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Restaurant On Top Of Stupid Tower (Swansea)


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HOLA441

Hey all.

I am an employee at the penthouse and after reading this thread I just thought I would put some facts straight.

There were definatly problems with the penthouse from when it first opened. Much of this was because the restaurant was in a huge rush to open. It was still a construction site even a week after it opened and because there was little time for the staff to get full training, rotas to be made etc it all stemmed from this.

Now though everthing is coming together, the restaurant and bar is more or less finished, we are fully staffed, the website and new menu is coming out, its all getting better everyday.

Majority of the staff got paid just before christmas which was promised to us. I know a few people didn't get their pay through the bank, but for them they were able to pick it up in cash from the restaurant. No staff ended up walking out even though I know a few people almost did.

With the Exec chef Mark. I went home for christmas but just before I went I asked him what he was up to and he told me he was off to Goa for a month. Basically this is where he has been, he works in restaurants in London too so when he is back I think he will mostly be working at the penthouse at weekends.

I can't say it has all been perfect or even not a mess at times, but it has improved so much since its opening and now everybody knows what they are doing. We are pretty much fully booked in the weekends and now it seems to be working well as a business. I think Peter Way is a brilliant man and if you need to speak to him he always has time for you.

Its still a work in progress but it has come a long way and I am very happy to work there.

Hope some of this helps!

Is prawn cocktail on the menu as a starter?

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HOLA443

Hey all.

I am an employee at the penthouse and after reading this thread I just thought I would put some facts straight.

There were definatly problems with the penthouse from when it first opened. Much of this was because the restaurant was in a huge rush to open. It was still a construction site even a week after it opened and because there was little time for the staff to get full training, rotas to be made etc it all stemmed from this.

Now though everthing is coming together, the restaurant and bar is more or less finished, we are fully staffed, the website and new menu is coming out, its all getting better everyday.

Majority of the staff got paid just before christmas which was promised to us. I know a few people didn't get their pay through the bank, but for them they were able to pick it up in cash from the restaurant. No staff ended up walking out even though I know a few people almost did.

With the Exec chef Mark. I went home for christmas but just before I went I asked him what he was up to and he told me he was off to Goa for a month. Basically this is where he has been, he works in restaurants in London too so when he is back I think he will mostly be working at the penthouse at weekends.

I can't say it has all been perfect or even not a mess at times, but it has improved so much since its opening and now everybody knows what they are doing. We are pretty much fully booked in the weekends and now it seems to be working well as a business. I think Peter Way is a brilliant man and if you need to speak to him he always has time for you.

Its still a work in progress but it has come a long way and I am very happy to work there.

Hope some of this helps!

Peter Way must be feeling desperate to get his staff to post on here - a place will speak for itself when run properly and delivering the service and product and shouldn't need the staff to defend it. Yes the views will always attract customers up there once - but the reputation of a restaurant for its food and service has to earned and already the Penthouse has developed a reputation for all the wrong reasons. Peter Way had been posting press releases about the Penthouse and promising top London chefs and London restaurant standards for over a year before it opened. He raised the expectations of people in Swansea all by himself and made a lot of big promises for the place.

Peter Way had plenty of time to get menus, suppliers, websites proper marketing organised during that year before opening. How hard is it to organise staff rotas - he surely should have had his staffing requirements costed out in his business plan months before opening. He would have known how many staff, hours etc. needed - just a case of slotting people into the rota once employed. The more I hear about all this the more incompetent it all sounds! Can't think why he had a launch party when the place was still a building site - it was a joke really. Why not wait before everything was working properly before launching? Anyone can see that the whole thing was chaotic and last minute - and apart from blaming it on poor management the only other possible explanation could be cash flow problems in his business. The 4ft artificial Christmas tree said it all!

A few questions for you . So where are these managers that he claimed would control the taxis and people coming and going from the Penthouse late at night? No sign of those yet? What has happened to Darcy's and the staff there? did all the suppliers get paid? What about the Langland Brasserie - Peter Way was claiming he has bought that too - and the restaurants in London that he was claiming he owns - where are they? Oh! and whats happened to his multimillion pound business in London and all the staff he employed there? what about all those creditors - have they been paid since it went into liquidation last February?

Just be mindful that history can have a habit of repeating itself .......

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HOLA444

Hey all.

We are pretty much fully booked in the weekends and now it seems to be working well as a business.

Hope some of this helps!

Well if its fully booked, that's OK then. Obviously its reputation will spread and it will do well.

