Mick Jagger was not at Miss Lily’s to eat. He came for family friend Gabija Mitchell to pitch the below Vogue story- touring with The Rolling Stones in Cuba. They were kekeing in Graceland before open when I walked in (read Mick Jagger Meeting Me).
Honestly, I didn’t like Gabija the duration of my time working there; she’d jock my style low key, on top of being a glorified pimp. Upon meeting she didn’t introduce herself, but asked me to be in a music video. I asked how much it paid. She replied it didn’t, “It’s for exposure.” I declined. Knowing Gabija would profit from using my image, but I’d receive nothing. The other girls jumped at such opportunities, believing working at a celebrity hot spot would be the catalyst for their artistic careers, as dancers, actors, models, but I’m a writer. Growing up well connected, business oriented and different from my co-workers, I refused to be affiliated with Miss Lily’s career wise. It’s a restaurant, period. These girls were naïve. Many of them coming from impoverished, tumultuous backgrounds, viewing each other as family to fill the void of their broken homes. When I celebrated my birthday there, they were astounded that one of my friends possessed a black card.
“Her boyfriend owns half of Upstate New York,” I elucidated on my next shift. Equally shocking was my not paying for anything…I mean duh, it’s my birthday.
These differences would eventually make them resentful towards me, privileges I grew up accustomed to eluded them. Meaning it should be the same for all black people, crab in a barrel ass bitches, after all I’d done for them (read Genc Jakupi, Naomi Campbell & Jordan Barrett (1/2) and Genc Jakupi, Naomi Campbell & Jordan Barrett (2/2). Literally most of the trouble between me and the higher ups, stemmed from my choosing to stand by and defend these idiots.
The floor manager Alessandro (also in a shit ton of debt), assumed I was having dinner there for the freebies. Another racist.
“Alessandro, I’ve been going out to eat since eleven and my friends all make more money than you.” He needed to worry about leaving his elementary school aged daughter at home alone, because he couldn’t afford a babysitter for $10 an hour. I kindly pointed out where his priorities should be (eventually getting him fired). Like the executive chef, he too had a failed restaurant. As a consequence their net worths were in the negatives. I’m talking crippling numbers.
Gabija and I shaded each other. I didn’t follow her around like a minion, nor kiss her ass. At the same time I never told anyone who I knew, or where I’d been, unless someone came in to dine. That’s not my style, it’s tacky. We never had a conversation, my behavior didn’t make sense to her until now. In a surprise turn of events I ended up liking Gabija. Words I never thought I’d say.
She planned this Vice Magazine Bar Crawl for both the Soho and 7A locations, on the day of my high school reunion. I chose the former. Gabija spent most of her time at the 7A location, because they were open late. Also Anna Wintour wasn’t preventing them from having a full bar (read Who Is Serge Becker? for the evidence). The same behavior she expected from these girls, ended up embarrassing her. Gabija promised these places a good time and content. Beyond myself, Jamal, and the other Miss Lily’s Soho squad, no one did anything. There was no turn up, they sat around her scrolling on their phones, like stoned zombies. Meanwhile I’m getting more inebriated, telling Jamal the coke is gone. Get a new bag, you’re scrapping at the dust coating the plastic, enough!
Unfortunately the 7A girls outnumbered us. On our next shift it got around that 7A was boring af. Gabija agreed, turns out she’s looking for a good time too. We finally understood each other. Gabija invited me to hang out with her that night after work. Ariel, one of my ride or dies, answered for me. Letting Gabija know I’m her friend, “Sorry she’s not going anywhere with you.”
At this point Ariel was unhinged and ready to fight. These two were mortal enemies. Having not been at the crawl, Ariel didn’t understand how our newfound amicability transpired, nor did she care. Despite my explaining the business component of Gabija’s crawl, she wouldn’t budge.
From there on out Gabija and I always greeted one another warmly. Turns out we have the most in common out of everyone, but didn’t know it until it was too late. Divided by cliques akin to Capulet’s vs. Montague’s, the beefs had gone too far for us to shake shit up by joining forces. Also she left that place before me. I’ll give the Miss Lily’s girls one thing, even if we didn’t like one another, we unified to drink on our shifts. Never snitching, always covering for each other. For that, I fuck with them heavy. Make things up where? You bitches are mad and gonna stay mad. Athena Via: Guest Of A Guest, Vogue & Daily Mail
To see Graceland: https://guestofaguest.com/directory/gabija-mitchell/72556
Updated 2/22/24 4:19am