Has anyone else been watching The Sinner? Jessica Biel stars and produces the limited-run series on the USA network, and I’ve been watching it and enjoying it. The story is a mess and it’s basically half-soap opera, half-cheeseball legal drama, but it’s good and it’s made me appreciate Jessica Biel a little bit. For years, Biel has not really had the kind of work she thinks she deserves – she wants to be seen as a contender for Oscar-bait films, but we know she thinks she’s seen as “too pretty” by Hollywood, because Hollywood loathes attractive people. So in the absence of quality work, Jessica spent years putting together a restaurant in LA called Au Fudge. It’s supposed to be a fancy-yet-kid-friendly LA place, with a big booze menu but lots of kid-friendly toys and food too. There have been reports about how Au Fudge is a total mess and the food isn’t even that great, although maybe they worked out some kinks. Anyway, this doesn’t bode well – Au Fudge and Jessica Biel are being sued by nine current and former employees of Au Fudge:
Au Fudge restaurant may be cooking up some legal troubles in West Hollywood. E! News has learned that nine current or former workers are suing Jessica Biel and the celebrity-favorite establishment for unlawful conversion of employee gratuities, fraud and other damages.
“Each of them had their gratuities wrongfully converted and were improperly denied meal and rest breaks, overtime compensation and earned wages under various illegal payroll practices,” the plaintiffs allege in court documents obtained by E! News. “Defendants charged hundreds of thousands of dollars in gratuities to private-party customers and converted said gratuities to themselves in order to pad their own pockets and deprive plaintiffs their just compensation in violation of law.”
When asked for comment, a lawyer for the defendants said, “The Company does not comment on pending litigation and has not had an opportunity to review the Complaint, but looks forward to defending itself in Court.”
According to a former Au Fudge restaurant manager who provided a declaration for the plaintiffs, the company’s business model is allegedly based on the sales of private events and buy-outs. Private events are smaller type parties of $10,000 or less while buy-outs are larger events that can cost up to $100,000 plus. In court documents, the plaintiffs allege that the total estimated wrongfully converted gratuity from private events is roughly $150,000. As for private events and buy-outs, they estimate a grand total of $430,000.
Sounds about right. There was a lot of back-and-forth in the media in the first months of Au Fudge’s opening – some critics said the food was bad and too expensive, and then other critics made suspiciously glowing and positive claims about the restaurant, almost as if Biel’s people were quietly paying off reviewers and/or paying for online reviews. But I remembered the bad reviews, about the unhygienic vibes, the bad service, the mediocre food. Au Fudge just seemed poorly managed from the start, and now that we’re hearing about this lawsuit… yeah, it’s like “when a vanity project explodes in your face.” Biel wanted to open a restaurant and she didn’t know how to do it, so she f–ked it up entirely.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I’m legal counsel for a restaurant company that owns many restaurants around the country. I’m not Biel fan (I actually have no opinion of her really) but many people don’t realize how difficult the restaurant industry is. From not understanding regulations on tipping and wages, to insurance issues to union problems, it’s not possible for a novice to get it right the first time. Hope she has some professionals around to get her out of this mess.
If you don’t know what you’re doing, find someone who does. There is NO excuse for screwing people out of earned wages because “I’m new at this!”
You’d have to be an utter moron to not realise that gratuities are meant for your waitstaff.
Come on.
Show me someone claiming they didn’t understand and I’ll show you a liar.
The laws on this are not quite as straightforward as they seem though. Both federal and state wage and hour laws come into play. It also depends on whether the server was being paid at least the minimum wage per hour, and mandatory service charges are not always considered tips for the staff. There are a lot of variables that a newcomer to the industry would not necessarily understand, as Soni noted above.
I did Management of Business and Principles of Business as classes in secondary school (high school) and my teacher wasn’t trying to discourage us necessarily but he did tell us on more than one occasion that restaurants have an extremely high failure rate. I paid close attention to new restaurants after that and realised that he was absolutely right.
Ironically I had to do a business plan for one of those classes and it was a dessert kiosk called Oh Fudge! Got a good grade
It’s a crazy rate, like 75% of new restaurants
My friend’s husband is an architect/real estate developer. They have opened three restaurants in 8 eight years and all have failed, even though they partnered with experienced chefs. It is not something I would invest in unless I was very sure of succeeding.
I’ve worked on the corporate side of restaurants before and let me tell you- it is NOT easy. Margins on food are slim, and costs can vary wildly depending on what’s going on in the world. Lime shortage in Mexico? Your cost triples. You have to be SO on top of it. Plus there is more waste than other industries because food goes bad, is sent back etc. Thats all saying nothing of your rent and other operational expenses like power. As far as I’m concerned, it’s way more important to be a good business person than a good chef for a restaurant to stay open. People think it’s so easy and it’s just not.
Always find the experts, hire them, listen to them and keep them employed for you until you become the expert. Justin and Jessica should get your wallets out . . .
So is space travel. That means only qualified people should run it.
She’s not unattractive by any means, but “too pretty” for Hollywood?? Seriously? She’s middle of the road pretty at best. And those bangs don’t help. Every time I read Au Fudge I think of “A Christmas Story” where Ralphie drops the hubcap full of bolts and spews out that censored expletive.
Yeaaaah if the Angie, Charlize, Lupitas etc of the world aren’t “too pretty” for Oscar bait roles, literally nobody is lol
That mole she is married to does not seem to have a problem getting work, and he is a horrible actor.
This made me laugh so hard.
I find him unattractive too, and he’s a terrible actor. It’s very unfair that he’s getting roles in films.
