The long-standing criminal case against Epicurean owner Chang Wook Chon reached a conclusion on April 29 during a hearing in which District Judge Robert L. Wilkins of the U.S. Attorney’s Office decided that plaintiff Marvin Hercules should have the opportunity to prove that he is entitled to the money owed to him from a separate civil case filed against Chon on May 2011.

Even though the group of over 20 workers who had also filed lawsuits in the civil case against Chon received their due money, the payment owed in unpaid overtime wages to Hercules was interrupted by a criminal case in which Chon persuaded the involved plaintiff not to go to court, and to which Chon pleaded guilty in March.

During the hearing held this April, Judge Wilkins found that “there’s clear and convincing evidence of misconduct by defendant Chon. And the Court finds that that misconduct prevented Mr. Hercules from fully and fairly presenting his case.”

The judge’s decision to grant Hercules an opportunity to re-file the original civil case in order to get his due payment came in response to a claim made by Chon and his attorney Barry Coburn. They said Hercules should not have the right to refile his original civil case after the conclusion of the criminal case, but Wilkins denied the request.

Read the rest of this entry »

GUSA leaders came to an agreement with the administration Thursday regarding the planned pub in the New South Student Center.

GUSA President Clara Gustafson and Vice President Vail Kohnert-Yount signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Dr. Todd Olson, vice president for student affairs, to ensure the pub will serve students’ interests (e.g. that it won’t turn into an Epicurean-like business).

The new campus bar will serve beer, wine, and liquor on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights and will include 18+ nights or a system of wristbands for underage students, according to the agreement. The vendor will also be required to hire Georgetown students for part-time positions in addition to creating a committee to guide the business.

“The pub vendor will form a committee, comprised of students, members of Students Affairs, a member of GUSA, and a member from the University Services, and pub vendor, to provide input on menu, food and drink selection, student programming, and advertising of the pub,” Gustafson said.

Gustafson said these requirements are a “real-time” way for students to provide input and will help the pub become a student hot spot rather than another on-campus business overrun by professionals. She believes the accessibility for underage students and its location in the NSSC will help designate the pub as a student-oriented business.

“We are confident [the location] will be a new hub of student life for underclassmen and upperclassmen alike, [and] will draw more students to the space,” Gustafson said.

The pub has been part of the plan for the NSSC since the 2010-2011 school year. This proposal was presented shortly after students and alumni launched a campaign to bring back the Healy Pub. The pub, which opened in 1974 and closed in the 1994-1995 school year, had operated in the Healy basement, but President John DeGioia‘s administration tabled the idea of re-opening the establishment in that location. Students then opted for the possibility of NSSC space.

According to Gustafson, GUSA is already pushing for the ability to pay with GOCards. Vox is just excited that she’ll be 21 by the time the bar actually opens in the 2014-2015 school year (ideally).

Read the full letter after the jump!

Read the rest of this entry »

When it was time for Plaintiff and Epicurean worker Marvin Hercules to go to Court and testify, Epicurean owner Chang Wook Chon gave him a map with directions and pointed him to the door with one final piece of information: a job may no longer be waiting for you when you come back from Court.

Last Tuesday, at a hearing in relation to the closed 2010 case against Epicurean filed by 14 workers, District Judge Robert Wilkins ordered a show cause indicting Chon of criminal contempt. In early November, this alleged criminal contempt will place Chon in front of the United States Attorney Robert Machen‘s office.

Attorney for Plaintiffs in both the 2010 and 2012 cases Darian Dalmat believes Judge Welkin’s decision comes with great purpose. ”I think that the Judge very appropriately sent a strong signal to Mr. Chon that he is not above the law and that even those these workers may not have the biggest case of all time, that they do have rights under the law,” he said. “Mr. Chon’s interference with that opportunity is not going to be countenanced in this court, at least.”

The more recent lawsuit settled claims for three different workers. In the 2012 case, workers accused Chon of failing to pay overtime wages. The 2010 lawsuit dealt with claims for several workers, most of which were settled without a formal trial.

During the 2010 lawsuit, Chon did not go through appropriate legal avenues to settle the case. “Mr. Chon was just completely unwilling to allow people their day in court and allow them to litigate their claims fairly and use the judicial process that has been set up for employees to vindicate their rights to overtime wages,” Dalmat said.

Read the rest of this entry »

Epicurean and Company is being sued for violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act and DC Minimum Wage Act. The lawsuit was filed on July 30 by three plaintiffs who worked overtime on several occasions without adequate compensation. Both branches of Epicurean, Vigor Restaurant and RC CT Avenue Restaurant located at 1225 19th Street NW, as well as the owner and operator Chang Wook Chon, are included in the complaint as “Defendants.” Chon is allegedly responsible for hiring and payment practices for all Epicurean establishments.

