Women who settled with The Spotted Pig owner want to start new restaurant

Three women who settled with the owner of the famed The Spotted Pig over sexual harassment claims want to buy the site where the closed Manhattan restaurant stood and open their own eatery.

Trish Nelson is one of 11 former employees who settled with Ken Friedman and told Vanity Fair this week she wants to buy the building with two others, who have asked to remain anonymous in order to not jeopardize their current jobs.

“To be able to take over that particular space and turn it into a Stonewall Inn for women and the working class — I think it would be an important iconic space for our country to have,” Nelson told CNN. “And a reminder of — this is what happened and this is what the human spirit is about. We move forward.”

The building that housed the restaurant is owned by rapper and businessman Jay-Z, according to a person familiar with the matter. The hip-hop star also was a small investor in The Spotted Pig. Since the restaurant closed on January 26, Jay-Z has received the offer from the women and others to buy the building.

The source tells CNN that the building is not for sale.

But Nelson says the women are interested in leasing the space and that they are still communicating with Jay-Z’s team. A representative for Jay-Z had no comment on Thursday.

Closing is ‘the saddest thing I’ve had to face’

An investigation by New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office found that Friedman oversaw a “sexualized workplace” where he and celebrity chef Mario Batali harassed female employees. Employees were groped and asked to send nude photos, her report found.

On January 7, James announced that the former employees — 10 women and one man — settled with the restaurant and Friedman, agreeing to split $240,000 and a 10-year profit-sharing agreement. James’ office acknowledged that the settlement money would need to come from Friedman as the restaurant was operating in the red at the time.

Just weeks after the settlement was announced, The Spotted Pig closed — which left Nelson and other women who settled caught off guard.

“It was a gut punch,” Nelson said.

She and the others were set to receive 20% of the company’s profits over the next decade, including from any sale. But that would not hold if the company went defunct.

In a statement, Friedman said he did “everything possible” to keep the restaurant open, including personally lending more than half a million dollars to the business.

“The Pig has had very substantial debt including to vendors and food suppliers, and as has previously been made public, it has been running in the red for a long time,” Friedman said in his statement. “I essentially spent my family’s savings to keep The Spotted Pig open but sadly it wasn’t enough. I was not successful in selling and personally am on the verge of bankruptcy. Its closing is the saddest thing I’ve had to face in my professional life.”

Friedman agreed to step down as an operator for the restaurant as part of the settlement.

‘Ground zero’ for sexual harassment in the industry

Nelson said it would be symbolic to open a female-owned restaurant at the site of The Spotted Pig, which she considers “ground zero for sexual harassment in the restaurant industry.”

Attorney General James found that the restaurant “maintained a hostile workplace where numerous female employees were subjected to severe and pervasive incidents of unwanted touching and unwelcomed sexual advances.”

Nelson previously told CNN about one incident allegedly involving Friedman when she worked at The Spotted Pig between 2006 and 2007. She said she was crouched down at the restaurant, stacking glassware.

“He pulled my head towards his crotch and said, ‘While you’re down there … ‘” Nelson said, insinuating that she should perform oral sex on him. “Those kinds of humiliating events took place on a regular basis.”

Nelson also told CNN that Batali created a “constantly sexually aggressive environment” at the restaurant.

The attorney general’s report said Batali “regularly groped female employees and grabbed their breasts and buttocks on multiple occasions,” and that Friedman would make “sexually explicit comments and repeated sexual advances … during and after work.”

“No matter how high-profile the establishment, or how seemingly powerful the owners, today’s settlement reiterates the fact that we will not tolerate sexual harassment of any form in the workplace,” James said in her settlement announcement.

After the announcement, Friedman released a statement in which he disagreed with several of the allegations. But he expressed hope that the settlement would bring comfort to the affected employees.

“I’m sorry for the harm I have caused, and for being part of an environment where women were afraid to speak up,” he said. “I will spend the rest of my life regretting my actions, and trying to be someone worthy of the respect and love of my family.”

The attorney general’s office has an ongoing inquiry into allegations against Batali. A representative for the chef did not immediately respond to requests for comment when contacted by CNN.

Batali said in a statement last year: “I vehemently deny any allegations of sexual assault. My past behavior has been deeply inappropriate and I am sincerely remorseful for my actions.”

A ‘utopia for the restaurant industry’

The three women don’t know what they’d call the restaurant they hope to build in place of The Spotted Pig, but their working name for it is the Empowered Sow.

Nelson said that in order to change the abusive culture that sometimes permeates high-caliber restaurant kitchens, workers need to be treated well.

Nelson told CNN she and her partners are working with renowned chefs from across the world to create a business plan that would create a desirable working environment for employees — complete with 40-hour work weeks, benefits, paid sick days and a third-party HR department whose focus would be to protect the people. It would be, she said, “a utopia for the restaurant industry.”

“We’re working-class women. We’re not coming in with a ton of money and huge egos. We just have our life experience in this industry,” Nelson told CNN.