Sweet & Vicious, a downtown Manhattan bar and restaurant popular for its “jargaritas” — frozen margaritas served in giant Mason jars — has been a nest of sexual, racial, and gender-based harassment with employees receiving racist remarks and tips from management and was unpaid for work, according to a 16-month investigation by New York State Attorney General Letitia James.
As part of a settlement brokered by the attorney general’s office, the owner, Hakan Karamahmutoglu, will pay $500,000 to be distributed to at least 16 employees for violating the state and city’s human rights and labor laws , said Ms. James at a news conference on Wednesday.
“For far too long, hospitality workers have been forced to endure a widespread culture of sexual harassment and discrimination that went unreported,” she said in a statement. “Every New Yorker should be able to go to work without fear of abuse and degradation, regardless of the industry.”
Mr Karamahmutoglu said in a statement that many of the allegations were false or grossly misleading and did not reflect his character or perspective. He said he signed the agreement last Thursday as a way to avoid the costs of a continued investigation, avoid future lawsuits and allow everyone to move forward.
“I have given back to the community and the city I love and employ hundreds of employees from all backgrounds,” his statement said. “We will continue to welcome everyone in a positive and inclusive environment. Those who know me will know that this is true, and I ask those who do not know me not to judge hastily.”
The investigation began in early 2021 after several women working at the bar gathered and spoke to a lawyer, who referred them to the attorney general’s office. The survey included dozens of interviews with former and current employees.
One was Katy Guest, 33, a former Sweet & Vicious bartender who said she was surprised that the harassment she and others regularly experienced would matter to the Attorney General.
“We actually didn’t know that someone at that level of power would shine a spotlight on these things that happen every day in the hospitality industry,” she said in an interview. “It’s been going on behind closed doors for so long that we’ve just gotten used to it.”
The bar, on Spring Street in NoLIta, has been a hotbed of harassment from executives and customers alike, Ms James said. According to her findings, the owner routinely insulted female employees, calling them “bitches” and “cows”, examining their appearance and commenting on their bodies and clothing. He also called workers “terrorists,” “crackheads” and “trash,” Ms James said.
In audio messages left on an employee’s WhatsApp account in 2020 and shared with The New York Times, Mr Karamahmutoglu said women who worked for him should be beautiful, slim and active. He wanted bartenders who were “tall, blond, beautiful and sexy like the women who worked in the bars in Ibiza”.
Kim Anderson, who ran the often-crowded bar and restaurant for six months in 2019 to help pay graduate school bills, said: “There was a lot of pressure to behave in a certain way, to dress provocatively. and look a certain way.” She suspected she wasn’t getting the best services because she didn’t present herself the way management wanted; for example, she said she was often told to put on more makeup.
The bar managers were almost exclusively men. Some made regular unwelcome sexual advances, according to the settlement document, including one manager who repeatedly rubbed his genitals against employees and another who announced the color of an employee’s underwear and vulgarly stated that he wanted to have sex with her.
Management tolerated customers who threatened to stab, rape and beat employees, the attorney general claimed. She said the owner and managers often used racist and gay remarks when talking about workers.
The poor working conditions cited in the survey included eight-hour shifts spent by bartenders without breaks, work weeks of more than 40 hours without overtime, a stricter code of conduct for female bartenders than for males, and cases where tips were left on credit cards workers never reached.
The settlement requires Sweet & Vicious to review its anti-discrimination and harassment training materials and display notices about its rights and responsibilities in the area of anti-discrimination and harassment. The owner will be required to file periodic reports with the Attorney General’s office showing that the company is in compliance with the terms of the settlement.
The investigation is the latest in a series of state investigations into sexual abuse and harassment in the hospitality industry. The first came in January 2020, when Ken Friedman, the principal owner of the Spotted Pig restaurant in Manhattan, agreed to pay $240,000 and a portion of his profits to 11 former employees who had accused him of sexual harassment, discrimination and retaliation.
Chef Mario Batali and his former partner Joe Bastianich were next. In July 2021, Ms. James said the two were in charge of a sexualized culture so rife with harassment and retaliation that it violated state and city human rights laws.
The two men and Pasta Resources, the company formerly known as the Batali & Bastianich Hospitality Group, agreed to pay a total of $600,000 to at least 20 women and men who said they were sexually harassed while working in the restaurants. Babbo, Lupa or Manhattan. Del Posto, which was the crown jewel among men’s businesses until its final closure in 2021.