Smith & Wollensky Facing Legal Trouble

The parent company of the Smith & Wollensky steakhouse chain, which has been in Rittenhouse Square for years, is suffering legal problems at the hands of a fired part-time waiter who claims discrimination against nonwhite employees at one of the group’s restaurants.

Mohammed Rahman, a former waiter at Smith & Wollensky’s Park Avenue Winter restaurant in New York, claims he was discriminated against for being Muslim & South Asian. A class action suit by 50 current and former employees of the Park Avenue Cafe was thrown out of court, despite reports that three Bengali waiters and captains at the restaurant claimed they were being discriminated against “by being fired or having their hours cut drastically.”

Although the class action suit was thrown out of court, federal judge James Francis is allowing Rahman’s suit against Smith & Wollensky to proceed.

Mixed Ruling for Smith & Wollensky in Class Action [NY Sun]

[Image via Slyck]

Smith & Wollensky Facing Legal Trouble