The kitchen is on fire. Welcome to the final part of the Vapiano story where the tables are turning. In the first two episodes we followed Mark Korzilius' journey from setbacks to founding Vapiano, a groundbreaking restaurant concept, highlighting its fresh ingredients, dynamic atmosphere, and data-driven operations that drove rapid success. While achieving initial profitability and garnering attention from industry giants like McDonald's, Vapiano's global expansion has led to stellar revenue growth. However, it has also resulted in the emergence of numerous side projects (or distractions), operational challenges, increased costs, significant investments, and a notable accumulation of debt. This underscores the prioritization of top-line growth over profitable growth. We will continue on this thread and see how the story ends, but I would encourage you to read part one and two for better context. Vapiano P1: Italian Food Made in Germany (substack.com). Let's dig in.
Before Going Public
We are now in 2015 and the year is a disaster for Vapiano's PR department. Employee time stamps are being manipulated, endless overtime for employees and high turnover in managerial roles are reported; mice in the kitchen and even rotten food allegedly found.
The company is confronted with allegations of exceeding working hours among trainees in an article published by Welt am Sonntag, while the same outlet accuses Vapiano of manipulating punch times. The auditing firm PwC is commissioned to investigate the allegations and finds that there is no systematic approach but rather misconduct by individual employees, a mistake that’s being corrected. Internal however, investigations into stamp times are carried out regularly now and beyond its obvious reputational impact, this sucks up valuable management time and attention.
In the summer of 2015 CEO, co-founder and investor Gregor Gerlach, who has been running the group since 2011 is stepping down and Jochen Halfmann is taking over. A new Vapiano People Program with an App is being developed with the aim to better interact with customers that will incorporate innovate features such as mobile pay. The German website sees a launch of new magazine to further promote the brand and there is now a full inhouse blogger and Instagram team being installed. In October the company buys seven restaurants from original co-founder, former co-investor and ex-president previously responsible for internation expansion Kent Hahne (2x Bonn, 3x Cologne, 1x Koblenz and one in Cologne that’s under construction). This package of Vapiano restaurants is very successful and generates net sales of more than 20 million euros in 2014. Hahne opened his first Vapiano restaurant in Cologne in August 2006 and in 2015 with his company apeiron AG, Hahne operates six L'Osteria franchise restaurants, a direct Vapiano competitor, and two self-owned restaurants GinYuu.
Then in November of 2015, the next public relations bomb goes off with allegations regarding the company's quality standards. The company immediately investigates the issue through internal and external specialists but finds no evidence of any quality issues. Nevertheless, knowing that the group is now being closely watched, the company’s already in place hygiene standards are being reinforced. Additional audits and inspections are performed nationally. Further, all Vapianos worldwide are being audited twice by the partners SGS Institut Fresenius and SAI Global. Auditing software is purchased to simplify the implementation of the audits and the resulting measures. Apart from the external examinations, there is a food sampling plan in place being performed continuously. Again, all of this sucks up costs, management time and attention. With all these tumultuous developments the company’s growth engine is undeterred. Revenue grows by a whopping 50 million euros to 202 million euros, an increase of 33%. Impressive. While average spent per customer increases in all countries, the number of customers per day in Germany decreases by 3.3% partially due to the negative press towards the end of the year. Five own, four JV and 19 new franchise restaurants are added that year to the group, the total number of own managed restaurants grows to 51, there are 31 JVs and 84 franchises which bringing the total to 166 Vapiano restaurants. Global restaurant sales are now above 400 million euros.
But while revenue grows by an astronomical 50 million euros, operating profits, alarmingly, shrink again. Gross margins are staying perfectly healthy above 75% but operating costs keep growing disproportionately fast. The Company’s outstanding debt jumps by almost 30 million, close to 85 million euros by the end of the year. With operating profits at 9.5 million euros, alarm bells should be going off right now.
In Q4 of 2015, new CEO Jochen Halfmann introduces Strategy 2020. The new strategy includes five essential points. One, profitable growth in the newly defined core markets of Germany and Austria as well as in the UK, Netherlands, France and USA. Two, operational excellence through strict “best practice” management. Three, further development and digitalization of the concept considering guest feedback. Four, greater focus on long-term employee retention and five, building a modern and sustainable IT landscape. Sound’s good on paper but let’s see how things pan out.
Vapiano's investments (capital expenditures) that year are primarily directed towards new restaurant openings, renovations of existing establishments, and share acquisitions in other Vapiano restaurants from franchisees or JV partners. A significant portion of funds is allocated to the digitalization of the guest experience, including the development of a new app scheduled for market release in 2016 and the implementation of a time recording system across all group restaurants. The world's first standalone Vapiano restaurant with a delivery service that year is built in Fürth, Germany. The company keeps expanding its presence in both inner-city locations and international markets, such as Shanghai, China.
To finance all of this, the group has its own operating cash flow which comes in at 18 million while capital expenditures are 26 million euros plus 14 million for acquisitions. The funding gab is filled with 26 million euros of new debt and a seven-million-euro equity raise. At that end of the year and after the equity raise Gregor Gerlach (through his AP Leipzig GmbH & Co. KG entity) holds 30.1%, Hans-Joachim and Gisa Sander through their Exchange Bio GmbH hold 25.5% and the Tchibo heirs, Herz through their Mayfair Beteiligungsfonds II GmbH & Co. KG hold 44,4%.
