In a note to staff, late Thursday evening, Bida Manda and Brewery Bhavana owners Vanvisa Nolintha and Patrick Woodson announced that they were stepping down from the company.
“We see very clearly now that while our intentions were good, somewhere we went wrong,” a staff email shared with the INDY read, “We know that it’s time to allow someone else to step in and try to salvage what has been lost.”
In that email, Nolintha and Woodson announced that Frederique Leonard, director of operations at the Giorgios Group, would be stepping in as CEOS.
The apology note from ownership came during a fraught week for the Raleigh restaurant industry, and was met with skepticism from current and former employees.
The apology letter is chock full of apologetic language that disguise the main piece: it kept me from defending myself against the things that I did not do. This is a flat out lie and yet another slap in the face to the people he continues to re-victimize.
