What Restaurants Can Do When ICE Comes Knocking
Plus: Bad Bunny was right about going cashless, Instagram chefs are tired, and an easy way to keep tabs on Trump.
Welcome to Best Food Blog, a writer-run publication about eating by journalists Ali Francis, Anikah Shaokat, Anna Hezel, and Antara Sinha. You can check out everything we’ve published so far here.
In late December, in an act of remarkable corporate loserishness, the Tin Building by Jean-Georges reportedly called workers in for a surprise employment authorization check. Afterwards, about 100 of them lost their jobs. A spokesperson for the Tin Building told Gothamist that the authorization check was part of an internal restructuring, moving payroll under the Tin Building’s landlord, Seaport Entertainment Group.
As Melissa McCart reported for Eater, a similar incident occurred in 2016, when Philadelphia restaurateur Marc Vetri sold his restaurant group to Urban Outfitters, and 30 employees lost their jobs for not providing the required work authorization documentation. Urban Outfitters (like Seaport Entertainment Group) uses a system called E-Verify, which cross-checks the I-9 forms submitted by employees with a huge government database of, supposedly, everyone in the country who’s legally allowed to work. If that sounds discriminatory and ineffectual, it’s because it is.
