Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Cuomo vs Tonic East


Breaking news across the birdy wire. New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is accused of Tonic East, Murray Hill's brightest, baddest and most roof decky sports bar pub club, of racial discrimination! Our Little Birdy passed along a high level summary of the charges:

People of the State of New York; Andrew Cuomo v. 411 Rest. Corp. dba Tonic East
3/3/2008 CV-2088

Racial discrimination arising from defendant instituting a dress code excluding "Hip-hop" clothing or "Urban Wear" as part of a pattern or practice of denying African-Americans from admittance into its club TONIC EAST.
We couldn't find any written dress code on the club's website, but in their photos, we were able to find one African American (sans Hip-hop clothing or Urban Wear). Call us crazy, but the picture reeks of photoshop.

Anyway, we doubt that the "but look at our Tonic Crowd photos, there is one African American up there" defense is going to get them off the hook.

Developing.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Super suspect. The gap under her arm on the far right of the photo is fishy, as is the halo-radiance coming off the white folk.

Anonymous said...

Not suspect @ all. Looks like a sister (Latina or AA). Not that I'm trying to make excuses for the bar. They should have been fined $50-100K...

Anonymous said...

I, regretfuly, went to the Tonic in Times Square a few years ago. It was an early summer evening, and I hadn't planned on going there. In any event, I was wearing shorts and sneakers. We sat at the bar for at least 2 hours. At some point, I left to grab some cash at a neighboring ATM. When I came back to the bar, the bouncer refused to let me in sighting the shorts and sneakers and against their dress code. It took some pleading and explanation that my bag was sitting on a barstool within sight to get them to let me back in. I handed my friend some cash, grabbed my bag, and headed back to Brooklyn.

My feeling on the way in was confirmed on my way out. The place sucks and is run by a-holes.

Oh, and I'm white. No racial profiling there. Maybe it's because I'm gay?