Results tagged “htz”

After agreeing to settle an explosive $600 million lawsuit filed by five female former employees, Hawaiian Tropic Zone has backed away from a deal to settle out of court for $2 million. It's a surprising move for HTZ, which is famous for its bikini-clad servers; having reopened its midtown location in May, you might think the Riese Organization, HTZ's parent company, would just want this to go away. Each of the women have accused upper management of looking the other way as the former general manager at the midtown location turned the establishment into a "sexual playground" for "boyhood fantasies."

The embattled Hawaiian Tropic Zone restaurant in Times Square will close on Saturday, but don't panic! According to a press release, it's just a temporary shut-down to accommodate a planned $500,000 renovation. One might think they'd want to save that money for legal fees, since HTZ—infamous for its scantily-clad waitresses and the former manager who (allegedly!) assaulted them—is facing multiple lawsuits alleging sexual harassment, assault, and discriminatory hiring. A manager tells the Daily News that people shouldn't assume they're closing because of the lawsuits: "One has nothing to do with the other. The lawsuits are without merit. We're confident we will prevail... We're going to use the opportunity to spruce the place up a little bit." And the home of the breast-shaped salt and pepper shakers will shrink a lot; when HTZ reopens in May, the location will be 3,100 square feet smaller and rent out the old space to an unspecified retailer. In the meantime, there's always HTZ Vegas, baby, Vegas.

21-year-old Melody Morales says her "dream job" of working at Hawaiian Tropic Zone was crushed by managers who refused to give her a shot because of her Latin roots. So Morales, who grew up on the Upper West Side, is following the lead of a multi-million dollar class action lawsuit against the Times Square theme restaurant, which is being sued by employees who accuse corporate brass of covering up a manager's repeated sexual abuse. Morales says her many attempts to get work at HTZ were finally shot down by managers who told her, "We will not hire you because you have a 'speech problem.' You have a Latin accent. You don't speak white. You are ghetto." Her lawyer wants $130,000 a year for every year she might have worked there, plus punitive damages. Morales, who the Post reports has been "reduced to working in a bikini bar in upstate Ossining," tells the tabloid, "I'm five-foot-six. I'm slim and slender. I got boobs. Ok? I was perfect for the job."