According to the Civilian Complaint, the three plaintiffs worked over 40 hours per week without the appropriate FLSA-approved pay rate. The FLSA states that any employee working over 40 hours in a week must be paid “one and one-half times the regular rate at which he is employed.” The complaint also states that one of the plaintiffs, Carmen Yesenia Mejia, reportedly worked “in excess of 40 hours” and “Defendants generally failed to pay her at all.”

The attorneys for the plaintiffs are James & Hoffman, a law firm focusing on labor and employment disputes, and Laura Brown, the Legal Services Director for the D.C. Employment Justice Center who also works at UNITE HERE Local 25, the hotel and restaurant employees’ union in D.C. UNITE HERE is the union for Leo’s Armark workers on campus.

Read the rest of this entry »

Thanksgiving break is finally here, a much-needed respite from the stress of classes and an interminably long midterm period. For those of you who can’t escape campus for the next few days, free food is here to help.

Start off the break with a stop at good old Leo J. O’Donovan’s for the annual President’s Thanksgiving Dinner, hosted by President DeGioia and his wife. Head over to Leo’s from 5 to 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday to indulge in a complete pre-Thanksgiving feast, and don’t forget to RSVP here. If you don’t RSVP, you may miss an opportunity to take a picture with President DeGioia in a sweater. Vox, for one, will not be passing up that opportunity.

On Thanksgiving proper, head over to Alumni Lounge to join the Chaplains-in-Residence for a delicious Thanksgiving dinner. Join the CIRs at 5 p.m., and don’t forget to bring your appetite.

If you still happen to be hungry after one scrumptious Thanksgiving feast, head over to Epicurean from 6 to 8 p.m. for yet another round of delicious Thanksgiving food. If you won’t yet be tired of turkey, be sure to RSVP beforehand to info@epicureanandcompany.com.

Photo: Georgetown

A couple of weeks ago, Vox got the Freedom of Information Act itch and decided to FOIA the Food Establishment Inspection Reports of some local restaurants. We obtained the two most recent health inspection reports from the D.C. Health Regulations and Licensing Administration for 13 area food establishments and perused them over Spring break to see if Georgetown students were eating safe.

What’d we find? Well for starters, you’d better lay off the Epicurean sushi.

The 13 restaurants we looked at netted 30 critical violations and 29 non-critical violations of the health code. Four establishments, Leo’s, Epicurean & Co., The Tombs, and Bangkok Bistro were listed on at least one report as “high-risk” establishments. All of them had critical violations and were given five days to correct their violations or else their licenses would not be renewed.

These four establishments accounted for 20 of the critical violations and 14 of the non-critical violations in all 26 inspections reports. Six critical violations that cannot be corrected on site result in the automatic closure of the food establishment. Owners are usually given five days to rectify critical violations and forty-five for non-critical violations or they risk closure.

Because of the volume of information our FOIA requests turned up, we’ve divided the results into two posts. Tomorrow, we’ll give you the details on the restaurants that were identified as a medium risk or had clean bills of health. And today, we’ll run an accounting of the high-risk establishments, including startling information on Dean & Deluca that the Washington Examiner turned up in their review of health code violators.

EPICUREAN & CO.

Epicurean & Co., shown above, was the biggest violator, and was the only restaurant listed as a “high risk” violator on both of the inspection reports Vox obtained. In late August of 2009, Epicurean earned five critical and four non-critical violations, all of which were corrected on site. They included:

• Food was not properly “segregated, separated, [or] protected.” At the sushi station, eggs were stored in a way where they might contaminate other foods.
• The restaurant was cited for unclean and unsanitized food contact surfaces.
• The restaurant’s food marking and disposal methods were cited.
• Food and non-critical surfaces were not properly maintained.

Earlier in the year, in February, Epicurean had fared even worse, and inspectors discovered 13 critical health code violations, only nine of which were corrected on site.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Corp has recently received project approvals to move forward on their newest venture, a café in the Davis Performing Arts Center, according to Corp CEO Ryan Callahan (SFS ’10). Callahan predicts that the new venue will be open by late October or early November.

The new café will serve full meals and is being worked on in cooperation with the Davis Center in attempt to make the building more of a “cultural hub” on campus (the Davis Center and the Corp are splitting the costs upfront). According to Callahan, the menu for the café is not yet set, but will probably include sandwiches, breakfast foods and possibly Sweetgreen-style frozen yogurt.

The Corp hopes that the new café will have strong cultural programming, with a performance area that could be used for open-mic nights, a cappella groups, or staging promotional scenes for campus productions (if the café takes Uncommon Grounds’ mantle as the “artsy” Corp venue, UG might work on being more oriented towards the new business school, Callahan said).

Read the rest of this entry »