John McDonough – A Tribute
1937 - 2008
It is with great sadness that I must report that our resident Tarot Card Reader at Rembrandt’s for almost 19 years has recently passed away. John McDonough was a fixture on Monday and Tuesday evenings as he held court in the dining room with patrons both regular and new. His readings weren’t always accepted, and some thought they were pure baloney, but I can say with authority that many of his customers, having thought the readings were suspect, would tell me six months or so later, how accurate he was, and often apologized for their disbelief.
John was a bit of a curmudgeon. He had instructions, which had to be followed faithfully, even though he seldom followed his own instructions. His readings were supposed to be about 20 minutes to a half-hour long, but if he knew you, or if you were a regular, or had a very interesting reading, they would extend to an hour or even an hour and a half, leaving some of his other customers tapping their fingers, or more likely coming to me and complaining, at which point I would have to sit with them and keep them company until John got to them. No one ever interfered with John’s readings.
John would not take reservations, however you had to make reservations for dinner at Rembrandt’s in order to get in line for a reading. Even then it was a first-come first-served arrangement. It didn’t take long for people to realize that if you a wanted to be first on his list, you sent one of your party or a friend in early to sign up. However if that person left, another party would complain that they were the first ones there and that the other group broke the rules if they left and should be moved back to the next successive reading. All of this made life very interesting at Rembrandt’s on Monday and Tuesday evenings. The staff loved John, mostly because of his personality, but because he also put people in the dining room on what would often be otherwise slow nights.
John never read for me. In 1991 he asked me if I would like a reading and I told him I did not want to know how I would do at Rembrandt’s, having recently taken over from a prior manager. He asked me my sign, I told him I was a Leo and he said…"You’ll Do Fine". So far he was right but I miss him regardless.
Jan Zarkin