The dining room was dark last evening at Babu Ji, the popular Indian restaurant on Avenue B at 11th Street.
A sign greeting patrons at the door noted that they are "taking a break." (There isn't any mention of this on the restaurant's social media properties.)
The temporary closure comes after a report yesterday by Eater's Ryan Sutton outlining details of a second wage-theft and overtime lawsuit against owners Jessi and Jennifer Singh.
Per Eater:
The first lawsuit against owners Jessi and Jennifer Singh was filed in July 2016 by two employees. By late September, the Singhs agreed to pay a total of $95,000, split almost evenly between the employees and restaurant labor attorney Maimon Kirschenbaum. The owners did not admit any wrongdoing in the settlement, according to public court records.
The second wage lawsuit was filed in September 2016, but an amended version from February 2017 contains newer, more incendiary allegations, accusing an owner of making profane and threatening remarks against a server and his family — including insinuations of violence in retaliation for bringing the wage suit. That owner is also accused of berating another server with an incest-laced profanity and threatening him with a countersuit. The case is set to be tried by a jury.
According to the lawsuit, Jessi Singh allegedly made threats against one of the plaintiff's relatives — "you know that in India a man paid $100,000 rupees to have someone’s family killed." Jessi Singh also allegedly threatened one of the plaintiffs by saying, "I’m going to fuck you up." The lawsuit says that he called the other plaintiff a "sisterfucker." You can head over to Eater for more details.
The parties involved in the lawsuit are due back in court on Tuesday.
Babu Ji opened in June 2015.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: Babu Ji on Avenue B hit with another wage lawsuit