy that thinks they should abolish the Cotton Bowl because it promotes slavery.
@5, Brother, I'm revoking your race card privileges.
@9 Drug free..but many jewish friends who think it's hilarious to make fun of black people. I find bess extremely funny, but a post like this is uninspired and cheap. LOL black people love them some fried chicken! Lame.
@5 = Biff Swassness
@12 not only did you flip the fuck out on a post that was in no way racist, but you're a god damn idiot. vikram pandit IS NOT BLACK. fucking retard.
@12 how was this post uninspired and cheap? two outlets reported VP likes this restaurant. bess called up and found out what his order was. that was it. then you come along and FLIP THE FUCK OUT about wait for it- something that wasn't racist- and then top it off with a dash of anti-semitism. in sum, kill yourself, and fast.
@12/5 vikram pandit is indian, not black, you monumental idiot.
@5 bess writes a post about how VP likes a soul food (based on a story in crain's business) and that means the levin household used the n-word when she was growing up? get your head checked, dude.
@12 When black people and Jewish people fight, white people win.
– Guy who enjoys fried chicken, bagels, and various curries.
@12/5 um, sorry, the mere mention of soul food (which is how the restaurant describes itself, if you go their website, which i'm sure you didn't cause you're *that* dumb) does not a racist post make. you're the only one who read into it that way. also: VIKRAM PANDIT ISN'T BLACK. Take a fucking lap (and jump off a cliff).
you white bread mutherfuckas dont know shit 'bout neckbones and turnip greens.
-San Antonio sacier before the war, yo! Hell yeah, ha!
chill back; her dad is black, so she can say that kind of stuff
@12- let's turn the situation around. you write a post about jewish people liking lox- would bess call you an anti-semite? highly doubtful. and also? that's not even a proper analogy because VIKRAM ISN'T BLACK.
20 comments and not one curry joke. WTF?
5/12 ≠ Jet Magazine "Beauty of the Week"
Yum.m. tasty hambone.
– Vikas
Aren't we all black after the Haiti telethon?
@12 "Drug free..but many jewish friends who think it's hilarious to make fun of black people."
then maybe you should take your issues up with them, and not project on to bess's completely not racist post. also, it's been said but bears repeating: vikram isn't black, and you are a stunningly dumb fuck.
@12 = racist for thinking anyone with non-white skin is black.
Cut it out. Bess has tons of Sammy Davis Jewnior downloads.
I am not Canadian.
@12 Racist. Examine your motives
@5/@12: EYM
Can't believe it hasnt been said yet.
The racism isn't about Vikram…
You could replace Vikram with Geithner, JD, etc…we all know this is only a humorous(?) story because it's about a guy who loves FRIED CHICKEN and COLLARD GREENS.
It's about as clever as poking fun of a jew driving an S550.
Jewish people ARE racist against blacks. I saw it in a scene from that movie Boiler Room (me and my bros watch that shit to pregame Friday nights)
- 2nd Year Edward Jones Associate
@33 yeah, no. I would've done it regardless of the restaurant (hence why I mentioned Dinosaur BBQ as being another one of his favorites). what I found amusing about this story has nothing to do with race (if you were smart, and not stupid, you'd know that "we count ourselves among those who like our Vikram jolly and round" was a hint.) Also you seem to really harp on Jews (and want us to know you're not one). What's that about, Führer?
We love all the schwartzes. There. Done.
- The Jews
I think that 5/12 was trying to impute to Bess is not that Vickles is "black" (as in sub-Saharan African "black") but that because Vickles can trace his origin to the subcontinent he is just another species of "darkie" who naturally would have an affinity for soul food. Of course, as I told my mother when she caught me with "dirty" magazines, it's only dirty if you have a dirty mind. Sure, she walloped me good, but I maintain to this day that I'm right.
"Damn, Vikram, every time I come in the kitchen, you in the kitchen. In the goddamn refrigerator. Eatin' up all the food. All the chitlins… All the pig's feet… All the collard greens… All the hog maws. I wanna eat them chitlins… I like pigs feet."
Could have sworn Sylvia's went BK with the demise of the mobile home cash out refi.
These pigs feet got hair on em! You fucked em up, you eat em!
omfg i haven't had hog maws in 10 years.
-mrp
I could eat every inch of the pig, from the rooter to the tooter.
-The dad with the mushroom belt in Boomerang
nothing is more frightening than a 300lb Black Indian driving a Mercedes who sells witchcraft to married Pakistani cousins.
-guy who sells 2k rugs in Madras
what I find interesting is that the history of his knowledge of Sylvia's was not contained in the article.
Many may not know this, but he was first turned on to this eatery not because "he was visiting new CITI branches in harlem" (anyone in the know knows that there isn't so much as an CITI ATM above 91st) but through our favorite banker, Ken Lewis.
Turns out that during the heady days of negotiating for ML and playing hide the baloney poney at the NYFed in 2008, Ken had sucked down just a little to much of the Boone's and suggested to Vickles they go get a bite to eat to have a sit down. Being the southerner that KL is, he just assumed that, well, you know "the darkies like 'em their soul food." He was really stunned to find out that the Count V prefers vindaloo. But, what the hell, they were already there.
During the lunch, which was originally reported by Chaz and removed from his masterwork because of a tiff with Sylvia's (but that is another story), KL revealed to our man that he really, really was in love with this Bove stalker guy. "ME TOO!" shouted the Great Pandito, and the began to compare all of the great and rosy outlooks both of their banks had….
245 "anyone in the know knows that there isn't so much as an CITI ATM above 91st"
incorrect
If you're not eating chittlins, you're a racist.
– Michael Hambone Steele
I prefer my Friday treat from Katz's and you can all fuck me.
LB
@ 5
That's just damn hilarious.
I don't trust any of ews. Curry, chitlin nor the kosher.
Clayton Bigsby
@45 – Don't worry about 46 – the vast majority of us got it.
5/12 – You are an idiot. You take the distinction "soul food" to be racist, which means to me that you probably grew up in an elite Northeastern or Midwest white community and didn't know any black people. If you are black, I'm even more confused. Now, I grew up in a part of the country with a large percentage of black people (and no, they didn't like when people referred to them as African-American, so I will not use that designation here). Anyway, some of the best food was soul food and they took great pride in their culinary creations and the culture behind it. Not to mention the designation "soul food."
Get off of your high horse and get a clue.
@5 Please note from @43's post what racism is supposed to look like. (Ya know, with the married paki cousins – 24 million of us do it and you paint all 180 million with the same brush).
Amy Ruth's is better, 116th and Lenox. Sylvia's is for tourists and silly corporate CEOs.
Amy Ruth's is much better.. 116th and Lenox. No wonder C sucks, given VP's poor decision making
UbLyaU Thanks so much for the blog article.Much thanks again. Cool.