I agree, I actually find her to be too masculine looking and it’s not because she seems too thin now even during her 7th heaven days I thought she looked like a boy. Definitely not too pretty at all, average at best.
Wage theft is a huge problem for tipped workers. I always tip in cash because it improves the chances of the tip actually getting to my server.
This is super common.
Banquet staff have this happen all the time. That 20% service fee often does not go to the staff.
Even places where things are good, I super side eye if you have management handle your tips.
I always wanted my tips night of, unless something weird happened with too many credit card or debit purchases.
When we got married, I did wonder how much of our 20% gratuity fee actually went to the servers. It was $1,500~ divided by 5-6 people, so I figured probably not. I do think caterers and restaurants should spell out who gets the gratuity so those paying can decide if they want to tip separately or on top of the fee.
I side eye any celebrity who opens a restaurant. That said, why didn’t she seek advice from her hubby? His mediocre restaurant is still going strong, at least in NYC.
Went there when I was in L.A, we just walked by and thought “why not”
Really good drinks and apps at least, super pricey though ! I think my cocktail was 18 dollars or something stupid.
Tipping is an idiotic custom! Employers should be required to pay their staff a normal salary. Weirdly this seems to work in many other countries just fine, food is not more expensive and service is great. I really don’t get why tipping still exists here.
Tipping in the US really frustrates me. It was intended as a thank you for great service and now it’s not uncommon to be expected to tip 25% or more just so wait staff don’t go without pay. Employers really should have to answer for it but not everyone is on board yet…
Here in California, servers actually make the state minimum wage before tips, but they still expect to be tipped too. Tipping is so ingrained at this point, I’m not sure it’d go away just by paying people more.
In Australia we have a decent minimum wage so you mostly don’t have to tip if you don’t want to. I usually give about 5% at mid to low priced restaurants and 10% if it’s upmarket and the wait staff are expected to serve you impeccably. 25% is crazy. Just make sure service-industry businesses pay staff a fair wage.
Maybe in some places Sylvia
But in most places in Cali they get the SERVER state minimum which is under 3.00 an hour in most counties
$3 an hour is shocking. In Australia it’s close to $20 AUD which is around $16 USD. Hence we don’t have a strong tipping culture but probably half of customers using restaurants, hotels, valet parking, etc, choose to give a modest tip.
Don’t see how she can breathe out of those tiny nostrils. That shade of red is stunning.pay your workers, Biel.
This is really shitty – don’t steal tips, it’s not rocket science.
Having said that, can we agree that employers should be paying wait staff a living wage anyway, and it shouldn’t be up to customers arbitrary tips to make up their wages. I hate American tipping culture – I find it’s unfair to the staff and the customer.
Agreed! When I was in Paris it was customary NOT TO tip waitstaff…and I can’t recall service being any worse than here. Granted I was only there a couple of months and was young so perhaps I have rose colored memory vision.
It’s definitely unfair. I have an acquaintance who doesn’t tip waiters, period. Anybody who waits on her and people who think like her will be working for free once that $2.77/hr is taxed. So shameful
That’s terrible.
I had the WORST waiter a few weeks ago, and still left 10%.
I was a bartender/server for 15 years. I made more money than my father who was a tenured professor. I would often go home with more than $500 in my pocket at the end of every shift on top of my salary. If you are a hard working people person it can an incredibly easy job with a very high reward….. unless you party it all away. I’m always shocked that any server or bartender would stay at a place that steals tips when there are so many legit places to work at where you can make a killing.
I work in law now. Still working long hours…. making ok money. But able to be home for the kids at night and most weekends:)
Jenna, just curious – did you work in the U.S. (maybe in California)? I just wonder Bc you refer to getting a salary on top of tips. I know most servers get 2.13/hr and that often gets taxed out (so most checks wind up void). Again, just curious.
My last server job was almost twenty years ago, but in Minnesota, servers got minimum wage, regular old minimum wage, not a special server one.
Does anyone have comments about her show The Sinner? I’ve been watching it and it’s so bad it has sucked me in. Like a train wreck. I have bangs trauma from her hair in the show and Bill Pullman is killing me in this (what has happened to him?? He’s so…odd in this) and the story is just nuts. I adore Christopher Abbott but I think he deserves better.
Rant over.
I don’t get it. I’ve never thought of Jessica beil as beautiful or sexy. Maybe she’s just not my type…?
When the restaurant opened, the description sounded like a Chuck E Cheez for rich people, like where Tori Spelling would have her kid’s birthday party. not surprised to hear that it’s mostly “event” revenue rather than relying on normal restaurant traffic.
lmao! i swear I didn’t read your comment before I posted. And I see I spelled Chuck E Cheez wrong too.
Great minds think alike!
This was always Chucky Cheese for people with way too much money on their hands.
and the name is stupid
Au Fudge sounds like a sweet shop. Stupid name
It’s supposed to be a play on “Oh F***”…like the way parents censor themselves and say silly words instead to expletives. (Full disclosure: I’m still working on this. I keep telling myself that my two year olds are saying “sit” when they drop something. #TheStruggleIsReal)
Kitchen nightmares TV show had lots of people who had no experience in the restaurant industry yet opened one without learning or even having a desire to learn. Sounds like this situation
She is pretty. But I hope that nose isn’t by a surgeon.
She is a dingus. Just go back to being Justin Timberlake’s wife. He tried to dump her so many times and she finally trapped him with a baby. She is emotionally needy and used sympathy to get what she wanted. She’ll probably play stupid on this one.