Manager Threw a Black Man's Change on the Floor: ""Pick It Up"" — He Was the Restaurant's New Owner

“You got money? Or did you just wander in here like a stray dog looking for scraps?”

“Coffee and pecan pie. That’s all.”

“Sure it is. Let me guess. You’ll pay in loose change like the rest of them.”

“Here’s a twenty.”

“There. Pick it up, monkey.”

Phones went up. Nobody spoke. Nobody moved. The man looked at the coins, looked at Gary, and stayed exactly where he was. Gary had no idea that those coins he just threw would cost him everything. His job, his reputation, and a whole lot more.

Three hours before those coins hit the floor, Maxwell Owens sat in a quiet corner office on the fourteenth floor of a downtown Atlanta high-rise. The desk in front of him was covered in paper, acquisition reports, lease agreements, inspection schedules. Thirty-one restaurants, all now under the banner of Owens Hospitality Group. The deal had closed seventy-two hours ago. Sixty million dollars. The biggest purchase of his career.