Tonic East Forks Over $35,000 for Partying Like It’s 1959When we wrote that Tonic East “has sucked in Murray Hill’s young exec set with a force that has almost ruffled their Polos and untucked their J. Crews,” we wondered how exactly the megabar could have such a soul-crushingly homogeneous crowd. Apparently it was carefully cultivated: A suit brought by the New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo claims that black investigators acting on patron complaints were denied entrance to the club for violating its dress code while white investigators were not. Tonic has settled the suit for $35,000 but insists it doesn’t discriminate — in fact, its bouncers are black! Given what a douchetination this place is, maybe the bouncers were doing barred patrons a favor.
NY Bar Settles Dress Code Complaint [Newsday]
Mediavore
Dovetail’s Food Editor–Hostess Tells Her Tale; Dessert Truck vs. TreatsThe Food & Wine editor–cum–hostess at Dovetail had a hard time learning the ropes of the job at first, but by the end she learned that star ratings from critics matter, and there’s more to being a hostess than checking coats. [TONY]
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has filed a suit against Tonic East for “a pattern or practice of denying African-Americans from admittance into its club.” [Down by the Hipster]
Unbeknownst to us, rapper Coolio has a cooking show on the Web called, succinctly, Cookin’ With Coolio, but he might not be the most adventurous kitchen personality we’ve ever seen: “I don’t like pork, I don’t eat pork, and I don’t cook pork.” [Serious Eats]
company town
Sickos Behind Marketing for Airborne Were Lying to Us AllLEGAL
• Manhattan’s Tonic East restaurant will pay $35,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging that the eatery discriminated against blacks wearing hip-hop clothing and urban wear to a Super Tuesday event for Barack Obama supporters. [NYT]
• Office procrastinators might have to look for a new method for wasting time: Scrabulous is under fire. [DealBook/Alley Insider]
• Airborne, the cold-relieving drug of choice for many cube dwellers around the city, will pay $23.3 million to settle claims of false advertising. Says one critic, “Airborne is basically on overpriced, run-of-the-mill vitamin pill that’s been cleverly, but deceptively, marketed.” Holy wow. Anyone want to come together and ratchet this up to class-action against “second-grade teacher” founder Victoria Knight-McDowell? [CNN]
