Looking at the Cipriani Sexual-Harassment Docs
It’s hard out there for a Venetian millionaire. No sooner did the Cipriani boys get the all clear from their federal tax-evasion trial than a major sexual-harassment lawsuit came down upon their heads. Just in time for your weekend reading, Grub Street has acquired a copy of the legal documents; after the jump, allegations of systematic misogyny and insidious put-downs.
NewsFeed
The Feds Have a Problem Ordering Delivery from Saigon GrillLabor activists, ousted employees, and local politicians gathered outside Saigon Grill’s uptown location to cheer a validating September 28 complaint against the restaurant issued by the National Labor Relations Board. In March, Saigon Grill sacked 22 workers who had taken steps to join the 318 Restaurant Workers Union. The NLRB also found that Saigon Grill’s owners promised pay raises (above a reported $1.60 an hour) to those who stayed away from the union and videotaped the employees who participated in regular demonstrations outside the Amsterdam Avenue restaurant and its University Place counterpart.
NewsFeed
Overtime Suits Officially a Buzz TopicWe’ve learned that Juan Garcia-Espinoza, a dishwasher who worked at Carmine’s for two and a half years is suing the South Street Seaport dive (no relation to the Upper West Side pasta joint) for allegedly violating overtime laws by paying him a miserly $260 to $300 for workweeks as long as 58 hours. We’ve pointed out that these cases are increasingly becoming “man bites dog,” and the cover story of this week’s Business Week proves it: In the last few years, companies have blown about $1 billion resolving them. At this point wouldn’t even Mr. Burns agree that that money is better spent fairly compensating workers in the first place?
Related: Wage Wars [Business Week]
NewsFeed
Tavern on the Green Hit With Federal Discrimination ChargesTavern on the Green just got hit with major charges — and unlike the accusations made in recent years against the likes of Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Daniel Boulud, it’s not just some irate ex-employees doing the talking. It’s the Feds. According to Crain’s, the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission charges them with “severe and pervasive sexual, racial and national origin harassment,” and for leaning on employees who complained against it. It’s a major step, and nothing the famously profitable, famously mediocre eatery can laugh off.
Tavern on the Green Accused of Discrimination [Crain’s NY]
NewsFeed
Aspen Cooks Lodge Complaint
Greg Brier, owner of Amalia (where Ivy Stark may checking out), may be in hot water because of alleged labor-law violations at his ski-lodge-themed restaurant, Aspen — and we don’t mean the Jacuzzi. Attorney Michael Falliache has brought a lawsuit against Brier and Aspen alleging that six named employees (including line cooks and a dishwasher) worked at pay rates such as $303 for 60 hours per week (i.e. about $5 per hour) with no overtime or regular breaks. “This is a typical case of a restaurant hiring workers who are at a disadvantage and taking advantage of them by not paying them overtime or minimum wage,” Falliache told us. The class-action suit represents the grievances of fifteen workers who, should they win, probably won’t be celebrating with a ski vacation.
Jose Zurita et. al vs. Aspen and Greg Brier [PDF]
NewsFeed
Wild Edibles Gets Caught in the Net of the LawIn the latest labor-law fiasco, thirteen employees of Wild Edibles, which sells seafood to restaurants like Union Square Cafe and Pastis as well as the general public via its retail stores, have filed a lawsuit against the company for failure to pay overtime. According to the plaintiffs’ lawyer, David Rankin, and as is evident in copies of the complaint we’ve obtained, the individuals — most of them warehouse workers — worked in excess of 50 hours a week for flat wages varying from $450 to $550 (“right on the edge of minimum-wage violations,” Rankin says, though he decided not to pursue those charges). Rankin also says that four workers were unjustly fired after they requested overtime pay at the end of August, and that another worker was unfairly written up for stealing fish. A motion for a restraining order, which we’ve also obtained, will be heard in court tomorrow. Between the overfishing and underpaying, caviar is truly getting hard to swallow.
Cesar A. Barturen, et al. vs. Wild Edibles [PDF]
Memorandum in Support of Restraining Order [PDF]
In the Magazine
New York’s Deliverymen Are Mad As HellBetween dodging trucks and potholes, risking robberies, working endless hours for slave wages in the rain and cold, and having to buy their own bikes and food, the city’s delivery workers have one of the rawest deals in all of New York City. But thanks to suits filed against Saigon Grill, Flor de Mayo, and several other restaurants around town, solidarity and an able use of the American legal system might turn things around. The takeaway quote from this week’s piece by noted reporter and author Jennifer Gonnerman? “If we win this case, every restaurant is going to change.” Of course, there are no guarantees in any labor battle. Read on for the New York take.
The Deliverymen’s Uprising [NYM]
Related: Pols Come Out to Support Saigon Grill Workers; Delivery Service Still Suspended [Daily Intel]
Mediavore
The State of the Deli Is Not Good; ‘Secret’ Spots RevealedA panel of Jewish food luminaries gathered recently to discuss the state of the deli. They didn’t paint a very sunny picture. [Serious Eats]
Related: Mother of Mercy! Is This the End of Katz’s?
