A former waiter has accused celebrity restaurateur Guy Fieri’s Downtown Flavortown restaurant in Tennessee of illegal pay practices when it comes to its tipped employees in a new federal lawsuit.
The lawsuit comes months after the sprawling eatery, with more than 300 seats and a bowling alley, opened in March in Pigeon Forge, according to Attractions Magazine. It was filed July 15 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee.
The former waiter is suing the operator of Downtown Flavortown, FACE Amusement Group, Inc., for allegedly violating federal labor laws by requiring tipped employees, including himself, to take on non-tipped side work that they were not properly paid for, according to the complaint.
McClatchy News contacted FACE Amusement Group, Inc. for comment on July 21 and was awaiting a response.
The man, who worked at Downtown Flavortown between Feb. 15 and April 1, says that tipped workers were given non-tipped duties — including cleaning bathrooms, cleaning the kitchen, clearing tables, rolling silverware, preparing salads, and more — in the complaint.
These duties “are customarily assigned to ‘back-of-house’ employees in other restaurants, who typically receive at least the full applicable minimum wage rate,” according to the lawsuit.
The former waiter accuses Downtown Flavortown of paying tipped workers for these tasks “at or below the reduced tip credit minimum wage rate” in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act, and that the...
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