Lorenzo's
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| Escrow Service {Shadow Service} | |
|---|---|
| A fine dining establishment providing shadow banking services | |
| Contact Owner | AgentMonkee |
| Connection | 5 |
| Public Contact? | Yes |
| Archetype | Service |
| Location | Seattle, Everett, Beverly Park |
| Metatype | None |
| Sex | No |
| Age | 155 (Est'd September 3, 1923) |
| Preferred Payment Method | Nuyen, Scrip |
| Hobbies/Vice | Fine wine, pasta and Italian weddings |
| Personal Life | Nothing personal, just business |
| Faction | Ciarniello Family |
Summary
Lorenzo's is a very fine Italian restaurant in the Beverly Park neighborhood of Everett that also provides several special services to the shadow community.
Sponsorship
Lorenzo's is neutral territory sponsored by the Ciarnello Family of the Seattle Mafia. The Ciarnello's provide protection from the other large criminal and shadow factions in return for a steep discount for the Family on their shadow services, and sometimes a small discount on their legitimate services.
Lorenzo's has their own service force embedded within the staff and there are usually enough made Ciarnello's and associates present for the food to at least double the security force at anytime with ad hoc response teams arriving within 5-10 minutes from the nearby casinos.
The restaurant and staff are respected by Ciarnello soldiers and associates for the services provided to the family (and the food), though they know enough to keep their language coded until they know which employees are truly clued in. Members of other factions can often be found enjoying the neutrality and food, though the dress code is firmly enforced.
Lorenzo's neutrality is secondarily enforced by its own clientele. While the Ciarnello Family and associates are their largest block of customers, they are far from their only customers. There are plenty of individuals from other factions who use Lorenzo's services and no one wants to hit the bank that holds your stash, or your boss's.
Services
Lorenzo's services can easily be divided into their legitimate operations (Upstairs) and their shadow services (Downstairs).
Legitimate Services (Upstairs)
- Fine Italian - The chef runs the kitchens, assisted by his sous chefs and the pasticcere, and is famous for his stuffed ziti. The pasticcere has a side kitchen dedicated to the breads, rolls and sweets that you can never have enough of. And yes, the cannolis are to die for.
- Dedicated Bar - The sommelier is the nominal lead for the bar, assisted by the barkeeps. While wines and cocktails are the lead choices, they do have a selection of house beers that are brewed a little further north. Just don't try the IPA.
- Reception and Dining Space - There is plenty of seating available and the only time there is really a crunch is when a wedding coincides with brunch. But reservations are still preferred.
- Wine Bank and Merchant - Lorenzo's sommelier has long offered fine wines to its patrons, both for enjoyment and investment. They will also store the purchased wine in their underground vaults for a small fee. The wine vaults take up most of the basement level (dry storage taking up the rest) and use age-old techniques for preserving the fermented gold within.
Shadow Services (Downstairs)
- Secure Meeting Facilities - Lorenzo's offers six secure rooms, named after extinguished vintages of famous wines, that are in the hidden second level basement. If you wish to rent a room, simply ask the sommelier if you can purchase one of the six extinguished vintages (which means you need to already know them). If you are joining a meeting (which can only be done in person), then you simply inquire at the reception desk about a tasting party for the vintage that your contact told you.
- Escrow Agent - The Banker of Lorenzo's willingly serves as an escrow agent to hold sums of money and tiny items (datachips, credsticks, keys, etc) until preset conditions are fulfilled. This allows a Johnson to prove that a certain sum is available to pay for a run without risking the payment being stolen, either by the runners or a third party. Lorenzo's has a sliding scale for fees based on the total amount placed in escrow and immediately charged to the party making the deposit and must be made in person. To inquire about an escrow account, simply ask for Accounts Payable and insist on speaking with Lorenzo. The Banker will get back to you shortly.
- Shadow Bank - Alongside the escrow service, the Banker of Lorenzo's offers simple money serves including account maintenance, credstick transfers, currency exchange and storage of tiny items (datachips, credsticks, keys). Paper money can also be withdrawn in scrips from all AAA corps and select national and AA corps found along the Pacific Rim. The Banker does not offer interest-bearing accounts or loans and will refer you to the sommelier for investment inquires. Accounts are tiered in a similar manner to DocWagon (Basic, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Black) with higher monthly charges and balance requirements as you work up the scale, with fewer transaction charges. Accounts can only be opened in person and at least four identifying metrics must be chosen, with two of them being biometric. To inquire about an existing account, simply ask for Accounts Receivable and insist on speaking with Lorenzo. The Banker will get back to you shortly.