But for the first time the restaurant’s concept that was so successful to date is being questioned. Some customers are starting to mislike the operational flow of the concept itself. If you want pasta, you must queue for pasta. If you want pizza you stand in a different queue. A small side salad, yet another queue. "You spend more time carrying trays than an actress in Berlin-Mitte. The audience in the pasta limbo can only consist of people who have worked for an insurance company for a long time and, like Stockholm syndrome, they can no longer get away from the industrial canteen feeling," writes TV host Beisenherz provocatively. While overly harsh in his assessment he's not entirely wrong judging by customers venting their frustrations in forums and social media channels. It isn’t uncommon for those who ordered pizza to have already finished eating while there is little movement in the pasta queue. Long term that doesn't go down well, QSRs competitors like L’Osteria are handling this process differently, with much success.
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Tipping Point

Where are now in the year 2016 and things start to deteriorate visibility. Perhaps not for the leman’s eye but any business minded observer can see that there are problems under the hood. Yes, revenue grows yet another whopping 50 million to almost 250 million euros but half of that growth, comes from acquisitions of restaurants that the group didn’t already own 100%, which is now being fully consolidated within the group’s accounts. Here is a concrete example. In the past, Vapiano SE, the group’s top holding company held an indirect 50% stake in a French subgroup via the subsidiary VAP Restaurants SA, based in Luxembourg, and included this as an associated company in the Vapiano SE consolidated financial statements using the equity method. Due to the acquisition of additional shares in September of 2016, Vapiano SE's indirect share in the French subgroup increased to 75%. This means that Vapiano SE takes control of the French subgroup, which is therefore included in the group’s financial statements as part of the full consolidation. The revenue from the acquired subsidiary now recorded in the consolidated income statement amounts to 12.8 million euros. While that’s great for the top line, the loss of the fully consolidated entity equates to 0.2 million euros. Yes, you are buying revenue, but there are losses attached to them, not profits. A similar case is the Swedish entity that runs eight restaurants with revenue of 11.5 million euros but has losses of 235 thousand euros. So much for Strategy 2020 and “profitable” growth.
That year the group’s operating profits are absolutely tanking, halving to 3.5 million euros. Operating profits are now a mere 1,4% of revenue. Remember original founder Mark Korzilius who talked about operating margins of 25% to 28% at the restaurant level? Yes, there are overhead costs for the organization that sits above the chain of restaurants, but operating margins that low indicates a course correction is needed. What’s telling is that in the annual report, in the management discussion section, the company starts talking about EBITDA as a proxy measure of profitability, rather than operating profit or net income. This wasn’t the case in the years before. Is this window dressing for an upcoming IPO? EBITDA is short for earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization. How can you measure profitability of a restaurant chain that absolutely and unequivocally needs capital investment to maintain its restaurant operations, the very source of cash generation, by simply excluding this maintenance charge (depreciation in the income statement)? Vapiano’s own annual report talks about the fact that existing restaurants must be rejuvenated from time to time and that new interior designs have to be implemented every few years. These things wear and tear, they go out of style, kitchen equipment breaks and needs replacement. This business absolutely needs maintenance capital expenditure, why anyone talks of profits before these maintenance costs is beyond me. Fun fact: in the previous annual report EBITDA is mentioned seven times, mostly around restaurant acquisitions and financing, not however as a profit indication for the group. In the new annual report, EBITDA is mentioned 28 times. Maybe it’s just me but belated Charlie Munger liked to call EBITDA: bullsh*t earnings. When in doubt I stick with Charlie. Interestingly, EBITDA for Vapiano keeps growing while operating and net profits keep falling.
Operating cashflow for the group that year is about 21 million euros, but capital expenditure is 30 million and acquisitions for subsidiaries another 20 million. To finance these expenditures another 28 million euros of debt and 16 million of equity is raised. Net debt rises above 130 million euro. The operating cashflow of the group before any capital expenditures is 21 million euros. I am not sure free cash flow would be significantly positive after maintenance capex is paid out; it’s not broken out so we can’t be sure. Granted, I am not on the ground during this time, and I am not in the board room, I am simply reading what’s in front of me, but to me this is starting to look like a distressed situation. Regardless, the following year the company goes public.

IPO

Where are now in the year 2017 and its Vapiano’s first year as public company. The company’s annual report reads the following “Sales revenue, like-for-like growth (LfL) and the earnings figures EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA are used as the most important financial performance indicators for controlling operational business activities.” The very same report however also says: “The majority of the group's investments regularly go towards opening new restaurant locations and modernizing existing restaurants. The latter are differentiated into regular replacement investments that occur during ongoing operations (Maintenance CAPEX) and fundamental investments in the renovation of a restaurant (Remodeling CAPEX). On average, a restaurant remodeling takes place nine years after opening.” It says it right there in their own report; every nine years a remodeling is taking place. Remodeling and updating is not cost free, so why exclude depreciation charges which reflect capital expenditures? I understand that perhaps you would want to strip out one-off opening costs, that’s fine and fair, but don’t go overboard.
