Polo Bar employees used water bottles to take cocaine on shift, had ‘Rating Game' for women customers: lawsuit
The swanky Polo Bar, a bar and restaurant owned by fashion icon Ralph Lauren and located on East 55th Street at Fifth Avenue, has a 'toxic culture … and rampant drug use and alcohol consumption at work,' a veteran former server claimed in a federal lawsuit.
Male bosses groped underlings under the guise of checking their uniforms and managers and servers often openly used cocaine, Frank Nobiletti claimed in court papers.
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5 The Polo Bar, located at 1 East 55th Street in NYC, NY on March 29, 2016.
James Messerschmidt
One server allegedly sold the drug on-site, and workers 'regularly mixed cocaine with water in a spray bottle and used that bottle to ingest cocaine' through their skin 'during service,' he contended in the legal filing.
Michael Lewis, the bar's events manager, and Darnell Dodson, its international hospitality directory, both touched Nobiletti, 42, inappropriately at different times, he alleged.
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Dodson was known to hire only attractive men, even if they had zero experience, 'hoping to have a sexual relationship with them,' Nobiletti claimed in the lawsuit. 'Male employees who had a sexual relationship with him … would receive preferential treatment.'
Workers also allegedly played a twisted 'Rating Game' where 'women customers are rated based on attractiveness.
5 Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff spotted leaving The Polo Bar.
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5 Its menu boasts caviar and potatoes for $145, pan-seared Dover sole for $80, and even $18 pigs in a blanket.
Brett Beyer
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'The male servers frequently made offensive and graphic sexual comments about the women customers,' the suit alleged.
Since opening in 2015, Polo Bar has been one of the most exclusive celebrity haunts in the Big Apple. The establishment is popular with bold faced names like Tom Hanks, Bill and Hillary Clinton, George Clooney, and U2's Bono.
Its menu boasts caviar and potatoes for $145, pan-seared Dover sole for $80, and even $18 pigs in a blanket. One of its cocktails, The Family Reserve — which contains Jose Cuervo Reserva de la Familia Extra Añejo Tequila, D.O.M. Benedictine and Brandy, Crème de Cacao, and Amaro Averna — will set you back $50.
5 George Clooney and Amal Clooney arrive to the Polo Bar on December 13, 2023 in New York City.
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5 Kim Kardashian is seen out for dinner at the Polo Bar on August 14, 2024 in New York City.
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Nobiletti claimed he 'faced terrible sexual harassment' and was fired in February 2024 after he complained human resources.
Supervisors told him he was being let go 'for drinking at work even though, since the Polo Bar opened in 2015, management and staff regularly drank alcohol and used illegal drugs during work hours with little to no consequences for such actions,' he said in the legal papers.
'While the restaurant and its hard-working staff do everything they can to ensure that their guests have a first class experience, defendants completely failed to guarantee that their employees had a safe and legal work environment,' he said in the July 22 filing.
In a statement to The Post, Polo Bar said: 'We have high standards for how employees conduct themselves and no tolerance for misconduct, so we take swift action when these standards are not met. This includes Mr. Nobiletti's termination that was based on clear evidence of his misconduct. Because we take all employee-related concerns seriously, we thoroughly investigated Mr. Nobiletti's allegations and determined they have no merit.'
Nobiletti is seeking unspecified damages. His attorneys declined to discuss the case. Lewis and Dodson could not be reached for comment.
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