Chip Berman, owner of Outta the Way Cafe

Maryland business man Chip Berman owns a restaurant/night club called Outta the Way Cafe in Derwood, Maryland. I (Dave Sharp) performed there, as a singer/guitarist at weekly open mics, from February 2005 through February 2006. Mr. Berman enjoys a significant amount of business from local musicians, but unfortunately, he gives them little in return. Mr. Berman apparently allows his political views to influence the bands he hires to perform at his cafe. For example, Mr. Berman regularly hires a band, the Newports, whose bandleader, Blaine Smith, is an Evangelical Christian Minister and founder of Nehemiah Ministries in Damascus, Maryland. Mr. Smith has appeared on television with well-known Evangelical Christians such as Pat Robertson on the TV program, The 700 Club.

But all healthy friendships must come to an end. In November 2007, Blaine Smith wrote a scathing message for Pat Robertson on a CNN blog after Robertson endorsed pro-choice Republican presidential candidate, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Blaine Smith blew his cool and wrote the following message:

For more information about Blaine Smith, click here.

(As an aside, I met my first bona fide Communist at an open mic at Outta the Way Cafe. For details, see "Ken Sleeman - The Singing Communist.")

Mr. Berman also hires conservative Baltimore attorney Bill Mulroney's band, The Second Wind Bandits. Mr. Mulroney is widely known for being one of the worst performers in the Washington, DC area. Yet he gets gigs at OTWC because he spews right-wing rhetoric at shows in support of the Iraq War, the Afghanistan War, and the global war on terror which is code for pogroms to exterminate all Arabs and Muslims on the planet. (For more information about Bill Mulroney, click here.)

I noticed that many problems I experienced in recent years resulted from musicians I had met at a place called "Outta the Way Cafe" in Derwood, Maryland, in the Redland Shopping Center. Derwood is close to Gaithersburg and Rockville, Maryland. The primary owner is a guy named Chip Berman, originally from New York City. I cannot say whether Mr. Berman is nice guy or not because we have never talked. Nevertheless, I performed many times at his establishment's weekly open mics, and was well received by the crowds. I performed almost every week from February 2005 through February 2006.

I observed Chip standing around many times, but he never uttered a word to me. One would think he might say "Hi Dave." Frankly, I did not realize he was the owner until after I stopped playing there. I knew his name was Chip, and I knew he worked there in some capacity, but I did not realize he was "Mr. Big." Consequently, I would have to say that Mr. Berman is an unusually cold person, based on his unfriendliness to someone who was obviously good for his business. He could have said "Thanks," but he never said a word, not even hello. He seemed to think he was superior to me for reasons that had nothing to do with music.

During the time when I performed at OTWC, I noticed the establishment got quite a bit of business from local musicians who performed for free at weekly open mics. On the surface, this seemed like good wholesome fun, but a closer look revealed callous treatment of artists who performed free of charge to an ungrateful host. Did Mr. Berman ever say thank-you to these musicians? Not that I ever observed. He seemed to think he was doing us a favor by allowing us to play at his wonderful establishment. The club's business on open mic night was comprised nearly 100 percent of musicians and their friends who came to watch the show. Musicians and their friends would eat and drink, without discount, and without a thank-you from anyone in management. And getting a gig at Outta the Way Cafe was about as easy as getting a gig at Madison Square Garden. In fact, I expect if I would call MSG and request a gig personally, the people would probably be more courteous and respectful than the folks at OTWC. They couldn't be worse.

Chip did not book bands when I frequented OTWC. A guy named Brian was the go to guy for bookings, but Brian was rarely around. If you called, he was never in, and he never returned calls. If you e-mailed, he never replied. I managed to get Brian on the phone once and cornered him into talking to me about a gig. He kept saying things like "I'll call you back." I pointed out that I had played at OTWC and my band included some of the house musicians who played at OTWC open mics. At that point, he became rude and said, "Look, Dave, I said I'll call you back." He never did, and needless to say, the band was never booked.

In Brian's defense, it is not uncommon for club people to treat musicians like dirt. Their primary business is selling booze, not entertainment. But my feeling is, if you're going to have live entertainment, you should at least treat entertainers with respect. A club owner does not have to hire every band or musician that calls and requests a gig, but he/she can at least be polite. When you factor in that musicians bring virtually all of OTWC's business on open mic night, Brian's behavior was more that rude. He was downright arrogant and condescending to musicians.

I did a little digging on Chip Berman and discovered that he is somewhat connected politically. He has testified before a public hearing in Montgomery County, Maryland which debated a trans fat ban in April 2007. An advocate of the ban, Michael Jacobson, Center for Science in Public Interest executive director, stated that the problem could be resolved by replacing "partially hydrogenated oils" (trans fats) with other healthier cooking oils. Mr. Jacobson stated that cooking oils are only one or two percent of a typical restaurant's budget. Mr. Jacobson noted, "we're talking about pennies."