The number of restaurants increases by 26 (previous year: 13) to a total of 205. The increase consists of 27 new openings and one closure. Group revenue grows to an astonishing 325 million euros but here comes the shocker, operating profits turn negative to 25 million. Fine, strip out foreign exchange losses of 3 million, IPO costs of 5.8 million and new opening costs of 6.1 million and you still have 10 million euros of operational losses. All the while the debt load of almost 130 million hasn’t materially changed, so those operating losses are before a six-million-euro interest payment. 184 million euros are raised through the IPO of which 85 million go to the company. This money is earmarked for further expansion as the group has ambitions to almost double the footprint to 330 restaurants by the end of 2020. The company is currently not profitable on an operating basis, and still wants to expand aggressively? I don’t get it. The remaining 100 million euros of the IPO money raised is distributed to co-founder Gregor Gerlach and Wella heirs Hans-Joachim and Gisa Sander. The family office of the former Tchibo owners Günter and Daniela Herz with a 44% stake, don’t sell a single share. After the IPO, 32% of all the company’s shares are now in free float.
One year later, in 2018, things get even worse. Revenue grows to 371 million, but operating losses mount to 85 million euros, that’s before interest expenses of 9 million. Even the beloved EBITDA figure turns negative, meaning the operating business before any expansionary or even maintenance capital expenditures is loss making. All regions are experiencing significant deterioration in their earnings profiles. Like for like sales are down 1% across the board. That’s revenue, not profitability. The question naturally arises: is the Group approaching its natural saturation point here or this operational by nature? The operating cash flow is now 9 million while financing cost are close to 7 million. That leaves 2 million for maintenance capital for 74 own restaurants and 76 joint ventures ones. Describing this as financially tight, would be an understatement.
Things are not looking good at this point. Yet the company still grows restaurants by 26 new sites. 64 million euros are spent on acquisitions, new openings, and maintenance costs, financed through a 20 million-euro equity raise and 72 million of new debt. The Company now has net debt outstanding of over 160 million euros. After the equity raise and by the end of the year 2018, Mayfair owns 47.4%, VAP Leipzig, Gregor Gerlach’s entity owns 18.9% and the Sander couple own 15.5% of the company. Yes, the Sanders and Gerlach may have taken 100 million euros off the table, but they still have substantial skin in the game. Plus, Mayfair hasn’t sold a single share and instead injects more money into the company through the equity round. The stock has now fallen from its IPO price of 23 euros per share to under 6 euros by the end of 2018. Something must be done here. And indeed, there is pivot in strategy and a hard push for change. At last, the management team abandons its aggressive growth plan and curtails new openings significantly. Additionally, the team wants to run a thorough analysis of weak locations to then either discontinue or sell sites. In Europe, the operating focus will be put on corporate restaurants and joint ventures in major cities to ensure the ideal size and location to match the respective demographic target group. Outside of Europe, the franchising business is being expanded and at the same time a consolidation of the existing corporate and joint venture markets is being sought. All future investments will be reviewed to achieve higher rates of returns on new openings. Investments are also being made in the renovation of older restaurants. The goal in the future is to also open smaller formats, like Mini-Vapianos (less than 400 square meters) or Freestander at prominent transportation hubs outside city centers (currently in Fürth and Toulouse) to cater to individual location requirements, and to enter new partnerships. I am not sure why management hasn’t stopped all expansion altogether, bringing the ship in order first, getting profitable, clean up, all hands-on deck before considering any further expansions whatsoever. But again, it’s easy to comment from the sidelines; maybe they saw white spaces that would be covered by competing concepts if they weren’t moving fast and aggressively enough. Although pushing internationally means competing with local players such as Jamie's Italian, Prezzo, Pizza Express, Wagamama, Nando's and many more which brings in its own dynamic.
