David Leonard

David Leonard (born 24 May 1955, New York City) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter and restaurateur. He is probably best known as a member of Richard Lloyd's touring and recording band.

Music

In addition to a solo career, as a guitarist and vocalist he has worked with many luminaries in the music business, including Melanie, Chuck Berry, James Montgomery, James Cotton, Cyndi Lauper, Benjy King, Tommy Shaw (Styx), Werner Fritzching, The April Fools, The Well Hungarians, Allen Fryer, (Heaven), and many, many others.

His projects have included the installation of a studio in upstate New York, and the recording of a collection of his solo work, The Quickening, released on a private label, on August 16, 2010. Guest artists appearing on this record include Rick Derringer, Chris Spedding, Will Lee, Steve Holley, Charles Torres, Doug Maxwell, Kati Mac and Sherryl Marshall. Along with seven original compositions and a song co-written with Richard Lloyd, the record features covers of Beatles, Bob Dylan and Roky Erickson songs. The Quickening was mixed and mastered by Doug Maxwell for Media Right Productions.

Discography

• The Rezillos Can't Stand the Rezillos (Vocals) (Sire Records, 1980)
• The David Leonard Group (Guitar, Vocals) (Geffen Records, 1984)
• Way Out West (Guitar, Vocals) (MCA Records, 1986)
• Witness (Lead vocalist) (CBS Records, 1991)
• Richard Lloyd Real Time (Guitar, Vocals) (Celluloid Records, 1987)
• Richard Lloyd The Cover Doesn't Matter (Songwriter) (Upsetter Music, 2001)

Restaurant business

Leonard is also a restaurateur and was the owner of a seafood restaurant named "The Black Pearl" in Chelsea, New York City. In September 2008, the restaurant was featured in Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. Ramsay nicknamed Leonard and his two partners Greg and Brian Sleepy, Grumpy, and Dopey. 

Following the broadcast of the episode and the negative publicity received, Leonard and the partners closed the restaurant after four days. The restaurant space was eventually taken over by The Hog Pit - a casual dining restaurant in New York. Before closing the restaurant, Leonard and his business partners published an open letter criticizing Ramsay's methods. Full text below:

Hello Everyone...

Well, after three years, we have fried our last clam and shucked our last oyster. On October First, we sold our lease and fixtures to someone who may be better equipped to handle the exceedingly high cost of doing business in New York City.

As you may know, in February, we filmed an episode of Kitchen Nightmares, at our restaurant, hoping for the best. We were naive, believing that the show was at least somewhat honest; we truly felt we could learn something from that jerk, and we anticipated a solid boost in sales from the publicity. The sad fact is, from the beginning, it was clear that the show was a joke. From the very first day they were initiated, the changes Gordy Ramsay made were ridiculed by the press, hated by our regular customers and were the direct cause of a 50% drop in revenues. And, we were never able to recover financially.

Our hope was that we would benefit from the publicity of participating in that horrid "reality tv" series, but the promised air-date of May 2008 turned out to be a lie, and we were not able to sustain ourselves until the end of September, when it was finally broadcast, especially with the damage inflicted upon us by the producers and star of KN. While the partners certainly weren't on the best of terms, I do admit that we exaggerated the issues we displayed on the show in order to convince the producers to feature our restaurant, but during the week of filming in February, it became clear that the show was a complete sham. KN is simply a series of set-ups staged to illustrate situations that fit their script, and, as you would expect, their expert editors tell only half the story--the part that makes their star shine brightest. All of my brilliant and pointed comebacks were left on the cutting-room floor! Darn the luck!

In fact, Gordo's menu changes were horrible, and mirrored the buffet offerings of a cruise ship in the 1950s--lobster bearnaise? Shrimp Louis with green goddess dressing? His ideas were laughable, and proved to be utter failures; his "innovations" had nothing to do with our concept of a New England Lobster Shack--something he clearly knows nothing about. For God's sake, he thinks the Canadian and Maine lobster are two different species! Maybe he thinks Canadian lobsters have an accent--"butter, eh?"

Finally, his big design change, the lobster arcade game, was nothing short of asinine. After the filmed "grand re-opening dinner" (attended by actors, we learned, who responded to the producers' Craigslist ad and were instructed to order the new Gordy Ramsay special!), very few ever ordered the lobster bearnaise again. And who can blame them? Greasy potatoes, buckets of oil, egg and butter . . . nice one, Gordo; real good idea.

But what really sealed our fate was his bastardization of our award-winning lobster roll. To "improve" upon our recipe, he cut the amount of lobster in half, added lemon, lettuce, celery, salt and pepper and way too much mayo. Of course, it didn't work. It served us right for allowing a potty-mouthed teabag to mess with our New England cuisine. We should have taken a page out of history, revolted and sent him packing and bleeding back to King George.

Anyway, enough sour grapes. While I hope Gordo meets an untimely death so that I can dance on his grave, it is time to move on.

The point is, we would like to thank you all for your support during our brief time operating what we thought was the best seafood shack in New York. My partners and I really did care about everything we offered at Black Pearl. From the inception, we did our best to keep the concept pure. We made every effort to be fair to our customers, our staff and ourselves. We remember fondly those crazy nights with Sherry Vine, Sean Lynch's Rat Pack Revue, the Rasta Christmas parties, and the brilliant musings of pianist Tommy Mandel. We were lucky to have you all aboard. And, of course, we thank our loyal staff for all their hard work, especially Heru, Charles, Lana, Lisa and Steve.

Perhaps we'll do it again (sound of my partner's bullets whizzing by my head), I don't know. If we do, we'll be sure to spread the word. For now, we'll take advantage of the new-found holes in our schedules to relax with our families and friends.

Love and best fishes,

David, Greg and Brian

Books

An avid sailor and scuba diver, Leonard is the author of Diving the Western Pacific, Vol. I (Periplus Publishing, Singapore).