New York Post, October 23, 2009, Friday

New York Post

October 23, 2009, Friday

New York Post

Waiters' $3M beef
Settle tip suit with famed steak house
By DAREH GREGORIAN and DAN MANGAN

Stick a fork in it -- Sparks Steak House has settled a class-action lawsuit accusing the famed Midtown eatery of shorting waiters on tips for over $3 million.

"What're you going to do," Sparks' owner Michael Cetta said of the deal, which will be divvied up among 200 current and former waiters.

The suit charged the restaurant had illegally deducted money from the "tip pool" -- which was supposed to be shared among about 60 waiters -- to pay other workers, including bartenders, the pastry chef, the wine-cellar master and banquet manager.

It sought $5 million for the shorted waiters, and settled for $3.15 million.

"This is a great settlement for both the waiters and the restaurant. It's good to have these issues behind us," said the lawyer for the waiters, Lou Pechman.

The deal is believed to be the largest ever for a single restaurant in a tip-skimming case.

The money will be distributed in proportion to how long a waiter worked, and more than 40 waiters should receive over $20,000, court documents show

The deal was approved by Manhattan federal court Judge Paul Crotty, who at a hearing last month called the settlement "the right thing to do."

"It addresses mistakes that were made over time and corrects them -- puts the defendant on a better course to follow in the future, one that will hopefully eliminate any further disputes."

Cetta wasn't as upbeat.

"We sort of feel badly that people think, 'You cheated your waiters,' " he said, adding that he had not done so. He noted that many other restaurants have been hit with similar lawsuits.

"It's an unfortunate circumstance," Cetta said, saying the waiters' case was built on "super-technicalities" but "the law is the law."

"I've got nothing bad to say. I also have nothing particularly good to say," Cetta laughed. "We're just going to go on our way and keep selling the best steaks in New York."

It was named the city's greatest steak house by The Post in 2001, and gained some unwanted notoriety in 1985, when mobsters Paul Castellano and Thomas Bilotti were gunned down as they approached the restaurant.

According to an industry survey released earlier this year, it's the fifth-highest-grossing restaurant in the city and 14th-highest in the country, having raked in $19 million in 2008.