Never mind the bank account ran out of cash, never mind the gross incompetence of launching a luxury product half finished, never mind the parking and taxi problems, never mind the phone being on answer phone, never mind the lift problems, all these hurtful rumours can be swept aside. So just why is Peter Way a brilliant man?

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Peter Way must be feeling desperate to get his staff to post on here - a place will speak for itself when run properly and delivering the service and product and shouldn't need the staff to defend it. Yes the views will always attract customers up there once - but the reputation of a restaurant for its food and service has to earned and already the Penthouse has developed a reputation for all the wrong reasons. Peter Way had been posting press releases about the Penthouse and promising top London chefs and London restaurant standards for over a year before it opened. He raised the expectations of people in Swansea all by himself and made a lot of big promises for the place.

Peter Way had plenty of time to get menus, suppliers, websites proper marketing organised during that year before opening. How hard is it to organise staff rotas - he surely should have had his staffing requirements costed out in his business plan months before opening. He would have known how many staff, hours etc. needed - just a case of slotting people into the rota once employed. The more I hear about all this the more incompetent it all sounds! Can't think why he had a launch party when the place was still a building site - it was a joke really. Why not wait before everything was working properly before launching? Anyone can see that the whole thing was chaotic and last minute - and apart from blaming it on poor management the only other possible explanation could be cash flow problems in his business. The 4ft artificial Christmas tree said it all!

A few questions for you . So where are these managers that he claimed would control the taxis and people coming and going from the Penthouse late at night? No sign of those yet? What has happened to Darcy's and the staff there? did all the suppliers get paid? What about the Langland Brasserie - Peter Way was claiming he has bought that too - and the restaurants in London that he was claiming he owns - where are they? Oh! and whats happened to his multimillion pound business in London and all the staff he employed there? what about all those creditors - have they been paid since it went into liquidation last February?

Just be mindful that history can have a habit of repeating itself .......

Firstly I am not defending the restaurant. I have seen this thread and felt like giving my opinion on how it is going now. Things still aren't right with the place, I mean the other night I worked and felt like walking out. I won't walk out because personally I want to try and help make the place work because all in all I love my job. If you think I have been bullied by Peter Way to post nice comments on this forum then you really know nothing about Peter or the restaurant.

For your questions I am the wrong person to ask. I know nothing about Darcy's staff or anything else about Peter Way's other business interests. I can't defend anything I have no control over, I am just a member of staff who wants to try and improve their workplace where they can. If you want to see for yourself how the restaurant is run then you need to give it a chance and experience it rather then build up an idea of the place by speculation. When I tell anyone where I work, often I need to get on the defence as they bombard me with all these negative rumours about the place. It sucks! I don't like even saying where I work now as I want to go back to the time when I had a life outside of work. Work hard and play hard! :)

BTW we do sell a Shellfish Cocktail which does include prawns yes.

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HOLA447

Firstly I am not defending the restaurant. I have seen this thread and felt like giving my opinion on how it is going now. Things still aren't right with the place, I mean the other night I worked and felt like walking out. I won't walk out because personally I want to try and help make the place work because all in all I love my job.

Have you seen the feedback from Penthouse Customers on this other forum?

http://tawetalk.blogspot.com/2009/11/celebs-at-penthouse.html

Even if you take 'teething problems' into account it's still not good.

I do feel sorry for you as there are more stories about staff not being paid on that forum too

btw has Mark Broadbent come back to work yet?

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Have you seen the feedback from Penthouse Customers on this other forum?

http://tawetalk.blogspot.com/2009/11/celebs-at-penthouse.html

Even if you take 'teething problems' into account it's still not good.

I do feel sorry for you as there are more stories about staff not being paid on that forum too

btw has Mark Broadbent come back to work yet?

Hi hero,

Read the comments on the blog and must say they are all pretty much as I expected. I've been to the Penthouse for the view 3 times now and it has got slowly worse if that's possible! You might ask why have I been 3 times...it's the view.

The problem with blogs like the one you linked to is that "1st man leads the charge" and if the 1st comment is bad then all the others follow suite as per this one:

Anonymous said...

Friends of mine went there for a meal £17 for 2 glasses of wine & 2 lemonades Meal was pretty basic but expensive Daughter ordered clemintine pot for desert Couldn't believe it when it turned up Four unpeeled clementines in a pot with a few green leaves for decoration at a high rise price of £4+ Come on Mr Way what are you doing up there with your head in the clouds? After all you promised us!!

