In each case, the target of Sarkis’s ire is one of his own children. All three had refused to comply with one of the conditions set by the private equity firm that is buying most of Sarkis’s dining company - that they agree not to work in the restaurant business for three years after the sale. The deal comes after Sarkis, who also owns the financially troubled Wonderland Greyhound Park, decided against passing along his Back Bay Restaurant Group - or even selling it - to his children.
His children balked at the noncompete provision because it meant giving up their chosen careers without compensation for the loss.
So the 71-year-old patriarch has moved against them. And now at least two of Sarkis’s six children are planning to open their own rival restaurants in Boston.
It is a painful and distasteful career conclusion for Sarkis, whose pugnacious management style helped him create one of Boston’s largest and most prominent restaurant groups - 33 in all, including 15 Joe’s American Bar & Grill locations; 12 Papa Razzi restaurants and his flagship enterprise, Abe & Louie’s.
His eldest son, Charles Sarkis Jr., 44, was effectively running the company as operations manager when he walked away in February after his job was threatened, according to documents, e-mails, and voicemails that were made available to the Globe by those who received them. His 38-year-old daughter, Amy Sarkis, the chain’s events manager, was suspended without pay on Feb. 8 after she refused to give up her restaurant career as a condition of the sale.
Patrick Sarkis, 42, remains a recruiting director for the 3,400-employee business, even after his father placed the call - captured on voicemail - that sought political help in getting him ousted from the Back Bay Architectural Commission. The elder Sarkis also called Meg Mainzer-Cohen, executive director of the Back Bay Association, to ask her help in getting his son removed. Mainzer-Cohen told the Globe she did receive the request from Sarkis but did not comply.
