In her latest interview with Sactown Mag, Blackbird Chef Carina Lampkin claims that it was her step father and not her who laid off the staff of Blackbird via e-mail.

“On Monday [when the restaurant was normally closed], my parents called me up and they said, ‘We think the restaurant should close,’’ explained Lampkin. “I said ‘When?’ They said, ‘Tomorrow.’ My response was, ‘We can’t do that. We have too many people depending on us.’”

But Thacker had composed an email to send to the staff, telling Lampkin that he was signing her name (in addition to his and her mother's, he says), and would soon after meet with them personally, cutting them checks as severance pay. Lampkin said she felt helpless. “I was treated like an employee, and I was also fired,” she said. “I had no power. I didn’t speak out because I was asked not to, and I was also in so much pain that I just couldn’t. At that point, I had no fight in me. I felt like a part of me had just died.”

Read Rob Turner's entire story in Sactown Mag.

Flashback: Lampkin says she played Grand Theft Auto V for 10 days straight after closing the old Blackbird.

I'm not sure I buy the revisionist history. She could very much be using him as a scapegoat now that the heat is on and she's trying to launch a new restaurant. I guess there's no way ever to know for sure.

In the end, if her restaurant is great, this will be a footnote in the launch story of an eventual Sacramento institution. But if the restaurant's not great, people may be less willing to give her the benefit of the doubt given what we know of her or her step father's actions at the end of the last iteration of Blackbird.

I guess time and our taste buds will tell.

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