A classic Manhattan restaurant once frequented by Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack is accused of a disturbing duet of hatred toward Albanians and over $1 million in stolen wages, a pair of lawsuits filed this week in federal court claim. The owners of Patsy’s Italian Restaurant allegedly told two Albanian workers that “all Albanians deserve a bullet,” are “gay” and “garbage,” and even said that adults and young children of the nascent Balkan nation deserve “to be f—ed,” one explosive federal complaint says.
Those disturbing comments were raised when discussing the similarly named and Albanian-owned Patsy’s Pizzeria, with which Patsy’s Restaurant had a long-simmering trademark feud stretching back to 1999, and is allegedly the origins of the anti-Albanian hate, according to court docs.
trademark feud.
back.
1999.
It is shocking that a restaurant with so much success could be so cruel to its waitstaff, both with its blatant discrimination and its unabashed wage and tip theft,” said Maimon Kirschenbaum, the lawyer suing the West 56th Street eatery where a plate of spaghetti and meatballs runs $32.99.
To add injury to insult, the eatery is also accused of stealing tips and underpaying workers by illegally altering workers’ time cards, the second suit claims. Kirschenbaum said while they don’t have a final figure, the total amount of stolen wages — plus associated penalties — would top $1 million.
The pair of workers bringing the suit, Kreshnik Hoti and Desiart Ymeraga, are Albanian Muslims born in Kosovo who have worked at Patsy’s Restaurant for years.
On Hoti’s first day in 2017, he was told by co-workers to not reveal his Albanian heritage because co-owner Sal Scognamillo’s hatred was so intense as a result of the longtime spat with the Harlem-based Patsy’s, they warned that “if they found out he was Albanian, they would fire him,” court papers say.
The suit, which calls the eatery “just like any other over-priced Italian eatery in a City full of over-priced Italian eateries,” claims that once Scognamillo found out that Albanians were working for him, the pair immediately became targets for harassment, ridicule and abuse.
Scognamillo would regularly say “disgusting” things about the pair in front of the whole staff.
Albanians don’t eat pork but they eat Pinga,” the suit claims the owner said, using a Spanish slang word for penis and referring to their Muslim beliefs.
In their wage theft class action complaint, which could rack up at least 40 potential plaintiffs, the pair allege that Scognamillo, his wife, Lisa — a co-owner and lawyer for the eatery — and his son, Joseph would regularly coerce workers to work unpaid hours, instructing them to clock out and back in hours later during shifts.
If they did not do this,” the court documents read, “they would cut their shifts or fire them.
Scognamillo also altered time sheets after the fact, and rarely paid for working overtime, the suit states.
The family-run restaurant also “brazenly” pilfered the tip pool, taking $200 to 300 at a time, according to court documents.
I have unfortunately seen throughout my years of practice that the restaurant industry is often a hotbed for discrimination and national-origin related biases,” Kirschenbaum told The Post. That said, the facts of this case are beyond the pale.
Neither Sal nor Lisa Scognamillo responded to a message requesting comment.
The Midtown restaurant — which also serves up a $34.99 chicken piccata and $42.99 veal francese — proudly boasts about its famous clientele, including Oprah Winfrey, Martin Scorsese, Bill Clinton and Madonna.
In addition to Sinatra and family, Patsy’s Italian Restaurant has become a favorite with countless stars on both the east and west coasts, who have come to regard Patsy’s Italian Restaurant as a mecca of Italian fine dining.