Don’t blame the government for not letting great Chinese chefs into the country: It’s our fault for not wanting better Chinese cuisine. [NYT]
Manhattan’s secret spots range from sushi in a midtown basement to the bar across the street from the Corner Bistro. [NYP]
Mediavore
End of the Line for Ureña; Rocco Admits Douche-baggeryAlex Ureña is closing Ureña and turning it into “a bistro-style eater called Pamplona.” The modern Spanish curse continues! Now Suba alone carries the banner. [Eater]
Rocco DiSpirito doesn’t seem to mind being called a douche bag: “I was thinking he must have worked for me to know I’m a douche bag,” the chef tells Nina Lalli. [VV]
Related: Joey, Latest ‘Top Chef’ Non-Winner, on Why Rocco Is a Douche Bag
On his Top Chef blog Tony Bourdain has some wise words to console Joey: “Joey’s the chef of a damn famous restaurant in New York freakin’ City. The place every ambitious cook and chef hopes to work — in the big leagues. So he’s already a “Top Chef” — and already a winner in my book.” [Bravo]
Related: Adam Platt Finds the Moral in Last Night’s ‘Top Chef’
Mediavore
City Council Might Tackle Labor Violations; Drunks Abound at High-EndCustomers get drunk, carry on, and throw up even at the finest restaurants. Especially at the finest restaurants: “More people throw up in the dining room of Per Se than your average college bar.” [NYT]
The City Council is considering a law that would put labor violations on par with health violations, in an effort to protect vulnerable immigrant workers. [NPR]
Mocktails are on the rise, thanks to “the whole rehab thing,” and nowhere more successfully than at Indochine. [NYP]
Mediavore
Boulud Settles Discrimination Suit; Ramsay Has His Day in CourtDaniel Boulud gives in and settles his discrimination suit, agreeing to pay off the plaintiffs, give his busboys and runners a raise, make his managers take sensitivity training, and set up standards and procedures for promotion. [NYT]
Related: Daniel Under Attack! (Again)
A court hearing later today will rule whether Gordon Ramsay faked scenes during his infamous “rescue” of Dillons restaurant. [Fox News]
Blue Hill’s Dan Barber loves Lupa, Noodletown, and the “secret gem” greenmarket on West 97th Street. [Gothamist]
Mediavore
Hot Dogs Out, Halal In; More on Flor de Mayo’s Alleged Abuses“The hot dog now is for tourists,” and halal food has taken its place as New York’s signature street fare. Watch the video. [NYT]
Related: Cartography [NYM]
Flor de Mayo allegedly paid one of its workers $90 for 72 hours of work in one week — and made him provide his own bicycle for deliveries. [Newsday]
The Chinese government now realizes that exporting bad food is in fact bad for business. [Forbes]
Mediavore
Nello Buys ‘Page Six’ on the Cheap; Jody Williams Trying Not toNello’s Nello Ballan gives Richard Johnson a $1,000 gift, and fifteen “Page Six” mentions of Ballan’s restaurant later, the embattled gossip column has the devil to pay. [NYT]
Jody Williams claims not to have read Frank Bruni’s review of Morandi, though she knows that people are laying odds on the date of her departure. [Mouthing Off/Food & Wine]
Related: Not So Bene [NYM]
Restaurant-industry lobbyists express a not-unexpected disappointment with the federal minimum-wage increase passed by Congress, finding it “entirely out of place” in a war-spending bill. [Nation’s Restaurant News]
Mediavore
Marco Pierre White Sets Himself on Fire With Flaming CocktailJust another night at the Spotted Pig: Marco Pierre White, trying to demonstrate a flaming cocktail to Mario Batali, Tony Bourdain, and friends, sets himself on fire, gets doused with wine and Champagne, and stabbed in the hand. [NYP]
Related: Batali, Bourdain, and Ramsay Mentor to Finally Take on America? [Grub Street]
There are so many high-end restaurants looking for good ingredients that the world will literally run out of them, a world-famous Australian chef claims. [Australian News]
Utterly dependent as it is on illegal workers, the restaurant industry is lobbying hard against the new immigration bill in Congress. [Nation’s Restaurant News]
Mediavore
A Rescue Plan for Restaurant Workers; No Fatty Crab for the UWSThe Restaurant Responsibility Act, just introduced in City Council, would keep eateries from abusing the help by tying operating permits to labor laws. [Gotham Gazette]
Fatty Crab owner writes in to say that Eater has it all wrong about an Upper West Side location. [Eater]
It’s salmon season in Alaska’s Copper River, and some of the city’s top fish cooks are spawning original dishes to take advantage. [NYDN]
Mediavore
City Gears Up to Better Police Labor Violations; Beef Threatens Fish at LeCity Council to introduce a bill giving authorities more power to crack down on restaurant labor violations like the alleged ones at Saigon Grill. [MetroNY]
Related: 100 Students to Protest Saigon Grill [Grub Street]
Kobe beef, having once appeared on Le Bernardin’s menu, is taking over and chasing the fish away – a fact chef Eric Ripert is less than thrilled about. [NYP]
Bizarre details of Mr. Chow’s abuse emerge from the lawsuit, including information about one employee who was forced to lie on the floor and be menaced and even kicked by the diminutive restaurateur. [Gawker]
NewsFeed
100 Students to Protest Saigon Grill
Update, 6:14 p.m.: Sit-in ends after 45 minutes, with the NYPD ordering protestors out of the Vietnamese eatery. Jamie Chen, who we spoke with earlier, tells us that she and her fellow students took over most of the tables on first floor. There were no arrests. The protestors joined noisy demonstrators outside, chanting “Boycott Saigon Grill.”
