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Valéry Jean-Bart from Val’s Cheesecakes
Mike Brooks
Valery Jean-Bart is out. He’s done. The owner of Val’s Cheesecakes says his relationship with The Exchange, the new food hall in the AT&T Discovery District in downtown Dallas, has ended.
Last week, Jean-Bart posted on his company’s Instagram stories that he was leaving The Exchange with immediate effect due to a disagreement with management. He would not tolerate disrespect, he wrote.
So what happened that made that relationship between a popular dessert bar owner and this new and much-anticipated food hall come to an abrupt end? According to Jean-Bart, it was his brand’s integrity and a lack of honesty.
The Asian American Hotel Owners Association’s convention was held in Dallas last week and had booked the Food Hall space for one of their blenders for Tuesday night. It’s a big deal because this hotel convention is the largest of its kind since the pandemic began and what matters is that a good job is done.
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Jean-Bart was asked by the Food Hall management to prepare 500 cheesecakes for the congress attendees. Jean-Bart says he did more than was asked of him and made nearly 600 cheesecakes.
“We have exceeded everything. We decorated them. I thought, ‘Let’s do more than necessary.’ We had a nice exhibition and everything, ”says Jean-Bart.
But soon he and the management of The Exchange realized that his preparations were insufficient: the event ended at 9:30 p.m., but at 9:08 p.m. and there was no more cheesecake.
“The Food Hall’s Special Event Director is coming with the AT&T. to me [representative] and they take me outside and tell me, ‘Val, you can’t go. When people come to your counter tell them you are getting more [cheesecake] from the back. ‘ So there is a problem right there. ”
It was too much for Jean-Bart to tell him to lie because they miscalculated the number of people attending the convention. About 2,000 people were present, according to Jean-Bart.
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A photo that Jean-Bart took of another vendor’s meal at his place in The Exchange.
Valery Jean-Bart
After his shock, Jean-Bart began working on a solution, but while working on one, the Senior Vice President of the Food Hall had other ideas.
“I looked at my inventory because I have regular cheesecake, jar cheesecake, so in my head I think, ‘Let me tell you I have cheesecake products.’ When I get back to my booth, Adrian Verdin, Senior Vice President of the Food Hall, puts waffles and brownies and cheesecake brownies on my counter and this ice cream in my display case, not wanting the people at the conference to know that Val’s cheesecake is up He puts all these items on my counter and basically wants me to serve them. ”
It was an attempt to maintain the appearance that resulted in Val losing it.
“So I lose it. I literally lose it. I say, ‘I can’t do that. This is not my product.'” It got so hot that Jean-Bart admits that some ‘F-bombs’ could fly. “I’m saying this is messed up and all of these conference attendees will see my branding with this product that I don’t even know about,” says Jean-Bart.
Verdin’s response to Jean-Bart’s protest: “He says: ‘You can leave tomorrow’ and I say: ‘I say OK. We are leaving tomorrow,'” says Jean-Bart. “It’s a wrap! That’s it! I just left.”
We reached out to Verdin for a comment. He declined to go into detail “out of respect for everyone involved”. He agreed it was a big event. “We had vendors distributed throughout the event to accommodate thousands of guests,” says Verdin.
The termination of the partnership between Val’s and the Food Hall was already in progress; Jean-Bart wanted a better quality of life and the dining hall’s operating hours were too long. He had given his two month notice and only had about a month left. Jean-Bart and Verdin agree on this. “Val had given his 60-day notice period. For personal reasons, he asked to get out of the lease earlier, ”says Verdin.
But as soon as Jean-Bart had the bang with management, his exit date took effect immediately.
You can get Val’s Cheesecakes at his shop at 2820 Greenville Ave. Visit from Tuesday to Sunday from 12:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
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