Management also aims to enhance guest satisfaction. This involves refining operational processes, reorganizing the support center, and refocusing on the core offering: providing fresh and high-quality Italian food at affordable prices for a broad audience. The group also aims to reduce waiting times, especially during lunch, while also improving the evening atmosphere. There is even what I would call an evolution, away from Vapiano’s original concept, reorientating the customer journey. The ordering flow is being changed, offering guests synchronized preparations of all dishes while eliminating wait times at the cooking stations. The open show kitchen remains, staying true to original mantra of freshness and transparency but now guests can choose their preferred method of ordering through a mobile app, using a digital order point (kiosk), or by personally placing an order with a waiter. Guests can still freely choose their table and are then informed about the complete preparation of their order through a pager or their smartphone. This is a substantial deviation from the original concept, but a needed one. The group is also exploring and implementing the expansion of take-away and home delivery services but only at suitable locations, not universally across new openings. I am not sure why home delivery is even a priority here; it adds operational complexity. It’s better to clean up shop first and get back to the basics before adding new complexities. To be fair management does try to simplify. There are 49 different permanent dishes on the menu and additional 10 seasonal ones. Customers can choose from eleven different types of pasta. There is simply too much choice, and it makes orders complicated. The company announced to slim the menu down to its most popular and typical Vapiano dishes. There’s no need for an Asian salad at an Italian restaurant. "We have to go back to the roots, i.e. classic, honest Italian cuisine" says COO Everke. Regardless, in November of 2018, the supervisory board pulls the plug on CEO Jochen Halfmann and replaces him with Cornelius Everke. Everke himself has just become COO five months ago. Since 2017 he was responsible for international expansion. From 2011 to 2017 that role was filled by Mario Bauer – put a pin in that name, he’ll play a key role in the groups fate later. Then nine months later, in the middle of 2019, Cornelius Everke quits. He essentially concludes that his skillset and experience in the areas of internation expansion is no longer needed in the foreseeable future. To put it differently: Vapiano has moved from a growth story and has become a restructuring case, and other skills are required for that job. In June of 2019 Everke says the following “(we’ve) made a bit of a mistake when it came to foreign expansion”. No sh#t. Vapiano postpones the presentation of the 2018 annual financial statements three times in the spring of 2019, citing negotiations over an urgently needed loan of 30 million euros. It’s not until the end of May that a binding loan commitment comes through from the financing banks and major shareholders.
We are now in August of 2019 and the corona pandemic is just around the corner. Supervisory board chief Vanessa Hall takes over as interim-CEO and things are unravelling. Visitor numbers are declining; originally, it was planned to sell the US business but halfway through the year the buyer cannot come up with the money. But not all restaurants are performing poorly. The group's poor figures contrast starkly as an example with the experiences of the Swiss-German franchisee, who runs six restaurants. The Sodano family in Switzerland pays Vapiano a royalty of 6% of sales for the use of the brand. Enrico Sodano explains in an interview that they operate largely autonomously from the licensor. If an “accident” were to occur, he could immediately replace the Vapiano sign with Sodano, he says. The family concluded the rents and contracts with employees and suppliers independently. The Sodano family have six locations in Bern, Basel and Zurich, around one million guests every year and 350 employees. Things are going well on the ground. The delivery service they’ve built is offering them a second income stream. Expansion into Winterthur, St. Gallen and Lucerne are being planned; small locations with 150 to 250 square meters and an attached delivery service. Originally, Vapiano restaurants used to be huge but for such a large restaurant to be profitable, 800 to 1,000 guests per day are needed. That’s possible in medium-sized cities, but not in smaller towns which is why the Vapiano group now also supports smaller formats. Back to our corporate drama. The 2019 annual report would be the last report the group files. By the end 2019 the outstanding debt of the company is at an astronomical 450 million euros. Revenue has grown by another 7%, produced by four net new openings through two JVs and two franchise restaurants but operating losses come in at 317 million euros. That sound like an absolute shocker at first but depreciation and amortization charges are 345 million, so that operating cash flow is actually positive but unfortunately capital expenditures and interest payments are so large that they are eating up all of the company’s operating cash flow. Then in the beginning of 2020 Corona hits with full force and the world shuts down. As a result of the measures to prevent further spreading of the virus, the group is forced to cease all global business operations (except in Sweden). While all these shutdowns are happening, the group is the middle of negotiating with its lending banks and main shareholders. There are additional financing needs for restructuring measures, even without a pandemic happening in the background. The situation is so dire that the company starts pleading to the German government to roll out the package of financial help more quickly. Unfortunately, it’s to no end. The rapid closure of restaurants and the resulting lack of operating cash inflows in conjunction with the additional financing requirements, lead to the company’s final knockout punch. In April of 2020, the Vapiano group officially files for insolvency proceedings. The end of an era.

New Beginnings

Because of the pandemic, the majority of the group's subsidiaries in Austria, the Netherlands, Denmark, the United States, Sweden, and China also file for insolvency or seek liquidation. The US business never gets sold in the end and is wound down. In the summer of 2020, significant group divestments occur, including the sale of 75% shares in the group's French subsidiaries, shares in franchisor companies, Australian subsidiaries, German subsidiaries, associated companies, self-managed restaurants in Germany, and insolvency-related sales in the Netherlands, Great Britain, and Sweden. The buyer of the Vapiano brand and one of these bundles of Vapiano restaurants is company named Love & Food Restaurant Holding, a consortium led by Mario C. Bauer – a name I told you to remember. Bauer was a former Vapiano board member and led the national and international expansion, opening 200 sites in 33 countries from 2011 to 2017 until he was succeeded by Cornelius Everke. Bauer didn’t feel comfortable with the IPO at the time but clearly has a lot of managerial and entrepreneurial talent.
