McFadden's bartender says it discouraged nonwhite customers

A part-time bartender at the popular McFadden's Restaurant & Saloon in Northern Liberties has filed a federal lawsuit alleging the restaurant has deliberately discouraged nonwhite customers.

Court documents quote a text message by the bar's general manager as telling a shift supervisor to cease a weeknight promotion that brought in African American customers. "We don't want black people we are a white bar!" the manager wrote in October, the lawsuit alleges.

McFadden's parent company, East Coast Saloons L.L.C., operates 24 restaurants and bars in the Midwest and Northeast, including one at Citizens Bank Park. The lawsuit says the firm, based in New York City, has a national policy of discouraging nonwhite customers, and asks court permission to turn the suit into a class action. It also seeks a temporary restraining order to halt "discriminatory policies."

In 2009 a similar lawsuit was filed against another company restaurant in Louisville, Ky. A former employee alleged she was told by management to "keep out the darker element" and was demoted after objecting to that policy.

A White Plains, N.Y., lawyer who represents East Coast, Lori A. Sullivan, said she had not seen the "full" suit, but in an e-mail said that "it was factually and as a matter of law incorrect" to claim racial discrimination was a company policy.

The person who answered the telephone at the New York headquarters said the company president, John L. Sullivan, was not available, and hung up when asked if there was another person who could discuss the case.

In 2007, the North Third Street location in Philadelphia hired Michael L. Bolden, at that time a law student at Temple University. He worked his way up to a senior bartender's job that gave him prime shifts on Fridays and Saturdays, the suit says.

The restaurant and nightclub typically attracts large numbers of white college-age students and recent graduates, a customer base that deserts the city for the Shore in the summer, according to the suit.

To increase business this year, the McFadden's Wednesday night manager hired a black disc jockey and a promoter, and successfully attracted large weeknight crowds in June and July that were "mostly comprised of nonwhite patrons," says the suit, which was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court.