‘Radically inclusive’ vegan restaurant closes after proprietor is accused of sexually harassing cook dinner
An upmarket and progressive vegan restaurant in California has closed after its proprietor clashed with workers and was accused of sexually assaulting the chef.
Based by a younger black queer girl, Hello Felicia was Oakland’s hippest new spot when it opened final yr. The restaurant provided a $195 tasting menu and promised to be ‘radically inclusive’ because it shook up the business with ‘vulgar effective eating’.
However in an ironic twist, 14 of its workers – lots of whom are queer and other people of colour – have advised The San Francisco Chronicle the proprietor, who goes solely by her first title, Imana, cultivated a poisonous work setting.
Two of them, together with the chef, declare that Imana touched their backsides. One stated she repeatedly made feedback about their genitalia after that they had gender-affirming surgical procedure. Different allegations embody claims that she repeatedly didn’t pay and promised medical health insurance however by no means delivered.
Imana admitted to the paper that she had been ‘unprofessional’ by kissing and taking medicine with workers however denied any sexual misconduct allegations.
Imana and the workers of Hello Felicia are pictured outdoors the restaurant in Oakland, California. The restaurant has closed after 14 workers members stated its proprietor created precisely the poisonous work setting it sought to appropriate
A Michelin information article on the restaurant printed then stated it had a laid again inside, which was stated to be chosen to domesticate a relaxed ‘banquet’ really feel
Final month the restaurant abruptly closed after a housebreaking and won’t be reopening.
Imana, now 26, is a longtime however polarizing determine on the planet of Bay Space consuming and consuming, The Chronicle reported.
Hello Felicia was her second enterprise, after wine bar Sluts, and opened in April 2021 to nationwide intrigue round its ‘daring and brash’ method.
A Michelin Information article on the restaurant printed then stated it had a laid again inside, which was stated to be chosen to domesticate a relaxed ‘banquet’ really feel.
Imana advised its creator on the time that the restaurant ‘was constructed from a lot trauma and stress and discrimination and all of these issues that individuals should not need to expertise.’
At first its workers was described as being enthusiastic and decided to work collectively to win the restaurant a Michelin star however quickly attitudes started to show, in keeping with The Chronicle.
Public data requested by the newspaper point out former staff have filed three wage claims towards the restaurant with the California Division of Industrial Relations.
Two of these got here from former chef Selasie Dotse, in keeping with the paperwork.
‘Hello Felicia was not the secure area that she was making an attempt to create. I used to be particularly wanting it to be an area for Black folks,’ Dotse advised The Chronicle. ‘As Black folks working for a Black girl, we didn’t really feel like we mattered.’
Hello Felicia (pictured) is now being repainted and Imana plans to open a ‘glossy’ wine bar as an alternative
Pictured is the inside of the restaurant, which opened in 2021 to nationwide curiosity
These data additionally indicated Imana paid former worker Marcos De La Fuente $829 to settle the ultimate declare in November.
One other individual employed by Imana, Parker Kim, a younger transgender cook dinner of colour, made related feedback in regards to the work tradition within the restaurant.
‘That was one of many first instances I used to be in a spot the place I might go searching and say that I felt seen,’ Kim described herself as feeling at first. ‘I actually needed to be that individual that made a monumental change within the business.’
‘For lots of us, our life’s passions had been harmed or a minimum of dimmed by this expertise,’ she advised The Chronicle. ‘I really feel like I misplaced part of me there.’
Imana has turn out to be a controversial determine and is now banned from seven eating places within the Bay Space. Her notoriety spiked final yr after she left a San Francisco restaurant with out paying the invoice however later stated it had been an accident.
When requested about false rumors circulating that she had staged the housebreaking of Hello Felicia herself, she advised The Chronicle: ‘Anybody who is aware of me is aware of I would not simply do a break-in. I’d have really dedicated arson.’
9 of the restaurant’s workers stated she created a sexualized setting that made them really feel uncomfortable.
Parker Story, the restaurant’s former wine director, stated Imana as soon as arrived on the restaurant and introduced to workers that she had been masturbating for a number of hours.
Pictured is the world exterior to Hello Felicia, in Oakland, California
Imana additionally stated that her funds to workers had been by no means late and that on the event that they did bounce that was as a consequence of faults with the recipient’s financial institution accounts. Pictured is the restaurant’s inside
Former cook dinner Shareef Pratt stated Imana touched his butt twice and requested him a number of instances if he was homosexual although he was straight and requested him if he would give a person fellatio, The Chronicle reported.
Though she denied touching his butt she conceded that the restaurant had a ‘tremendous sexual’ tradition, however stated that tradition was created collectively.
‘How might I alone create that? The staff and I constructed the restaurant collectively,’ she stated.
Imana additionally stated that her funds to workers had been by no means late and that on the event that they did bounce that was as a consequence of faults with the recipient’s financial institution accounts.
Hello Felicia is now being repainted and Imana plans to open a ‘glossy’ wine bar as an alternative.
