The fancy Madison Avenue celebrity hotspot Nello—where the "market price" pasta with truffles comes with an infamous $275 price tag—is in the news again. Last time we heard from eccentric owner Nello Balan, it was when a judge threw out his million dollar lawsuit against lingerie model Le Call after he loaned her his $5000 umbrella and she returned it broken. Now Balan is the one getting sued—by employees who say Nello screws them out of overtime and tips.
Six cooks, a busboy and a receiver allege that Nello and Nello Summertimes in Southampton made them work 60-hour weeks without overtime, according to court papers obtained by the Daily News. They also say they were routinely cheated out of tips "depending on whether they were in or out of favor." And some of them claim they have not been paid at all for five weeks! The lawsuit also alleges that Balan forces workers to inhale their lunches in just 15 minutes, but they're not paid for a full hour of their ostensible lunch "break."
Balan was described as "one of the more — what is a nice way to put this? — colorful characters in Manhattan’s dining business," in a January NY Times article about that $275 pasta with truffles. "A native of Romania with an exotic accent, he says he is a descendent of Vlad the Impaler, the inspiration for Count Dracula. He has bleached blond hair, the body of a bouncer and a strange gift for regularly turning up in the news media." He also previously settled a lawsuit filed by staffers accusing him of diverting $100,000 a year in tips to his daughter, his driver and managers.
