Nashville, Tenn., restaurateur and celebrity chef Maneet Chauhan said last week she is closing her Indian street food restaurant Chaatable to look for a new location. But workers are reportedly blaming the move on an attempt to squash a union organizing effort there.
Chauhan is known for appearances on Food Network’s “Chopped,” and her Morph Hospitality Group in Nashville also operates the concepts The Mockingbird, Chauhan Ale & Masala House and Tansuo.
The company said Chaatable, however, has struggled since the pandemic, running at a loss for many months. The restaurant first opened in 2018.
“The fact is that Chaatable closed because it was not a sustainable business post-Covid,” the company said in a statement. “It did not close because of any unionization efforts. The timing of the closure on Friday was a result of an email from our landlord agreeing to the necessary lease assignment, after a long period of ongoing discussions.”
Some workers were moved to other restaurants within the group, but the company said fewer than a dozen employees were let go—with a $500 severance check—both for those who showed up for the shift on Friday evening and those scheduled who were “no call, no show.”
Workers, however, told the Nashville Scene that they had planned to strike on Friday night to demand better wages and working conditions. They said they learned of the closure from a hand-written note on the restaurant door.
As they learned that workers were let go, the employees and representatives of labor group Workers’ Dignity moved over to Morph Hospitality’s other restaurants to stage a protest.
Paige McCay, who said she worked for Chaatable for about three years except for a time during the pandemic, was one of those protesters who believes the union activity sped up the closure.
In an interview with Restaurant Business, McCay said a group of workers had sent an anonymous email—because they were afraid of retaliation—asking about the timeline of the restaurant closure, so workers could prepare. McCay also said the workers planned to tell management that a majority of workers had signed cards to begin the process of forming a union, though no petition had been filed and the email did not specifically mention union activity.
But McCay believes the company learned of the potential union taking shape on Thursday. "On Friday, after telling us they hadn't sold yet, suddenly they were done," said McCay.
Now the group is demanding two weeks severance for those laid off, as well as job opportunities at other restaurants within the group, protection from retaliation for still-working staffers who support the movement, and an "open, honest" meeting with restaurant officials, said McCay, who on Tuesday had not yet received any severance.
"We'll continue to ask to be treated with dignity and respect by a company who we respected and who we gave a lot of time and made money for," she said.
Morph Hospitality, however, said the company was not aware that workers were planning to organize.
“It saddens us that a small minority of Chaatable workers are making multiple false claims,” the company said in the statement. “Most of these are the same employees who were a ‘no call, no show’ for work this past Friday, when we shared the news in person with staff.”
The company also said some Chaatable employees who stood up against the claims now face online bullying.
“We hope that sharing the facts will put an end to the harassment,” the company said.
Union movement is on the rise within the restaurant industry, and both Starbucks and Chipotle Mexican Grill have been accused of closing restaurants to snuff out efforts by workers to organize—though both chains blamed the unit closures on other reasons, saying union organizing had nothing to do with the decisions.
Starbucks earlier this year said it would permanently close 16 locations—including several where unions were forming—saying there were safety issues. More than 200 Starbucks units across the country have voted to form a union.
Chipotle, meanwhile, closed a restaurant in Augusta, Maine, which was the first to file a petition with the National Labor Relations Board for a union vote. The chain at the time said the store was closed because of ongoing staffing challenges there.
Chauhan, meanwhile, in an Instagram post said a private dining room at one of the other restaurants will be used to host Chaatable pop-up events. The company hopes to find a new home for the concept.
In the post, she also notes that all the group’s businesses have suffered, with three restaurants surrounded by construction, limiting guest access.
“We have worked so hard to bring diverse, ethnic cuisine to the Nashville market and have always supported local restaurants and hospitality workers,” Morph Hospitality said in the statement. “We would never close a restaurant we love if it wasn’t a necessary business decision.”
UPDATE: This story has been updated with new information from a worker.
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