Investigation Reveals Harsh Conditions at Salt Bae's Restaurants

What’s it like to work for an eminently meme-able chef and restaurateur? If a recent investigation by Insider into the working conditions in the restaurants owned by Nusret Gökçe — aka Salt Bae — is any indication, the answer is an emphatic “not great.” This isn’t the first time Gökçe and his restaurants have come under fire; in 2019, workers at his Miami restaurant filed a lawsuit to the effect that tips were being improperly distributed among staff.

The Insider report is even more damning, however, noting a litany of troubling behavior from both Gökçe himself and managers at some of his restaurants. And while reports of a toxic workplace culture at a prominent restaurant are, sadly, not exactly rare these days, the extent of issues at Gökçe’s restaurants sounds particularly alarming.

Insider’s investigation covers a lot of ground, encompassing everything from the sexist treatment of female employees to meat being incorrectly described as halal when it was not, in fact, halal. Other details feel less toxic than that, including several past and present employees describing their uniforms as being made of cheap material, with one bartender telling Insider that theirs was “paper thin.”

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In response to Insider’s investigation, Christy Reuter, an attorney representing Gökçe, responded by saying, “The allegations are really nothing more than a re-hash of old lawsuits where the claims were disputed and have long since been settled.”

Some of the incidents described therein do refer to lawsuits that have been settled one way or another, true. But the larger picture painted by these reports suggests a troubling workplace culture. It’s not the first one of its kind, but it might give some diners pause before they make their next reservation.