While I don't disagree with you that restaurateurs ought to do the right thing and pass the taxes they collect to the gov. I thought it was exceedingly harsh of the Strib to post those names online, and on the front page no less.

Only a guess, but it seems to me that many of these business are struggling, and if they are using these funds to help them through tough times, and save jobs, in the short term that is something I can accept. Clearly they should pay them back, every red cent.

If people reading that are article are less likely to visit LBV for example, that might compound the difficult environment that that restaurant faces. While I agree with your point, in principal, I also think this info could easily be misconstrued, and therefor detrimental to those business. I received a call late in the afternoon yesterday wherein a conversation took place that reinforced my concerns about that article.

It smacks of schadenfreude on some level. Advertising these difficulties, as publicly as the Strib did doesn't pass the sniff test in my book.

Agree with Shefzilla. Many a business goes through slow periods where cash flow problems can be crippling. Publishing the list can push them into greater hardship.

It's not that different from our own elected governments in the form of States that issued IOU's instead of tax refunds? They also collected taxes but failed to pass them onto the end recipient in a timely manner.

Agreed that these places are unfortunately likely struggling --I don't think the Star Trib is in such a good position to be pointing fingers at other's financial troubles.

I agree with all previous comments. And am a little surprised that you would re-post the list. Let's cut struggling restaurants some slack during this very, very difficult time. I am quite sure that the great majority of these restaurants has or had every intention of getting back on track. Of course you want to pay every bill and renew every license on time. But until you've owned an independent restaurant in Minnesota, I don't think you can point a finger.

Another case of irresponsible journalism (bloggerism?). These local businesses need support more than ever, and your reposting of the Strib's article will indeed scare customers away from places they will now think of as "stealing" from the state. You really should get each establishment's story about how they ended up on this list to begin with before you start spouting fiscal morality. Reality check: people are out of jobs, losing their homes and businesses at an alarming rate, don't fan the fire AZ.

Why doesn't the Star Tribune or Minneapolis St. Paul magazine post their financials, either goods or bad, for us? Or better yet, Andrew, can we see your personal finances? You've been in the business, you know what rumors like this do. This is completely inappropriate in my opinion.

Billy Dec grew up with my sister-in-law, and I've had the opportunity to hang out as his guest @ Underground and Rockit. He's a mensch AND a superstar. I wish I had half his energy and rolodex.

Wow. The menu does NOT display correctly on a Mac.

David: works fine on all Macs at my office, plus at home. Sorry you're having trouble, but it's not a blanket problem.

Here is a counter opinion about the dreaded tax list. As an operator it is your leagal duty to pay your fair share of taxes in a timly manner. The best plan is to totally separate the money into a separate account, thus when taxes come due it is no hardship to operator. This is not your money and was not intended to be used as a short term loan for other stuff. If it means putting your name on the list, so be it.

I'm reading this on Sept 3, but wonder if the d'Amicans have caught their Italian typo yet... it's CONTORNI, not CONTORI, assuming they're referring to side dishes, and not an Italian family. A quick Googling reveals a couple other American restaurants' online menus with the same error (and additional misspellings). Is it really so difficult to pick up the Italian dictionary which one would hope is lying around in an Italian restaurant's office?

I wonder if there are American restaurants in Italy which serve SID DIHES...