Mamaleh’s is being sued for sexual harassment and discrimination. Here’s what the restaurant says.
A longtime employee says kitchen staff and owners of the popular Cambridge restaurant created a “toxic” work environment by making sexual and misogynistic comments and uttering homophobic and racial slurs.
A lawsuit has been filed against the restaurant group behind the lauded Cambridge eatery Mamaleh’s Delicatessen, alleging members of the ownership team and kitchen staff created a hostile work environment by engaging in sexual harassment and discrimination. The lawsuit, first reported by Eater Boston on Wednesday, was filed against R.J. Hart LLC and two of the restaurant’s owners, Alon Munzer and Tyler Sundet, in October by Duane Gorey, a longtime former employee. It’s seeking unspecified damages.Gorey alleges the work environment at the restaurant caused him to experience anxiety and depression, and he left his job at the restaurant in February 2018. A statement from Mamaleh’s dated Wednesday says the restaurant “categorically” denies Gorey’s allegations that he was subjected to a discriminatory work environment.
The allegations
Gorey worked for the restaurant group, which was behind the now-shuttered Hungry Mother and currently owns the nearby State Park and Cafe du Pays, for 10 years, according to his complaint filed in Middlesex Superior Court. In his time working for them, Gorey worked in both “front of house” and “back of house” positions at each of the restaurants, but, starting in July 2016, he began to work almost exclusively at Mamaleh’s. In an amended complaint filed in November, Gorey provided 19 examples of the discriminatory comments he alleges he witnessed or was subjected to while working at Mamaleh’s from the time he started there until he left in 2018.In one instance, he alleges that the then head chef at the restaurant approached him during a “hectic shift” and said, “I can shove my thumb up your a** if that will help you relax.” Gorey claims that the chef, Munser, and Sundet, among other staff members, used a rating system to judge the appearances of female customers with the below guidelines outlined in the complaint.
99= Very attractive woman
99J= Very attractive Jewish woman
99P= Very attractive pregnant woman
Super88= Very attractive Asian woman
1989= A woman who was likely attractive in 1989
99SP= SP stands for ‘secret penis,’ so this designation is for customers that the men ‘joke’ may be a male to female transgender individual
The former employee also alleges that Munzer made jokes about a female employee contracting a sexually transmitted disease and commented along with Sundet and the chef on “the body parts” of female customers. If there was “an attractive female customer,” Gorey alleges that Munzer, Sundet, the chef, and another male employee would insist on delivering the food from the kitchen to the dining room. In another instance, Gorey alleges Sundet looked at a subordinate female employee and “violently plunged a steak knife into a tall sandwich” and said, “Now we’ve achieved full penetration.”In addition to the homophobic, sexual, and misogynistic comments Gorey alleges he witnessed or was subjected to, he claims that on “numerous occasions” Munzer called African-American children coming and going from a nearby school a racial slur. “This would cause [the chef] to laugh out loud,” the complaint reads.
Boston.com is not naming the former chef because he’s not listed as a defendant in the amended complaint.
According to Eater, three former employees of the restaurant group corroborated “some” of Gorey’s allegations, including that they witnessed Munzer, Sundet, and other male kitchen staff discuss the bodies of female employees and customers.
Gorey alleges that when he complained about the behaviors, he was “typically ignored” or he was then called names and derided for not being “man enough to handle the ‘joking.’”
He told Eater that he no longer works in restaurants.
What the restaurant says
Mamaleh’s and Molly Cochran, the attorney representing Munzer and Sundet, say that Gorey’s complaints were addressed quickly.The restaurant group has made a motion to dismiss three of the four individual claims brought against the delicatessen, which include an allegation by Gorey that the owners “launched a campaign to have [him] committed” to a psychiatric facility and “pretended to be in fear of” images and statements he posted on his social media accounts.In the group’s motion, Cochran described Gorey’s posts as “threatening” and “disturbing” and as including “pictures of knives and guns.” She argues that police, medical providers, and “whoever reported [Gorey’s] social media posturing” were just “doing their job” in response to what she called an apparent “cry for help.”“[Gorey’s attorney’s] wild speculation that police were called to exacerbate [Gorey’s] emotional distress and force him to drop his claims is preposterous,” the motion reads. “The fears concerning [Gorey’s] capacity to harm himself or others have been of a long-standing nature, and did not arise in isolation.”Gorey and his attorney say he is an “artist and social activist who often expresses himself and posts his artwork on various social media sites.”Both Mamaleh’s, in a statement to Boston.com dated on Wednesday, and Cochran say that an employee whom Gorey made a complaint about was fired. “This matter is now in litigation and we have been advised by counsel not to litigate this matter in a public forum and not to discuss the specific allegations of his Complaint,” Mamaleh’s said. “But we do want to state that we categorically deny Duane’s claim that he was subjected to a discriminatory work environment. We acknowledge that from time to time we and some of our staff members have made inappropriate comments in our restaurants. These comments do not represent the kind of people we are.”The litigants are scheduled to return to court in April. Read the full statement from Mamaleh’s below:
Duane Gorey was a valued employee of our restaurants for 10 years, someone we considered a friend as well as an employee.
In October of 2017, Duane came to us with a complaint about his work environment. The owners took the complaint seriously and immediate action was taken. Management conducted an investigation that resulted in the termination of the employee. The complaint made by Duane solely related to comments made by that one employee. There were no further complaints from Duane over the following months that he worked with us, but we continued to take steps to make sure he was comfortable in his work environment, even offering to change his schedule and transfer him to another one of our restaurants. Even so, Duane chose to leave Mamaleh’s on his own in February of 2018.
The next time that we heard from Duane was in June when we received a demand letter from his lawyer warning that he would file a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination unless we met Duane’s monetary demands. We offered to mediate Duane’s claims but the offer was rejected. A complaint with the Middlesex County Superior Court was subsequently filed and Duane also took the story to a local media outlet, who investigated the claim but elected not to publish the story. Today we learned that Eater Boston ran a story relative to Duane’s claims.
This matter is now in litigation and we have been advised by counsel not to litigate this matter in a public forum and not to discuss the specific allegations of his Complaint. But we do want to state that we categorically deny Duane’s claim that he was subjected to a discriminatory work environment. We acknowledge that from time to time we and some of our staff members have made inappropriate comments in our restaurants. These comments do not represent the kind of people we are. We apologize to anyone who may have been offended by this language. We have always sought in our restaurants to provide the best environment possible for our guests and our employees, and we intend to lead by example to ensure that we meet that standard.
Additionally, Alon would like to add that anyone that knows him, knows he would never use a racial slur against any group, and he never did. By making such an explosive charge, Duane is doing exactly what he and his lawyer said they would do if we did not pay him a windfall to which he is not entitled: causing us as much pain and embarrassment as possible and trying to damage our relationships with our staff and guests.
Duane was a long-time employee whom we always treated with dignity and respect, and we are very disappointed he has chosen to take this route. We take pride in how we treat our employees, which is why we have an open-door policy to encourage anyone with an issue or complaint to come forward to talk to us or human resources.
As a company recognized for improving the working environment in restaurants, we want you to know that we will continue to strive to earn the respect and trust of our employees, our customers and our community by ensuring that our work environment is free from offensive statements or conduct.
