Upper West Side restaurant Saigon Grill has been plagued by legal and workers rights issues for years, and the restaurant finally shuttered its 90th and Amsterdam space last month. But yesterday, former employees and customers held a rally outside the space to celebrate the restaurant's demise, and according to the Times, it struck a strange note with locals.
Since 2007, Saigon Grill's waiters and deliverymen, many of whom were Chinese immigrants complained of abysmal working conditions spearheaded by former owners Simon and Michelle Nget that included low wages, harassment and unsafe conditions. Workers regularly went on strike and proposed boycotts; locals who ate at the restaurant started becoming unsettled by the frequent pickets and rallies outside. "It turned me off," Lori Countey, who lives in the neighborhood, told the Times. "I felt wrong about going in there."
Yesterday's pointed send-off, which included picketers chanting, "When sweatshops close, workers win!" and signs calling for celebration, still made a few Upper West Siders uneasy. "I’m a liberal, but I found this offensive," neighbor Judy Bardack, who had never been to the restaurant. told the Times. "This was not the worst abuse in the world, and they managed to hound them out of business. I mean, the balloons!" But for the former employees, a number of whom will be on the receiving end of a $3 million settlement, the closure is a major win. As UWS Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal told the Times, "Good riddance."
