Swine at Spotted Pig City eatery's 'rape room'
One of the city’s top celeb hangouts, The Spotted Pig, is a hotbed of sex abuse that includes an after-hours party space dubbed “the rape room,” former female staffers say.
At the helm of the sick ship is famed owner Ken Friedman, who gropes underlings and demands sex and nude photos from them while allowing his buddies to molest them, too, The New York Times reported Tuesday, citing the women.
Friedman’s pal, carrot-topped TV chef Mario Batali, was known as “the Red Menace’’ to staffers because of his unwanted sexual advances, the women said.
“He tried to touch my breasts and told me that they were beautiful,’’ Trish Nelson, a former server at the West Village hot spot, said of Batali, who has already been accused of sexual misconduct by four women.
“As I was serving drinks to his table, he told me I should sit on his friend’s face.”
Nelson added that Friedman once grabbed her head as she was kneeling down behind the bar to get some glasses, told her “while you’re down there” and pulled her face toward his crotch in 2007 — all in front of actress Amy Poehler.
“I can’t even retell this story now without getting ng teary,” Nelson wrote on Facebook in October.
Poehler told the Times es through a rep, “I have no recollection of this, but ut it’s horrible.’’
The workers said Friedman would bring celebrity brity guests and his buddies upstairs to an invitation-on-only third-floor room after thehe place closed — where nudity reigned, public sex occurred and he and patrons groped the help.
It was there that a drunken Batali once allegedly kissed and mauled a woman who appeared to be passed out, according to the Times. The incident was caught on security camera, a former manager recalled.
Batali told the Times in an email Tuesday, “Though I don’t remember these specific accounts, there is no question I havee behaved teterri
bly.”bly.” The Spotted Pig is one of a slew of high-profile restaurants owned by Friedman and Michelin-rated chef April Bloomfield. The pair also own the city establishments Breslin Bar & Dining Room, the John Dory Oyster Bar, Salvation Taco and White Gold Butchers.
Several of the women who talked to the Times said they told Bloomfield about Friedman’s unacceptable behavior.
“Her response was always the same: ‘That’s who he is. Get used to it. Or go work for someone else,’ ” Nelson said.
Friedman’s company said Tuesday that the restaurateur will be taking an indefinite leave of absence. And Friedman said in an earlier statement, “Some incidents were not as described, but context and content are not today’s discussion. I apologize now publicly for my actions.’’
Bloomfield denied that she ignored complaints against her business partner.