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230 Fifth Owner Fighting Club's $500M Racial Discrimination Lawsuit
By
Jamie Feldmar
Published Jul 28, 2011
Modified Jul 29, 2011
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By
Jamie Feldmar
Published Jul 28, 2011
Modified Jul 29, 2011
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Flatiron bar and lounge 230 Fifth (you may recall its rooftop bar as the host of Kobayashi's controversial solo hotdog eating contest on July 4) is at the center of a $500 million racial discrimination lawsuit filed by a black man from Texas.
Rainbell Owens is claiming that he and his 15 friends, all of whom were also black, were kicked out of the bar during a 2009 birthday party after owner Steven Greenberg started screaming that the cake they brought in would "f- - k up my $10,000 sofa." Owens is suing the bar for $500 million in damages. It's not the first time the bar has been at the center of a lawsuit—in 2009, a chef was arrested for sexually assaulting a guest during a Halloween party.
We got in touch with Greenberg for a comment, and here's what he had to say: "These people came in without a reservation and brought their own cake. We sat them, we served them, and as the evening wore on they became boisterous and obstructive—they weren't just sitting on the couch, they were blocking the main thoroughfare. We asked if they could move to another couch where they could move around not block the passageway, they refused, and told us they'd leave if we gave them their money back. So we did. And they left. They were there for two or three hours. I would like to know how these people were damaged. They came in, they had their party, they had their drinks, they got their money back. Where's the discrimination? All we did was ask them to move."
Greenberg added that the bar has an "open door policy" and estimated that, based on the video cameras installed at the entrance and exits of the space, "we have probably 1000 or more African American people and people of other minorities enter and leave 230 Fifth on a busy night." He said that his lawyers are making a motion to dismiss the entire lawsuit, "and we believe we have an excellent chance of making that happen."
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230 fifth
discrimination
lawsuit
racial discrimination
Jamie Feldmar
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