Description
The art deco building of white granite is accented by oak inside and out, surrounded by green lawns and high hedges cordoning off sections of the grounds (and hiding security fences). The main entrance is on the side, as their driveway leads to the parking lot behind the restaurant (valet parking is available). The back grounds have a "smoking porch" with weathered seating and awnings for shade. The "service" entrance is an extended walk-in cooler from the back of the kitchen to the parking lot. Delivery trucks have an easier time in that lot. The extended cooler has hedges with security fencing keeping it hidden from the patrons inside and the public outside.
The ground floor starts with the reception desk where patrons are greeted and wait to be seated. Right next to the reception desk is the coat check window (please note the security post inside, but mainly out of sight) and the bar with light seating is just behind. A richly paneled staircase forms the back of the bar and leads to the second floor (and the restrooms are built underneath the staircase with the doors on the other side from the bar). There are two wings to seat patrons, one to the front (to the right as you came in) and one to the back. The kitchen is the middle, bracketed by the bar and the two dining areas.
The second floor is a large open area with wooden oval tables and highbacked chairs. There is a smaller bar in the back which hides the waiter's station, service elevator and back stairs to the kitchen.
The basement contains dry storage and several offices for the restaurant (management, accounting, security and sommelier) but the famous wine cellars take up most of the square footage.
The second basement level is hidden underneath the known basement and admittance is gained through a false wall in Lorenzo's private wine cellar. The staircase behind the false wall slowly widens in a three-quarters spiral to the level below, landing in a richly paneled and deeply carpeted foyer with a security desk opposite the staircase with a set of large double doors to the left as you descend. Dark heavy wood dominates this level with red leather accents and burgundy carpeting. All weapons need to be checked into the security desk and obvious cyber weapons will be restrained with a choice of inhibiting bolts, jacks, cuffs, gloves or wraps. Through the doors is a comfortably wide corridor about 60 meters long with matching set of double doors at the far end and six sets of smaller double doors evenly spaced, half to the left and half to the right. Each of the smaller sets of doors are marked with a painted engraving of grape vines entwined between the two doors and only differ with a unique color of grape on each set of doors. Through the far set of doors, Lorenzo's Banker can be found behind their desk in a large office in the style of classic English bankers.
The security for the upstairs activities are what you would expect from a high-status restaurant, aside from the presence of the Ciarnello Family. 'Security' for the downstairs activities focus on camouflage and isolation. The entire restaurant upstairs is designed to deflect attention from any illegitimate activities. Physical and Astral security depend on the isolation of the lowest level, there are no direct Matrix connections, the only security feeds are closed, and the whole lower basement is ninety-five percent (95%) surrounded by a Faraday cage embedded in the concrete. The one Matrix feed is an air-gapped truck to the accounting office above that can only be connected by hand (in the Bank), only when necessary for updates, and only after the accounting office has been air-gapped from the main grid.
Even if the lower basement can be discovered and penetrated, any interlopers would only have a single exit that leads right into the teeth on the oncoming Ciarnello Family. Dead men don't spend nuyen.
Staff
Staff can be divided into three camps: the "Know-Nothings" who are clueless about the activities downstairs, the "Know-Somethings" that have figured out there are downstairs activities but not what they are, and the "Know-Everythings" who are completely clued in. There are very few Know-Everythings outside of the named individuals below, but the majority of the staff are Know-Somethings, especially since Lorenzo's draws heavily from the non-Family family members (pun intended) of Seattle. Lorenzo's offers a legitimate and desirable position in return for employees who have discretion bred into their tongues.
- Philip Watts (Chef) -
- Hayden Murphy (Sommelier) -
- Melinda Price (Pasticcere) -
- Walter Tanner (Head Manager) -
- Ricky Henson (Security) -
- Dianne Armstrong (Banker) -
- Lucas Fleming (Facilities and Grounds) -
The one person you will never encounter is Lorenzo himself. The staff will constantly refer to Lorenzo by name as an active participant in daily activities who is omniscient and omnipotent, but always absent. Lorenzo is the only owner of record since the restaurant was first built in the 1920's and aside from the named managers above, not even the Know-Everythings have met Lorenzo or understand his nature.
Aspects
| Aspect | Description |
|---|---|
Dicepools
| Dicepools | |
|---|---|
| Knowledge Checks | 9 + Loyalty + Aspects - Notoriety |
| Active Checks | 13 + Loyalty + Aspects - Notoriety |
| Gear Acquisition Checks | 5 + Loyalty + Aspects - Notoriety |
| Networking Checks | 3 + Loyalty + Aspects - Notoriety |
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