In last night's episode of "Mystery Diners" titled, "Where's the Beef?," Charles Styles and his crew of undercover diners came to Via Brasil Steakhouse in Las Vegas to meet with Adam Gomes, the owner of the Brazilian style rodizio steakhouse. There is no menu, just an all you can eat fixed-price authentic rodizio. to find out why the meat sales are not matching the invoices, and Adam has to get to the bottom of the problem.
Charles had the cameras set up in several locations to find out what the problem is that started about six-months ago. The average amount of meat per person was about 1.3 pounds, and recently it has jumped to almost thirty percent. Are the people hungrier? Or is there another problem? Adam told Charles, that doggie bags were against company policy and stealing is against the law.
The sting will focus on two people; JP, the night manager for the drastic increase in buffet consumption during his shift and Darin, the head waiter who works during JP's shift.
"Mystery Diners;" Allison will pose as a waitress in training, Andy will go undercover as a meat distributor and Lou will pose as a customer. Adam introduced Allison to JP as the new waitress, and she will be tailing Darin for the evening to learn her job. She asked Darin what happens to the meat at the end of the day, and he told her that the staff got to eat, no boxes are allowed to go home with customer, except for desserts, that are a la carte. She asked him if the person is a big tipper, do they make exceptions and Darin told her that it better be a big enough tip, because they would be out of a job. When Allison stayed back, Darin's customer asked if he could have a box to go, and Darin asked if he had an extra $5 on him. Then he told the customer that he was kidding and told them the restaurant policy of no to-go boxes.
Next, Andy went in with free samples, as a meat vendor, he wanted the restaurant's business. This is something the owner should be doing, not the manager. JP told Andy that he would leave the samples with him and to give them to Adam, because JP was not responsible for ordering, then Andy left. JP put most of the meat in the refrigerator and took the one with Kobe beef, the most expensive one and put it in his trunk.
Allison asked JP about taking meat home, and he reprimanded her. He told her he had his own thing going on, and it is not her concern.
JP was then spotted approaching the diners asking them for contributions for the "restaurant's charity" for the Brazilian rainforest. The owner was dumbfounded. He was asking for a $20 donation and the first one he got was $40 from a couple.
He then went to the bar and for a $20 donation to this scam, they got to eat at the salad bar for free; usually $44.99. Lou and his date came to the restaurant as a couple and were immediately confronted by JP for the charity.
JP was brought to meet with Charles and Adam. Charles explained why they were there. JP was adamant that he was not a scammer. JP was fired and after four months, the restaurant was back and running with the same profit margin they previously had. Before he left, JP told the cameras that the charity would be the biggest thing going, but with no website and no more unaware people, Charles Styles and Adam Gomes seriously doubt that, because the "Mystery Diners" have saved another restaurant's reputation.
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