The buyer consortium is an absolute A-Team comprised of European QSR top league hitters, including the founder of the Pret A Manger chain Sinclair Beecham; Henry McGovern, the founder and Ex-CEO of the giant international restaurant and foodservice operator AmRest; the Van der Valk Family that runs hotels and Vapiano restaurants in the Netherlands, and co-founder and ex-CEO Gregor Gerlach. The acquisition value is 15 million euros and entails 30 Vapiano restaurants in Germany, albeit that’s just the purchase price which comes on top of any capital investment needed to refresh and return the sites to its former glory. Nevertheless, just as a thought experiment, if you can get each site to 2 million euros of revenue and 400,000 euros in operating profit on average, which wouldn’t be an overly aggressively assumption given the company’s history, you’ve got yourself a package that can deliver restaurant-level operating profits of 12 million euros or more. It’s not disclosed how much capex was needed to refresh the operations, just that fact that the overall investment plus purchase price was a middle double-digit million-euro figure. Stil, it probably was a decent purchase. The same consortium buys Vapiano’s French business for 25 million euros just two weeks prior. After the transaction concludes, the master franchise is given to Delf Neumann and his Gastro & Soul GmbH. Neumann is an experienced operator, and he is ambitious to revitalise the brand with new services and products. For example, instead of pizza, the restaurants will be serving pinsa - a flatbread made from sourdough, wheat and rice flour, topped similarly to a pizza. It targets a more health-oriented customer base looking for a less calory heavy option. The menu overall is expanded by including a variety of vegan and vegetarian dishes.
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Today Neumann’s Gastro & Soul GmbH operates 18 Vapianos on its own account and has 29 franchise sites, amongst other brands. By the year 2021, Vapiano operates 191 restaurants in 34 countries. This is around 50 fewer sites than before the bankruptcy. The number of branches is particularly thinned out in Germany – from 80 to 55. Nevertheless, Vapiano's home country remains by far the largest market, followed by France with 35 restaurants and Austria with 15 locations. “We have shrunk ourselves to health,” says Bauer in the aftermath and there is no further shrinking planned. Quite the opposite, the smell of expansion is in the air again – pun intended. Not as aggressively as before and with a new menu and ordering process.
Overall, the team around Bauer is filled with industry experts with knowledge and networks gained over decades who have a great track record, a long-term view, and the staying power to let Vapiano breath and finds its way back to success. The pressure of being a public company with all the associated quarterly, half-year and yearly disincentives have been removed. The menu is changed and extended with new types of pasta and sauces with significantly more vegetarian and vegan dishes available. Guests can order with restaurant staff, at terminals or on their phones and there are barcodes attached to the tables identify the respective seat. The food is brought to your table, all at the same time if you are in a group, no more annoyances with waiting in line. There is a plan for smaller, 350 square meter locations, with half the number of guests and significantly fewer staff and less set-up costs required to make the economics work. Locations that capitalize on remote work and increased demand for local lunch options, higher population density with shorter delivery routes and therefore cost-effective in house delivery services are targeted. And Bauer is testing the concept of ghost kitchens, which operate without a dining room or service staff, focusing solely on preparing food for delivery services, which for obvious reasons have a very different operational set up and footprint. Original founder Mark Korzilius however is not entirely convinced. He is not a fan of the pinsa for instance and he considers Vapiano's pizza as its cash cow, flagship product and believes that the core Vapiano proposition of Pizza, Pasta, Bar that has given the company its original success is being diluted. He instead admires the competitor L'Osteria, saying they’ve done a better job by focusing on Italian classics, especially the impressively large pizzas that sticks out beyond the plate is leaving every customer in awe. The guys who run L’Osteria are the same guys who have built Vapiano with him in the first place. Bauer on the other hand, like a true business leader, remains undeterred, stating that he is frequently asked whether Vapiano's restart was bold or foolish. He believes in entrepreneurship, franchising, in his experienced fellow partners and importantly the Vapiano concept. By the year 2024 you can find over 140 Vapiano branded restaurant in 27 countries across the globe, including locations far away from its birthplace like Australia, USA, Columbia, Chile, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia. And why not? Italian food is, and will remain to be, incredibly popular. Vapiano offers fresh and tasty food at affordable prices in a good atmosphere. This combination of attributes should attract a lot of customers. It certainly has in the past.
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Chapter Seven:
(Frankie)
The newsroom was quiet at 5:30 p.m., which was a little strange on a Friday evening. Usually, the Friday news dump would have our reporters scrambling on at least one or two stories. We’d expected our governor to announce her decision on a new offshore wind farm application today, and she’d so far sent nothing.
If Brian isn’t responding to my texts there must still be some last-minute meetings going on in Augusta, I thought. Brian Tildry was the governor’s executive assistant and my best source for news tips when it came to Maine’s executive branch.
I walked over to our breakroom, opened Apple Pay, and got a candy bar from the vending machine.
Sugar and caffeine are a journalist’s two best friends, I thought as I started to feel woozy for the second time today.
Right as I started to open my Snickers bar, our IT person walked into the room and all but cornered me. The smell of cigarettes and hand sanitizer filled the air.
“Frankie Dee, do you know what happens when you don’t respond to my text messages?”
Sighing and lowering my dinner from my taste buds, who were now about to start a revolution at being denied sugar, I scanned our super short computer engineer. “Fun-sized,” I occasionally called them.
Their name was Ghost, and they looked every bit the part. Pale skin, undercut, hair dyed white, and colored contact lenses that made their irises the color of flour. Ghost’s nails were painted gunmetal grey, and it was difficult not to stare at their tongue piercing every now and again.