To that, Mr. Berman replied: "But if you’re talking about pennies here and there, I live on pennies here and there."(2)

With that single flippant remark, Mr. Berman showed a callous disregard for the health of his customers. He would rather serve them substandard food prepared with trans fats than spend a few pennies to buy healthier cooking oils. He displays a similar disregard for local musicians by refusing to hire them at his club even though they comprise a large amount of his customer base.

On May 15, 2007, the Montgomery County Council voted unanimously "to ban the use of artificial trans fats for most foods sold in County restaurants and at prepared food sections of supermarkets."(3) Apparently the council was not impressed with Mr. Berman's unwillingness to spend pennies for the safety of his paying customers.

On April 29, 1993, Mr. Berman testified before the Senate Finance Committee on behalf of the National Restaurant Association. He testified in opposition to the Clinton Administration's "investment tax credit proposals to increase private investment in the United States, and proposals to reform the tax deduction for business meals and entertainment."(4)

I do not condemn Mr. Berman for opposing tax reform on restaurants, but the fact that he testified before a Senate committee is very interesting. From what I understand, he was opposed to the proposed legislation because he thought it would increase his tax liability. Also, his testimony occurred approximately three months after President Bill Clinton was sworn in as President of the United States. The mere fact that Mr. Berman opposed taxes in a public forum suggests that he is a devout Republican. The additional fact that he felt motivated to testify before a Senate Committee in direct opposition to a newly elected Democratic president further increases the chances that Mr. Berman is a die-hard Republican. What's wrong with that? Nothing. He has a right to be a Republican. But if you add these things together, it appears that Mr. Berman is a fairly well-connected Republican small business owner. If he is Republican, that increases the likelihood that he would gravitate towards an organization like the FBI, which has a history of being a Republican run organization that Democratic presidents are obliged to deal with because they don't have the nerve to shut it down.

(NOTE: An exception is Lyndon Johnson who was a close personal friend of J. Edgar Hoover's.)

Do Mr. Berman's known political connections with the United States Senate prove anything? Not in a legal sense. But it indicates that Mr. Berman is probably a Republican with enough political connections to testify before the Senate. This is not something that your typical small business owner does.

In addition, if Mr. Berman is a die-hard Republican, he probably supports President Bush in an unyielding manner, as do most Republican politicians these days. This would likely include unyielding support of Bush's Iraq War policies, his Afghanistan War policies, and his global war on terror. What this means is Mr. Berman will probably ban or blacklist any performer who sings songs about love and peace. I used to sing "Get Together" by the Youngbloods. ("Come on people now, smile on your brother, everybody get together, try to love one another right now.") Mr. Berman must have hated me for singing that song.

Over the course of a year that I performed at weekly open mics at Outta the Way Cafe, I met several strange people. Eventually, I decided not to go back because the place appeared to be nothing but trouble. Although it has not been confirmed, I suspect the Outta the Way Cafe is a listening post for the FBI. In other words, I suspect the FBI plants informants at OTWC to monitor the activities of local musicians who might resist the Iraq War and the war on terrorism in general. I do not know this with absolute certainty, but I endured lots of very strange problems for the year that I frequented the Outta the Way Cafe, so I decided to stay away.

Let me put it another way. If an FBI agent approached a Republican restaurant owner (like Chip Berman, for example) with political connections and asked him to spy on musicians' activities in exchange for future favors on Capitol Hill, how do you think a penny pincher like Chip Berman would respond? Do you think someone like Chip Berman would consider moral issues if he thought helping the feds would save him a few bucks in the restaurant business? Remember, we're talking about a guy who would prefer serving food cooked in trans fats to customers rather spend a few pennies to correct the problem by using safer cooking oils.

SOURCES:

(1) On Nov. 11, 2007, Blaine Smith posted a nasty message about Pat Robertson's endorsement of Rudy Giuliani on CNN blog: Political Ticker: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/11/07/robertson-to-endorse-giuliani/

(2) Chip Berman's public comments about trans fats were published in the DC Examiner. Reference "Costs of trans fat ban debated in Montgomery," by Dena Levitz, April 25, 2007.

(3) Press Release from Montgomery County government: "Montgomery County Council Votes to Ban Artificial Trans Fats in County Restaurants," Release ID: 07-052, Release Date: 5/15/2007, Contact: William Klein (phone number omitted), From: Council Office. URL: http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/Apps/Council/PressRelease/PR_details.asp?PrID=3556

(4) Chip Berman's testimony, on April 29, 1993, before the Senate Finance Committee on behalf of the National Restaurant Association, was recorded/compiled from the Congressional Record's Daily Digests via Thomas at thomas.loc.gov. Ref. 103d Congress (1993 - 1994), January 5, 1993 - November 26, 1993, Senate Committee Meetings by Date. URL: http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/congbibs/senate/103dgst1.html