Update, 5:49 p.m.: Students, many wearing red, have taken over a number of tables inside the restaurant while television cameras whir.
In a planned demonstration reminiscent of sixties campus radicalism, at least 100 students citywide are expected to stage a protest shortly after 5 p.m. today in front of the trendy Saigon Grill on University Place. The demonstration is a statement against the lockout of some 33 delivery workers who refused to sign in March what they claimed was an illegal contract from owner Simon Nget, a Chinese-Cambodian refugee who also runs an Upper West Side Asian eatery by the same name. The protest is “definitely student generated and initiated,” says Jamie Chen, 20, a Columbia student reached during finals. She says her fellow activist Christina Chen,19, held a teach-in at Columbia’s Hamilton Hall a couple of weeks ago “to talk about the abuses” at the restaurant “and a lot of people want to do something about it.”
NewsFeed
Waiters Serve Papers to City Hall and B.B. King Blues Club
Two more waiters have crumbled up their aprons and decided they’re not going to take it anymore. Maimon Kirschenbaum, the lawyer last seen suing Heartland Brewery for shaving time off punch-card records and failing to cough up overtime (he says ten servers are now onboard with the complaint including a former manager) is now going after both Radiante, which owns City Hall (according to the suit, six-year server Mohammed Uddin was paid straight time instead of overtime), and B.B. King Blues Club & Grill. Kirschenbaum filed the latter suit yesterday; as he has it, server Brandon Salus was singing the blues at B.B. King’s after walkouts were deducted from his paycheck, a violation of Section 193 of the New York Labor Law. In one instance a $240 dine-and-ditch allegedly reduced the server’s weekly pay to $20.
Mediavore
San Gennaro Still Hanging; Power to the Deliverymen!The San Gennaro festival is still facing serious opposition from the local community board, which recommends refusing it a permit. [NYT]
The Chinese deliveryman revolution is spreading; it’s a legitimate movement driven by “sheer numbers and … some forceful advocacy groups.” [NYT]
Related: The Heartening Backstory of the Deliveryman Rebellion
One of the Gansevoort Hotel’s co-owners is found to have run a business with ties to a Russian assassin and gang leader. [NYP]
Back of the House
Telepan, Too, Faces Labor StrifeSpeaking of labor troubles, Bill Telepan seems to be the latest chef-owner to have them on his hands. NY1 reports that workers at Telepan, his Upper West Side Haute Barnyard restaurant, are incensed at management’s taking big chunks of their tips. “They’re actually stealing from what their employees are making,” a former waitress is quoted as saying. Telepan, reached by phone, denies the charges but says he’s not ready to go on the record yet with any details.
Telepan Under Fire for Tipping Managers [NY1 via Eater]
Earlier: The Heartening Backstory of the Deliveryman Rebellion
Back of the House
The Heartening Backstory of the Deliveryman RebellionThe worker protests recently seen at Saigon Grill and Ollie’s Noodle Shop and Grill weren’t just an isolated pair of incidents; they indicate a sea change, according to a dramatic, eye-opening article in City Limits this week. Ever since workers at 88 Palace on East Broadway won their case against management for paying them poorly and ripping off a portion of their tips, the article says, long-terrorized restaurant staffers have been riding a wave of rebellion into fair treatment. Right on! Of course, our sympathies are always with the people who bring us our food.
Wins Galvanize Workers at City’s Asian Eateries [City Limits]
Related: Pols Come Out to Support Saigon Grill Workers; Delivery Service Still Suspended [Daily Intel]
Mediavore
Matzo-Bus Rabbi Granted ReprieveBloomberg signs bill establishing safety guidelines for delivery guys but stops short of limiting packets of ketchup. [NYT]
Rabbi ordered to stop baking matzo out of his school bus granted reprieve. [NYT]
Urban agriculture not limited to NYU kids growing weed in closet; New Yorkers also making wine on rooftops. [NPR]