But they were a fucking wizard on a keyboard and didn’t give me too much shit about not being able to pay as well as news outlets in Boston’s market.
“I’m sorry, Ghost. I’ve been on a Zoom call for the last hour with a new applicant for our printing press apprenticeship. I didn’t even have time to glance at my phone,” I said.
After rolling their eyes, the IT expert said, “You know, when you’re using your phone for a Zoom call, you can respond to iMessages on your laptop, right? That’s why I set that up for you two months ago.”
Rubbing my temples, I apologized again.
“Because when you don’t respond to my texts asking me what time I can take our servers offline for maintenance tonight, I have to leave my den and come find you. Do you know what happens when I leave my den?”
I shook my head.
“People talk to me! Emma wanted to see my Cowboy Bebop tattoo, Richard asked if his computer had a virus (it didn’t), and Craig wanted me to listen to some new song from an Australian DJ. I don’t have the spoons to be a social butterfly, Frankie,” Ghost said.
I fought a grin. Our IT expert was. . . not the most social person around. They preferred to stay in their office, and if you had a tech problem, you were supposed to email them. Don’t call them. Don’t holler for them. And definitely don’t knock on their door.
We called their office a den because it was an icebox to keep the servers cool, the lights were usually off, and Ghost did not like to leave it. Hell, some days I didn’t even see Ghost in person.
They were the only staff member with access to this building’s basement, and they used it to come in and out of the news office unseen. I almost respected that level of antisocial dedication.
“I’d hardly call three conversations totaling less than 45 seconds much of a social outing, Ghost,” I snickered.
And they honest to god hissed.
“Answer. My. Texts. Please.”
“Um, do I text you back now, or can I just tell you face-to-face?”
“Well, I’m already here, so you might as well tell me in person. I swear to god, I’m going to take that job in Montreal,” they muttered.
I stifled another giggle. Some people thought Ghost was a little prickly. And they absolutely were. But I always got a kick out of their quirks and did my best to be accommodating.
“Midnight should be fine? I think our web traffic tends to drop off then for the night,” I said, rubbing my chin.
They nodded and turned to leave.
“Well, you certainly smoke enough to fit in with the other Québécois, but how is your French?”
I watched our IT expert leave the room shortly before calling back, “Je t'emmerde.”
I’ll need to remember to Google what that means later, I thought.
The refrigerator in the breakroom started to hum and rattle as I stared at the yellow-ing appliance. Don’t get me wrong. We kept the inside immaculately clean. But she was approaching 30 years running. We didn’t have the money in our newsroom budget to replace it. Just another piece of technology we kept operating with engine grease and chewing gum. It matched the outdated blue and white cabinets that squeaked no matter what angle you opened them from.
My shoes also squeaked as I walked across the white tile floor and finally started to eat my Snickers.
I was half-finished with my dinner when I returned to my office and found Dawn waiting for me. The sight of her pleasant curves and sparkling emerald eyes spun my heart faster than a Beyblade.
“H — hi, Dawn.”
“The dinner of champions?” she asked, standing up and placing both hands on her hips. Hips I truly missed feeling against mine.
C’mon, now. Professional, Frankie. Keep things professional, I thought, pushing those feelings away as best I could.
Before I could answer, the witch walked forward, snatched the candy bar from my jaw, and folded the wrapper, placing it on my desk.
“I know I don’t need to remind you of this, but dessert comes AFTER dinner, Frankie,” she said, gently pushing me toward the door after grabbing my small leather purse.
All I could do was gasp.
“Hey now!” I protested, but surprisingly, none of my employees came to my defense. In fact, I’m pretty sure Emma was audibly laughing.
When we got outside, I anchored myself as best I could.
“Where are you taking me?”
She raised an eyebrow.
“To get a proper dinner. Because I’m assuming the last real meal you had before that Snickers bar was a bowl of cereal this morning,” she said.
I crossed my arms.
“Frankie Dee, you’ve been in this office for — what — 12 hours today? Let’s take a fucking dinner break.”
When I cocked my head to the side, she added, “As colleagues, not girlfriends. Geez. Lighten up. Coworkers get lunch together all the time. We can keep it professional. We don’t even need to trade chapstick.”
With a slight wink, the witch left me paralyzed. The warmth of her cinnamon breath and the brush of her painted lips against mine like an artist shading a canvas was a potent memory. As I froze, Dawn giggled and again softly moved me down the sidewalk.
We wound up walking down Congress Street a few blocks to the Munjoy Hill Inn, a tall and narrow building, its first story made of brick, and everything above that faded white siding. Seagulls screamed above us, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw one shit on a cyclist who nearly lost control of their bike and swerved madly to the left.
He cursed and stopped to wipe his arm clean with a napkin from his pocket.
That was the thing about these seagulls. You never knew when they were going to dump on you. I remember standing in line waiting for ice cream on a hot summer day when one shit on my shoulder, and some of it got into my hair.
Fucking birds, I thought, shaking my head, remembering how I swore the entire walk home, all during the shower, and on the jog back to the newsroom.
My foot scraped against the concrete on the sidewalk’s edge, jarring me back to reality.
