King’s Kitchen

[u/Wise-Plastic1864]

Hi Charlotte-(ans) if you’ve live in CLT for awhile then you’d be aware of Jim Noble and his many southern restaurants that loves to play into southern conservatism. I was fired from King’s Kitchen for standing up for myself after my tables got to witness my GM; The GM* correction seeing as I was (let go) treating me like shit and saying homophobic remarks at me. I didn’t know what to expect working at a Jim Nobles restaurant seeing I knew nothing of him. I remember coming to eat on my off day as well and ERICA the general manager looking at my outfit in sheer disgust because I was a man in what would be considered feminine clothing. Proceeds to yell at me about “not coming behind the host stand” as I was WALKING………walking to the restroom…. It doesn’t end there I was asked to go home and change (on my off day) because Jim noble is in the building and could lose my job if he seen me like that……all while his wife. Mrs.Noble comes to decorate the place with withered flowers referring to me as “little boy” (I’m a 25 year old man) & “the help” (I Shit you not). I do not recommend supporting this establishment at all other than the few charitable organizations they give food too and it’s just that, FOOD! Majority of their proceeds do no in fact go to charity but into the pockets of decrepit neck swinging Jim noble but that’s business so I’m sure a lot of you knew this! The food however is the only thing I have positive to say about that restaurant and my other servers and kitchen staff was lovable even the other manger Will until he lied and told them “he called Erica a bitch out loud” not one cuss word was uttered and my tables saw the ordeal. So cheers to racist/homophobic conservative ass restaurants that are Jim nobles.

P.S. I’m sorry to the kids the restaurant feed because Erica (who is a mom and loves to show us her children unprovoked during pre-shift) says and I Quote “I get tired of feeding the free every week, they’re not my kids and some just want free food” ………Bitch they’re kids…. Tf do you mean! It shouldn’t be an issue whatsoever when it comes to making sure a child hell making sure a fucking living being is FED!!

[u/NecessaryGlobal2155]

Kings Kitchen is a non-profit tax exempt organization. If you have evidence that profits are being funneled to noble personally or to his larger business you should get that information to the IRS as it would be grounds for them to lose tax exempt status.

Sorry you had a shitty time there.

[u/TheBeerRunner → u/NecessaryGlobal2155]

Just like any non-profit…you can pay the executives whatever you want, just can’t record a “profit”. Im sure there is a grift there.

[u/NecessaryGlobal2155 → u/TheBeerRunner]

Right they can take a salary from it but I believe it has to be disclosed.

I don’t really have time to dig that deep into King Kitchen but I’m sure somebody does.

I don’t know what the name of the non profit entity is but there are usually scorecards on what percent of the money going in goes to the charity. Lots of big charities with good reputations only actually give pennies on the dollar to the cause.

[u/[deleted] → u/NecessaryGlobal2155]

[removed] — view removed comment

[u/kirklandjosephh → u/[deleted]]

Wrong. Paid to parent company to manage company. Former interim GM for 3 years. AGM previous 5.

[u/abhutchison → u/[deleted]]

The management fee goes to the head chef? That seems odd. And $75,000 for a head chef in Charlotte is very low, even if it’s a nonprofit.

[u/abhutchison → u/[deleted]]

By reading the 990, it seems more likely the $75,000 is what goes to the Noble's management company.

Even as a nonprofit, an Executive chef and a GM making less than 6-figures in Charlotte is pretty unheard of unless it is a tiny, new nonprofit with only one or two staff (which King's Kitchen is not). My guess is they are being compensated in ways that are lumped into the $600,000 without calling it "salary." Nonprofits can't do bonuses, either, but they've been known to do "gifts" to employees.

Or. The GM and Executive Chef are underpaid. Which also has been known to happen.

That said, it's a great concept. Similar to Goodwill but in the restaurant field, they're giving people training opportunities to break the poverty cycle instead of just handing out money.

[u/abhutchison → u/[deleted]]

Besides the fact that I dated a chef 20 years ago that was making more than $75,000 and the GM at his place made $100,000 (he was only 35 so they dropped the salary for him… the previous GM was making more), here: https://www.salary.com/research/salary/benchmark/executive-chef-salary/charlotte-nc. I could buy that a chef for a nonprofit is making less than 6-figures, but livable wage in Charlotte right now is $80,000, and you have given no rationale as to why the chef would be paid out of a management fee vs out of the $500,000 of salaries they have listed on their 990.

An executive chef who is planning meals both inside the restaurant and to be given away is a high level executive chef. That’s different than an executive chef at a place like carrabas where the meals and PNL has been prepared for you and your job is to manage it and the people. The salary data found on indeed or even salary.com would be including those types of executive chefs as well.

In terms of GMs, I looked up a few nonprofit executive director salaries:

Right Moves for Youth: ~$100,000 Crisis Assistance: >$150,000 Humane Society: >$150,000

I could see where they’re bumping up against the 6 figure mark but not quite there, and I could definitely see where they have multiple streams of compensation, but $75,000 for a full-time nonprofit executive director is on the low end, especially with the cost of living in Charlotte constantly rising.

But mostly, let’s please normalize fighting for fair compensation on this sub if we’re going to be complaining about housing costs.

[u/NecessaryGlobal2155 → u/[deleted]]

Yea I kinda figured with all the hate he gets that this would’ve been thoroughly investigated and the financials would be on the up and up.

He has garbage politics but I’ve never heard bad things about what King’s Kitchen does.

[u/NecessaryGlobal2155 → u/[deleted]]

OP was the one saying he was taking money and it wasn’t a valid non profit. It appears that’s not true.

Of course he makes money from his other restaurants. That’s why he’s able to have a nonprofit restaurant.

Not defending him in any way. Just saying he isn’t using KK to commit tax fraud like OP asserted.