Welcome to Eater's latest feature, Shit People Steal, in which we ask restaurateurs what items in their restaurant have been (or are frequently) stolen.
Ten or so years ago, there lived a one-legged man named Terry above the Meridian Room in Expo Park. He was a bar regular, and he became affectionately known as "Pirate Terry." One day he brought in a "buddy," a Charlie McCarthy doll that, wouldn't you know it, only had one leg. His name was Lappy and the staff would periodically hide him in various places round the bar to freak each other out. (That's him, pictured at right.) And thus our story begins in October of 2002, as told by former bar owner Simon McDonald:
... One of our good friends that happened to work at The Old Monk stole him amidst the chaos of a busy Friday, and Lappy went to live there for a while while we plotted revenge. On Halloween, my partner's wife Dana entered The Monk's costume contest, and jumped behind the bar during the judging and swiped him back. He got a makeover from a seamstress/waitress, and now had a pirate outfit complete with a little wood peg leg (The Old Monk people had cut up his dashing tuxedo).In November he was stolen AGAIN, this time by the employees at Cosmo's, who were now in on the awesomeness of Lappy. They cheated the game by making him virtually un-stealable and putting him high on a shelf above the jukebox.
On New Year's Eve, Cosmo's had a crazy busy night, and my partner Mike [Smith] went by, and with the help of a barstool and an unaware (read: drunk) staff, got Lappy back, and triumphantly returned him home to The Meridian. A couple of months later, the Monk guys stole him AGAIN, and started sending us cryptic messages and MySpace postings about how not well Lappy was doing. One of the managers there (I think it was Kelly Wessner - who now owns The Filmore Pub in Plano) hated him, and they burned him in the parking lot. They took pictures. And sent them to us. They are very mean and cruel people.So, Lappy is no more. Mike Wallace found a sort of replacement at Dolly Python a couple of years ago, but he had both legs, and it just wasn't the same ...."
Does your bar or restaurant have a case of the disappearing somethings? E-mail us the story!
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