“Ope, easy there. You good? Looked like you tried to slip off the curb,” Dawn said, grabbing my arm before I faceplanted on Congress Street. “Let’s get you some proper dinner before you collapse.”
The witch opened a single heavy wooden door and motioned for me to head inside. I said nothing, having eaten more than a few meals here. It was actually one of Dad’s favorites. He brought me here as a kid all the time for meal breaks. He was better about eating than I was.
The interior of Munjoy Hill Inn was mostly exposed brick and chalkboards on the wall detailing drink selections and menu choices in plenty of colorful sketchings.
Dawn found us a table next to the long wooden bar where a woman wearing a yellow button-down shirt and a blue jacket was shaking a cocktail in a mixer.
The bartender made her way over to our table as the restaurant started to fill for the evening dinner rush. I ordered a personal pan pizza, to which, Dawn suggested I add a bowl of greens. She ordered a turkey sandwich.
“At least try to get a few vegetables with dinner, won’t you?” she asked as the bartender took our menus.
I scoffed.
“I’m getting onions on my pizza. Thanks, MOM,” I said, slumping in my chair. This fucking witch, I swear.
“What are you bitching about? I didn’t say anything about the garlic bread, did I?”
I started to retort but was interrupted by the witch reaching into her purse and grabbing something to tie around my wrist.
Before I could ask what she was doing, the witch had her hands back on her side of the table, and a tumbled gemstone was secured to my wrist with thin, black leather straps.
“What is this?” I asked, pointing to the polished black stone.
“Tourmaline. It absorbs negative energy. I’m hoping it’ll reduce your grumpiness about being forced to eat veggies with dinner. Is it working?” she asked.
I didn’t want to do her the favor of admitting I did strangely feel a little better with this rock tied to my wrist. And it was very pretty, like an oil slick, but with more of an artistic flair.
Behind us, a group of guys cheered at the Blue Sox game playing on a mounted TV. One nearly spilled his beer shouting something about a “hell of a pitch.”
“It’s pretty,” I confessed. “But is it professional?”
She shrugged.
“If you don’t want it, give it back.”
I clutched my wrist and pulled back with a frown.
“No.”
Dawn leaned over the table, her shadow covering the ciders we’d ordered, and she said, “Then it’s professional.”
Scoffing, I drowned any snide remark I had left lingering in the booze.
Our food came, and I found myself more ravished than expected. The garlic bread and pizza, I inhaled like a plate of cookies in front of a pink starfish. And the greens? Child’s play. I ate them faster than Billie could’ve.
I immediately placed a second order for two more sides of garlic bread while Dawn giggled into her sandwich.
“See what happens when you actually eat? You feel better,” she said.
Finishing my cider, I found myself staring at the bracelet again. Its weight on my wrist felt. . . reassuring somehow. It was like someone made a small effort to protect me when the whirlpool I was struggling to avoid being swallowed by each day tore another piece of my ship.
“I got our loan request back from Gorham First Security Bank,” I mumbled.
Dawn raised an eyebrow.
“They declined since we’re already paying back another business loan to Portland Community Credit Union. And my father only got that loan because he’s golf buddies with the president of that particular financial branch.”
With a long deep sigh, I suddenly felt more vulnerable and yet relaxed than I had in a long time. Maybe it was having a warm meal in my belly. Perhaps it was the liquor. Or it could’ve been the pretty witch sitting across from me that just made me want to spill every little secret tucked away in my heart. I swear, she could coax every lock in Fort Knox to retire with a gentle smile.
“I don’t mean to add any pressure, but if your astrology section launch could bring in a few more thousand subscribers, it’d be pretty great,” I said, staring out the window at a woman walking her golden retriever down the sidewalk.
Dawn placed a hand on mine.
“This newspaper is going to be the death of me,” I mumbled without thinking. And the witch’s eyes widened.
“Hey, we don’t have to talk about work, you know? We can talk about literally anything else.”
I devoured another piece of garlic bread, feeling the buttery goodness bring a little bit of relief to my sudden downpour of spirit. I wasn’t sure I wanted to ever get up from this table. Every weight in my body decided to drop anchor here tonight, and dammit if I lacked the confidence to shake it off.
“I’ve got one. If you could date any fictional witch, who would it be?” Dawn asked, finishing her sandwich.
The question caught me off guard, and I shook my head, mind rising from the current that’d been dragging it down for the last few minutes.
“Excuse me?” I asked.
“What? You’re obviously not going to date me because of ethics or some shit. So pick a fictional witch who doesn’t work for you to take on a date. Who do you choose?”
A small Swanson-sized giggle escaped my throat as I considered the possibilities. This was an outrageous question. I dealt with facts. Indisputable data and information that my subscribers trusted me to deliver to them in a timely manner.
“Does Raven from the Teen Titans count? Her grown-up version? I’m pretty sure she was a witch.”
That earned me a small sympathetic smile from the new astrology editor.
“More like an intergalactic telepath. Try again, FeeDee.”
I ignored her use of the wrong name and pictured another group.
“Oh! Those girls from Scooby Doo. You know — the ones in the band?”
