Brice R. Phillips, the patriarch of a Maryland seafood empire that began 55 years ago with a simple crab shack in, died Friday at his home in the seaside resort town.
Mr. Phillips, who was 90, had been in declining health. The cause of death has not yet been determined.
The family business noe includes 19 Phillips restaurants, along with a line of retail products sold under the Phillips Seafood name and seafood products for the food service industry.
Mr. Phillips, who co-founded the restaurant business with his wife of 68 years, Shirley, remained closely associated with the company even after handing day-to-day responsibilities to a son, Stephen B. Phillips of Annapolis, in the mid-1990s.
Met him briefly while working at Phillips one summer. Truth be told, if he didn't buy the lowest quality he could find, his restaurants/brand would've been much, much stronger. Nice man, though when you underpay every level of employee(from a dishwasher up to and including management), and you purposefully use lower quality product to boost the bottom line, I can't respect you.
ReplyDeleteI worked for the family, specifically....for Brice and Shirley. The comments you've made are not lacking truth however, I think they're entirely inapropriate considering the nature of the story. My condolences to the entire family and orginization.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that buying a low quality product gets the customers willing to wait in line over an hour every night in all three Ocean City locations. And of course the main reason they have all the best summer positions filled by December with competent staff is because they underpay them. 7:17 sounds like a sore loser.
ReplyDeleteKnew Brice fairly well back in the 70' and 80's. Found him to be fair and honest with old time values not seen much anymore. Remember a State Chamber Finance Meeting in OC one day when former Gov Shaffer and an entourage leaving spotted Brice in cords and flannel, smoking a nice cigar, went out of their way to say Hi and chat a few minutes. Very respected by most - at least amongst the non-losers.
I agree 11:28.
ReplyDeleteGo piss on his grave if it makes you feel better. But you pissed on him on a public forum so that should satisfy your mean streak.
ReplyDeleteMr Phillips was a true gentleman-I remember him well into his 80's and getting frail- he always stood when a lady walked up to greet him. Mr and Mrs Phillips were gracious hosts. I had dinner the other night at the old Beach Plaza, now Bombora's and it was sad to not see them there.
ReplyDeletePS-We had a fabulous dinner at Bombora's. One a scale of 1-10 I give it a 10.