Banks Street Bar Allegedly Fired All Its Staff, Then They Took Over Its Instagram | Eater New Orleans

"A dive bar in New Orleans’s Mid-City open since 1959, Banks Street Bar and Grill hired new management this week — and one of their first actions was apparently to fire the entire staff. At least one employee still had access to the bar’s Instagram account and has been chronicling the saga, posting a screenshot of a note from management saying it was time to "clean house," that interviews for "those who wish to remain a bartender" would be held over the next two days, and that "As of today everyone is being terminated," while subsequent posts have been memes and screenshots suggesting the page is controlled by a former employee. Public support for the staff has been immediate, bolstered by first-hand accounts and a screenshot of an email from a manager that said, "Let's just fire everyone and start over," and the bar’s account even posted, "Good luck 'starting over,' hiring and training an entirely new staff when everyone in the industry sees the way you treat your employees." The staff — reported as 12 people — were allegedly fired "during the slowest season of the service industry (summer) with no backup, no pay, and no notice," and a fundraising page organized by Cheyenne Nichols aims to raise $1,000 for each employee; the owners have not publicly responded. The bar’s recent turmoil is being framed in the shadow of former owner Rand Owens, who bought the bar in 2018, founded Mid City Pizza in the bar’s kitchen, and died in 2020 at 33; ownership continued with Owens’s siblings and a family friend." - Clair Lorell