Dawn let loose a bellowing laugh that caught the attention of our baseball neighbors as they stared for a few seconds. When she got wind back in her lungs, she said, “The Hex Girls?”
“Yeah! The Hex Girls.”
My dinner partner nodded and stole a piece of garlic bread, tearing off a small bite before putting it back in the wicker basket.
“Okay, The Hex Girls. All of them?”
“Why not?” I asked. “Any or all. They could put a spell on me.”
That mischievous grin worked its way back onto the witch’s face, the dangerous one that lured me to her house. . . and couch. . . and bed. I stifled a quick gasp. She definitely noticed but said nothing.
“How about you?” I asked. “Who would you pick?”
Without hesitation, Dawn said, “Oh, Bonnie Bennett for sure.”
“From ‘Vampire Diaries’?” I asked.
Dawn nodded with a satisfied smile on her face.
“She was so badass. I’d fight Enzo for her any day,” the witch said as my phone vibrated. I checked a text, and it actually turned out to be a picture from one of my friends, a journalism professor at South Portland Community College, which sat right on the beach.
There was a fire. A large white boat with yellow paint down the side.
Shit, I thought, zooming in and realizing it was a ferry. She’d snapped the photo from the Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse. That’s the Bug Light Ferry.
Standing up with every muscle in my body and mind starting to protest, I felt my hands shaking.
Come on, Frankie! I thought. This is breaking news. You’ve done this thousands of times! Get to work.
But my chest was starting to ache and throb. My legs wanted to give out and sit back down as weakness filled me.
“What’s wrong?” Dawn asked with more concern in her voice than business partners typically give each other.
“There’s a fire on one of the ferries that goes out to Peaks Island. I gotta get back to the newsroom,” I said, grabbing the table for support.
More pain radiated from my chest, and I took short breaths, closing my eyes and willing it away. It didn’t work very well.
“Why don’t you sit down? Text Emma or something. Isn’t this why you have an evening city editor?”
I shook my head.
“I mean — yes. That’s why I do. But what good is a managing editor who isn’t in the trenches with her reporters? They respect me because I’m always willing to hop in wherever there’s a gap. Covering meetings, writing stories, proofreading, and even taking pictures. I do it all, and this is going to be an all-hands-on-deck night.”
Dawn furrowed her brow.
“You’re awfully pale, Frankie. And you’ve already put in 12 hours today. I can see your legs shaking from here. Why don’t you sit back down, and I’ll give you a ride home? Seriously, I’m worried.”
My heart was at war. On one front, I was demanding it give me the strength to power through an evening of breaking news. On another, it swooned over someone actually telling me to give it a rest for once. And not just anyone. . . but the girl I’d give anything to stop being professional with.
The bartender came over with our ticket, and I put some cash on the table.
“Keep the change,” I said, turning to go and nearly colliding with one of the baseball bros. He steadied me, and I apologized.
Dawn was quickly beside me as I called Craig.
“Where are you?” I asked, as soon as he picked up.
“City Hall. They’re about to meet and vote on —” I interrupted him.
“Scrap it. Take your camera and head to Bug Light. There’s a ferry on fire, and I want pictures. Use the big lens. Hustle over there, but take your time with the photos. It’s getting darker, so you’ll need to keep the camera more steady to get clear shots.”
“You got it, boss,” he said.
I sighed and walked outside, nearly spilling into the street again. What was it with my legs and this particular section of sidewalk? Fuck.
“Don’t call me that,” I said, hanging up and immediately calling Emma.
She answered, and I fired off a list of things to do, telling her I was on my way back to the newsroom.
“Call the PIO for the US Coast Guard Station in SoPo. He doesn’t answer after hours, but he will check his voicemail through the night, so leave him a message. I’m going to text a contact who works in the dispatch office for the Bug Light Ferry system.”
“Yes ma’am,” Emma said, hanging up.
My chest throbbed even harder as I walked uphill toward the newsroom. Dawn tried one final time to convince me to let my night crew handle this.
“I truly think you should rest, Frankie. You’re sweating and really pale.”
Huffing, I walked and talked.
“Seventy-five years the Portland Lighthouse-Journal has served as the leading source of news for Maine’s biggest city. Equity firms want to buy us out. Subscribers call and ask why they need us when they can get their news for free on Facebook. And the TV stations try to take our content at least three times a month. But we’re still here. A Ricci at the helm of this paper keeping the public informed is what’s kept us afloat for 75 years. And I can’t quit now, Dawn. I won’t. These are the moments they need us, and I refuse to let our readers down.”
My hand clutched the doorknob of our office, and I took a steadying breath. It was going to be a long night of breaking news push alerts, redoing the front page layout, evening press conferences, and hopefully, news that everyone made it back to shore alive.
I’d be there to cover it all with my team, chest pain be damned.

I was at an outlet in Dawsonville, GA this weekend and the 75% tables (plural!) had all Luminous products. Now, I'm a relative newbie in the B&BW world and it's pure speculation but It looks to me like a signal that it will retire.
https://preview.redd.it/q2pp94gpnzzc1.png?width=290&format=png&auto=webp&s=ef90f0ffeeb67f8140d84705fb8eeadbcdf15791