A bitter taste for workers at luxe eatery

THE EXTRAVAGANTLY expensive Beatrice Inn — where a whisky-soaked steak costs $700 — doesn’t pay its tipped workers a fair wage, according to a lawsuit.

The high-end West Village chophouse ordered bartenders and barbacks to perform duties like ironing tablecloths and cleaning votive candles, which are tasks typically assigned to workers making the full minimum wage, according to papers filed this week in Manhattan Supreme Court.

Former bartender Dmitry Gurvits’ suit seeks class-action status and names head chef and owner Angie Mar as a defendant. Gurvits alleges he routinely worked between 40 and 60 hours but was not properly paid overtime.

Gurvits said he and other tipped workers were also wrongly required to pool tips with nontipped workers like bar managers and silverware polishers. Such tip-sharing is a violation of state labor laws, which distinguish between workers who interact with customers and those who do not.

“I don’t know how in 2018 a business like this that is selling steaks for hundreds of dollars doesn’t know what the law requires of them,” said Gurvits’ attorney Brian Schaffer.

Food website Eater reported last summer that an extravagant seafood platter at the W. 12th restaurant sold for $485. The restaurant’s famed whisky-soaked rib eye cost $14 an ounce, with a minimum of 50 ounces.

A lawyer for the restaurant declined to comment.