January 3, 2010 9:15 PM

The going rate for 2.. 250ml glasses of wine would be £12-£15 depends on where you go. That is exactly what a clementine pot is! you peel them yourself, and at £4 it's cheap.

Having said that the Penthouse will close simply because the guy has no money.

Someone who works in a restaurant I go to went to the Penthouse to work as a standin for a weekend. He was told that if he came back on the Monday at 12.00 his pay would be ready. It wasn't, asked to come back on Wednesday, waste of time!! He never got paid.

All the staff there are all very young and very willing, probably work experience.

Just another Swansea folly, like the Dolphin Hotel taken over by a couple of likely lad and now closed.

It's getting tiresome all these ventures biting the dust.

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HOLA4410

Hi hero,

Read the comments on the blog and must say they are all pretty much as I expected. I've been to the Penthouse for the view 3 times now and it has got slowly worse if that's possible! You might ask why have I been 3 times...it's the view.

The problem with blogs like the one you linked to is that "1st man leads the charge" and if the 1st comment is bad then all the others follow suite as per this one:

Anonymous said...

Friends of mine went there for a meal £17 for 2 glasses of wine & 2 lemonades Meal was pretty basic but expensive Daughter ordered clemintine pot for desert Couldn't believe it when it turned up Four unpeeled clementines in a pot with a few green leaves for decoration at a high rise price of £4+ Come on Mr Way what are you doing up there with your head in the clouds? After all you promised us!!

January 3, 2010 9:15 PM

The going rate for 2.. 250ml glasses of wine would be £12-£15 depends on where you go. That is exactly what a clementine pot is! you peel them yourself, and at £4 it's cheap.

Having said that the Penthouse will close simply because the guy has no money.

Someone who works in a restaurant I go to went to the Penthouse to work as a standin for a weekend. He was told that if he came back on the Monday at 12.00 his pay would be ready. It wasn't, asked to come back on Wednesday, waste of time!! He never got paid.

All the staff there are all very young and very willing, probably work experience.

Just another Swansea folly, like the Dolphin Hotel taken over by a couple of likely lad and now closed.

It's getting tiresome all these ventures biting the dust.

The Dolphin closed? Not been down that way for ages.

Things do not bode well for Swansea in the next 5 to 10 years. I really can't see where the wealth will come from. Very small private sector, public sector about to get hit, parents and teenagers slowly twigging that going to university just leaves you with massive debts and no better chance of a job.

No, as lovely as the beaches are, I am working more and more on a long-term escape plan. More and more people I talk to are worried that a return of the 1980s is about to occur.

Ken Clarke talking about Wales being over-reliant on public sector jobs and then, in the same speech, saying that enormous public sector spending cuts have to happen to save the economy... go figure what that means for Wales and Swansea.

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HOLA4411

The Dolphin closed? Not been down that way for ages.

Things do not bode well for Swansea in the next 5 to 10 years. I really can't see where the wealth will come from. Very small private sector, public sector about to get hit, parents and teenagers slowly twigging that going to university just leaves you with massive debts and no better chance of a job.

No, as lovely as the beaches are, I am working more and more on a long-term escape plan. More and more people I talk to are worried that a return of the 1980s is about to occur.

Ken Clarke talking about Wales being over-reliant on public sector jobs and then, in the same speech, saying that enormous public sector spending cuts have to happen to save the economy... go figure what that means for Wales and Swansea.

'the graveyard of ambition', That's what it means

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HOLA4413

All this bleating about Swansea does make me laugh.

How about Haiti eh? Or maybe you'd be happier in Beirut? Gaza strip anyone?

For goodness sake pull yourselves together, some of you would be miserable wherever you lived no matter how rich or poor you were.

Good morning Nice,

There are times when I just have to agree with you. Just got back from a 5 day trip to the Midlands taking in Coventry, Birmingham, Stoke on Trent and Burton on Trent. What absolute S***holes they really are. No wonder they are all getting repossessed. Who would want to live there? Not me at any price.

Swansea is like coming back to the Promised Land, nice air, sea breeze nice people; well they are compared to Brummies. I will never knock Swansea again!! Even though house prices are still 50% overvalued.

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HOLA4414

'the graveyard of ambition', That's what it means

just to clarify the usual ignorant trash that gets posted on here :-

1) the dolphin hotel is shut because it's now under new ownership and the hotel is being refurbished and will re-open again.

2) the term "graveyard of ambition" actually means that swansea is such a fantastic place to live that people stay and don't leave to pursue their ambitions where as it's been spun by some to mean something negative.

FLOREAT SWANSEA !

