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West Roxbury Upper Crust says it's a franchise and has nothing to do with illegal Brazilians

A West Roxbury resident forwards the note she got when she expressed her concern about that Globe story to the folks at the Upper Crust on Centre Street:

Thank you for your response and concern. Let me start off by saying that we appreciate your business and the business of your friends and family as well. We (The West Roxbury Upper Crust) however are a franchise off of the main company and we our an independently owned and operated family business, with myself (Jason Santangelo) the general manager and the owner (Paul Santangelo), both being from West Roxbury. We would like for you to know that we following all of the state and federal guide lines when it comes to our employees and go strictly by the book when it comes to things of this nature. Due to the recent article in the Boston Globe, we as well may catch a bad rap off of the allegations of what was written in the article, but I can assure you that we follow every guide line there is and do not stray from that in any way shape or form. Like I said we are a family owned and operated franchise and the majority of my staff is all hired from the West Roxbury or Roslindale community. We love to give back to the area that we operate in and constantly are doing events and other things with-in the area to support our community.

I hope that the recent article does not steer you in the wrong direction about the West Roxbury Upper Crust and hope that we can keep you, your family, and your friends as loyal customers. We are in the works of responding to the article and making sure that we as a local business do not suffer from allegations that are made through any media related source.

Once again I would like to thank you for your concerns and your response and I hope that you continue to use the West Roxbury Upper Crust. Please feel free to contact me with any further Questions or concerns you may have.

Thank you,
Jason Santangelo
General Manager
Upper Crust, West Roxbury

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Comments

After that Globe article (not to mention earlier publicity), association with the name 'Upper Crust' is a liability, not an asset, to this shop. They should try to find some way out of the franchise contract and pick a new name.

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who have aligned themselves with scumbags. Instead of sending notes to the community, I would be suing Jordan Tobins for what he has done to their little "family business". Hard to have sympathy for them considering who they are aligned with and the prices they charge for what you get. I just want the Upper Crust wiped from memory. The worst of the worst.

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west roxbury could do with one less pizza place.

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Why not just say "we only hire people who provide legal documentation"; "we pay employees no less than the legal minimum wage"; "we pay time and a half as required by law"; "we do not pay under the table."

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Perhaps they are concerned that if they state the charges explicitly, Jordan Tobins might sue them for slander.

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their poor grammar

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You can't be sued for slander for making a statement about yourself. Or, accurately, anybody can sue anyone for anything. But if the suit has no merits, the judge will throw it out.

So if the Santangelos' said "The Santangelo family does not employ illegal immigrants" and Tobins called that sentence slander and sued them, the judge would throw the case out of court since Tobins isn't mentioned in that sentence.

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Well AC, I'm not doubting your clearly highly-informed legal understanding - just suggesting that a small business owner like Mr. Santangelo might find himself erring on the side of CYA when it comes to stuff like this. After all, even a nuisance suit would cost time and money, both of which he might rather spend on his actual business - or even in a suit of his own, if he decides to extricate himself from his franchise relationship with UC.

If the WRox shop is not as disconnected from the unethical policies of the parent franchiser as claimed, then I hope someone comes forward with proof (because the actions of UC described in the article were truly disgusting). But until then, I don't think Mr. Santangelo's lack of explicit rhetoric in a public letter should be taken as some sort of damning sin of ommision.

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I was skeptical at first, but I did a DBA search and found that the business is owned by "STREET CRUST, LLC." If you do a MA corporation search on that name, you'll find that it is controlled by Paul Santangelo.

On the other hand, most or all of the other Upper Crust locations are owned by LLCs controlled by the now infamous Jordan Tobins.

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At least there is one that I can continue to patronize...

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has coached my older son in baseball and is a really great guy. The pizza's good too.

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"Street Crust"? Yeah, gimme a slice of that!

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I was getting depressed by the idea of never eating at Upper Crust again.

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I just got the 10th hole punched on my free slice card. I guess I'll give it to a panhandler.

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The pizza at Canestaro is excellent - U Crust seems oily, too sleazy and not upright, even if Upper.

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I still wouldn't patronize the West Roxbury Upper Crust location simply because the arrangement would continue to put money into the coffers of the parent company through franchise fees, et cetera. If I were the owner of this franchise, I'd find a way to get out of the agreement.

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After all, that is the predecessor of the Upper Crust recipe. Very short drive from West Roxbury, and the pizza there is the original.

(Background info on Tobins' theft of Sweet Tomatoes menu: http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2010/12/05...)

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I've known the Santangelos for many, many, years and have had the pleasure and honor of working for and with Jay. They are a great family that has been in the community a long time - you might not recognize him now, but Jay probably helped you with your groceries at some point. What Jordan has done is horrible, but if you read the information about it all you'll see that when the Santangelo's started their franchise there were seemingly no problems with the company, how where they to know that this guy would become a huge scumbag?
Don't punish the Santangelo's for what some other scumbag has done. They would never do anything illegal.

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