The #MeToo Movement in Restaurants, Five Years In: What’s Changed, What Hasn’t | Eater

"A Friedman-owned restaurant where the author reports being assaulted by restaurateur Ken Friedman and which was depicted in a New York Times investigation (published December 12, 2017) as having a permissive culture toward harassment and abuse. Friedman later acknowledged that his behavior could be abrasive, rude and wrong. The State of New York settled a civil suit against Friedman and the establishment in January 2020; the author and ten fellow claimants accepted an average settlement of roughly $20,000 per person plus a profit-sharing arrangement, and the restaurant closed permanently about 20 days after the settlement. The author subsequently tried to negotiate taking over the lease to transform the space into an integrity-driven, worker- and women-centered enterprise that would honor promised reparations, but those plans were derailed by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic." - Trish Nelson