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HOLA4415

just to clarify the usual ignorant trash that gets posted on here :-

1) the dolphin hotel is shut because it's now under new ownership and the hotel is being refurbished and will re-open again.

2) the term "graveyard of ambition" actually means that swansea is such a fantastic place to live that people stay and don't leave to pursue their ambitions where as it's been spun by some to mean something negative.

FLOREAT SWANSEA !

I have to presume your post is some kind of wind up.

The Dolphin is closed because Nigel S**** the previous occupier went broke just after Christmas! It may well now be under new ownership who hopefully can take advantage of the grant in place.

As regards the quote from Dylan, well I think you should go back to school.

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I get the picture now, Mr Way trawling down the Kings Road in his new lease hire Mercedes. Drops in to the Bluebird to chat up one of the Polish waitresses (they are lovely) Niceathome can I think agree with me as that’s one of his watering holes.

Starts talking his usual nonsense to the chef there and before you know it the poor bugger has been whisked down to Swansea as front man to the Penthouse. Now he’s owed £13K and the wages for the other staff have been paid by a management concern. Face it. Way has no money, never had any money, can’t pay his bills and the Penthouse will close. ‘It is his graveyard of ambition',

What happened to that chap who was telling us Way is a brilliant bloke? Was that SWA?

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HOLA4419

Today we read about Mark Broadbent pulling out of the venture before Christmas.

"just before Christmas he pulled out of the venture and claims he is still owed around £13,500 in unpaid wages".

But on January 12th, Peter Way is quoted as saying "Mark is still a big part of the business here. He's in charge of designing the menus, selecting produce and choosing suppliers. He's very talented and used to running big operations."

Before Christmas, wasn't there a quote in the paper claiming Broadbent was on holiday and hadn't walked out?

It's a tangled web.

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Do you remember the hype when Dawsons were flogging apartments in the Tower from their display suite in the Marriott?

Concierge at front desk,

High security on premises 24/7

Some multimillionaire arrived in his yacht to buy the top 2 apartment!

Premier league footballers were queuing to sign up for apartments.

So get in quick!!

And: There would be a ***** restaurant on the top floor who would provide room or flat service.

Castles built on sand.

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I get the picture now, Mr Way trawling down the Kings Road in his new lease hire Mercedes. Drops in to the Bluebird to chat up one of the Polish waitresses (they are lovely) Niceathome can I think agree with me as thats one of his watering holes.

Starts talking his usual nonsense to the chef there and before you know it the poor bugger has been whisked down to Swansea as front man to the Penthouse. Now hes owed £13K and the wages for the other staff have been paid by a management concern. Face it. Way has no money, never had any money, cant pay his bills and the Penthouse will close. It is his graveyard of ambition',

What happened to that chap who was telling us Way is a brilliant bloke? Was that SWA?

Is the place still open?

I see he's still burning the electrcity with those lights full on - I bet that will be another bill that doesn't get paid. We'll soon know when they disconnect him and the lights go out! Ha Ha!

Edited by localhero
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HOLA4424

Is the place still open?

I see he's still burning the electrcity with those lights full on - I bet that will be another bill that doesn't get paid. We'll soon know when they disconnect him and the lights go out! Ha Ha!

I think those lights will be out very soon.

Friends of mine went for lunch a couple of weeks ago, finished the meal at 3.00 and ordered drinks about 3.15. Were told they could not be served as the place was closing.

Contested the bill, but the very young staff were very confused and flustered and were not able to rectify because the manager had left.

Refused to pay but left their names and address for the bill to be forwarded. Never heard a word since!! Loss to our Peter through incompetence about £80.

“As you sow so shall you reap” Springs to mind.

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HOLA4425

I think those lights will be out very soon.

Friends of mine went for lunch a couple of weeks ago, finished the meal at 3.00 and ordered drinks about 3.15. Were told they could not be served as the place was closing.

Contested the bill, but the very young staff were very confused and flustered and were not able to rectify because the manager had left.

Refused to pay but left their names and address for the bill to be forwarded. Never heard a word since!! Loss to our Peter through incompetence about £80.

“As you sow so shall you reap” Springs to mind.

mmm I'm told they don't open Sunday evenings but 3pm closing is a bit sharp for a Sunday.

Friends of mine went up for a coffee last week and said the place hadn't been cleaned - floor was covered in dust and lifts very mucky. Perhaps he hasn't paid the cleaners either!

He claims to have bought Langlands Braserie too!

Havn't been up that way for a while.- is that still open?

Darcy's still looks closed.

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