Salt Bae waitress ‘forced to show diner her bare feet’ as celeb chef’s New York restaurant hit with FOUR lawsuits
SALT Bae’s New York restaurant has been hit with four lawsuits from disgruntled staff and customers in a major blow to his empire, The Sun can reveal.
The flamboyant Turk is renowned for his trademark sprinkle of salt on ridiculously priced gold-covered steaks – with more than 20 restaurants around the world.
But Salt Bae’s glam restaurants have been hit with several lawsuits – accused of siphoning off tips, sexual and racial discrimination, and breaking employment law.
And the Nusr-Et Midtwon steakhouse, owned by the showman whose real name is Nusret Gökçe, has faced four lawsuits – which have previously gone unreported.
Three of the cases have been resolved, while the fourth is ongoing.
Bathroom attendant Cattysha Flores worked at Nusr-Et Midtown steakhouse from May 2019 and filed her lawsuit in July 2021.
She claims the policy for staff was “no complaining about customers” despite once being asked by a male customer “to show her feet”.
She was allegedly told to comply with this as he was “known to give a $100 tip to other female employees when they complied”.
Flores was also allegedly accosted by a drunk customer, who “grabbed her” by the left arm, and demanded: “Kiss me, kiss me, why don’t you kiss me?”
Instead of being backed up by the general manager, he supposedly gave a “high five” to the customer and told Flores: “Oh, he’s just drunk.”
Flores claims that she called the cops twice regarding the incident and the “same customer [had] harassed other female employees”.
But she allegedly told that Nusret management had told them it was “not a big deal”.
Gökçe was allegedly at the restaurant when all this happened “but took no remedial action to address the situation”, which “condoned” his management’s behaviour.
Flores also claimed that her manager asked a fellow cleaner why “his people” wear “those things on their heads” – meaning a Durag hat.
The restaurant’s lawyers denied the allegations in court documents.
The suit was forced into arbitration last year by a judge and then discontinued in April.
The company has been successful in moving virtually all ex-worker lawsuits against them into mediation.
They state they all signed similar agreements that “any claims that employee may have or had against employer, or any of its officers, directors, supervisors, managers, employees, or agents” will be arbitrated.
But a lawsuit that’s still going through the courts was filed in August last year by Palestinian-born Taher Ali – who was hired as the general manager at the NY Midtown restaurant in September 2018.
He claims to have been discriminated against as he was the only non-Turkish manager and frequently had to work longer hours than other managers with no breaks and told “you are not one of us”.
Ali wasn’t allowed to meet Gökçe “because he doesn’t know a Palestinian is running the restaurant”, according to court documents.
He also alleges Turkish staff received a larger cut of the tip pool and non-Turks were often ignored.
When Ali brought up other staff grievances, he was allegedly told by his manager that “if they want to understand what we are saying, they can learn Turkish”.
He was demoted to “food runner” before being sacked “because he was not one of us” and “cares too much about the Americans and we are here to make money”, the lawsuit adds.
The company denied all of the claims against it.
At the same restaurant, customer Grecy Ramos filed a lawsuit, also in August 2022, accusing a server of spilling “scalding hot water onto the body of Plaintiff causing significant burns”.
The lawsuit said Ramos was seeking damages due to “sustained serious, severe and permanent personal injuries”.
In court documents, Nusret Steakhouse’s lawyers, Sjoquist & Baer denied the allegations.
The case was discontinued in July last year for unknown reasons.
In another unreported case, blind customer Windy Lucius reached a settlement after suing in the Florida federal court alleging that the website was not accessible to the blind and violated the disabilities act.
Court documents said Lucius had reached an agreement to resolve the claims.
Meanwhile, the restaurant has ongoing lawsuits with former Nusr-et Steakhouse New York staffers Elizabeth Cruz and Angelo Maher, who both filed suits in November 2021.
Bartender Cruz said she was humiliated when a manager ordered her to change into a “short skirt, high-heels, and revealing top” on her first day.
Latino waiter Maher claimed in another lawsuit he was called “Spanish s***” by a colleague and the steakhouse was a place of “physical intimidation and discriminatory intimidation directed at non-Turkish employees”.
The restaurant denied the claims.
He also claimed he was made to lie to customers that the meat was halal – permitted in Islam – “despite the fact this was not true”.
Their lawsuits are ongoing.
A Nusr-Et spokesperson told The Sun: “The majority of the cases are closed and we cannot comment on cases that have been settled.
“Only one of the cases are active and we do not comment on pending litigation.”
It comes after Salt Bae closed down his Salt Bae Burger joint in New York, dubbed “the worst restaurant” in the city.
It relocated to the same address as the chain of Nusr-Et Steakhouses in New York.
The restaurant charged $99 for a gold-flecked milkshake, $100 for a gold burger and sparked outrage for offering a free veggie “ladies burger” in a pink bun to women only.
The Sun can reveal that the 39-year-old has climbed down from his obscene prices after hundreds of bad reviews and now offers a $39 three-course lunchtime menu at all seven of his US branches.