Former Owner of It's and Aunt Bessie's Reflects on Final Days of Restuarants

By Ronald Butler Lincolnton-Steve Gibson, owner of We Manage Inc., was lying in his bed when I entered the living room of his mother-in-law's home.

[Hmm]

Never ate or even considered Aunt Bessies loved that um Triple H I believe it was called back in the day but Aunt Bessies.. nope.

When I saw on the news everyone saying it will be missed just made me think... everyone they interviewd claimed to love the place and eat there everyday but yet they were people (being shown on the news) walking up trying the door and being disapointed a good week or two after it closed down and days after being annouced it was closed on the news and other media outlets.

Side Note... ha people who see the lights out and see nothing inside and still pull on the door crack me up.

Anyway, Its to me was more of a staple of Lincolnton and the thing is its actually been in a few places before its current. To me, I would like perfer it got away from CookOut and tried to move and reopen somewhere that could use the development around it. Its would bring the people in.

[Ben]

Aunt Bessies was straight from a can!!! CLOSED THEM DOWN!!!

[James]

Dreadful food. And the owner's were total jerks to the help. I remember hearing that handsome looking woman lay into a couple of waitresses the last time I was there. I haven't been back. And now I see from the papers that they weren't anything but straight up crooks who were stealing taxes from their workers and from the state. I hear rumors about a nursery/tree farm up in Shelby doing the same thing.

They belong in jail if the state can prove they were stealing and I hope the state goes after their fancy lake house too.

[Jason]

Just some crooks who got caught. Boo hop. Poor old rich people. Didn't they drive around in a Ferrari and Jag for years living the big lie with a house on the lake?

Poorly written too. In one part the guy says he didn't know anything about it until the asssets were seized because his crooked manager was running things. Then, in another part he says he had been making payments of $7,000 a month. Which is it? It looks like a den of thieves that got caught and wants to blame somebody else. Prolly republicans.

[Tex-Mex]

It says plan as day:

On November 23, 2011 the NC Department of Revenue hand delivered a letter to the Dallas head office of We Manage Inc., the umbrella company for Steve's three restaurants. It was a seizure notice for all properties owned by the company.

When I inquired as to why he didn't just pay the taxes, Steve answered, "I haven’t worked or ran the company in eight years. Other people ran the company for me. By the time I knew we were behind, it was already more than $200,000 owed in taxes. We don't want to name the manager of the business because it is a family member. The most important thing to me is to pay the payroll for our employees." Crying, Steve added, "I wish the manager wouldn't have done that."

It makes sense to me.. and anyone that has any common sense should understand it as well.

[Boone]

I understand what you're saying Tex-Mex. I just question whether or not it's the truth. What's been done with that lake house? What about all those fancy cars? Does the state have a legal claim against them? What about the unpaid workers?

[Kozzy]

Never trust anyone that you hire to have your best interests at heart...if the story is true.
I hate that it's come to this...I'll really miss It's and Tommy's.