NEW YORK — A restaurant that hosted a party for Barack Obama supporters on Super Tuesday has discriminated against blacks wearing hip-hop clothing and urban wear, the state attorney general charged Monday in a lawsuit. The lawsuit made the claims against Tonic East the day a consent decree was filed settling the case.
The Manhattan bar-restaurant, through its lawyers, has agreed to pay $35,000 as damages, fines and fees. It also has agreed to train its employees and impose a dress code that will not discriminate, court papers said.
The lawsuit said two black investigators from Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office who wore baggy pants and sneakers were told they could not enter the establishment last September because of how they were dressed. A week later, it said, similarly dressed white investigators were allowed in.
