Twin Peaks Sexual Harassment Detailed In Federal Complaint

ORLAND PARK, IL -- Former employees of a national restaurant chain have filed a federal complaint over claims they were made to line up and be graded like pieces of meat during pre-shift body evaluations by their managers. The workers also allege that they were ordered to change into skimpy outfits in full view of the kitchen staff, while subjected to a barrage of cat calls and sexual comments. When the employees complained about the lack of privacy, management told them “if you don’t like it here you can leave.”

Twin Peaks Sports Bar and Restaurant, which operates restaurants in Orland Park, Oak Brook Terrace and Warrenville, is the target of recent complaints filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The Dallas-based chain of restaurants bills itself as “not your typical sports bar” and invites patrons to experience the “lodge mantality” while being served by female servers and bartenders wearing short shorts and midriffs.

The federal complaints were filed on behalf of former employees who worked at the Twin Peaks location in Orland Park, including Sarah Blaylock, 28, and Darryl Rodriguez, 24, both female bartenders, and Kenneth Biggers, 31, who alleges he was harassed and discriminated against by co-workers and managers because he is gay.

Twin Peaks CEO Joe Hummel told the Tribune that the allegations were “baseless.”

A fourth employee, Jessica Mercer, missed the 300-day filing period, but the workers’ attorney, former FOX News commentator Tamara Holder, said she would be filing a breach-of-contract civil suit on Mercer’s behalf in Cook County Circuit Court.

“These are good women, they’re educated, they just want to work and be left alone,” Holder said. “They didn’t sign up for this. They signed a contract saying they were glammed up girls next door with a little bit of sex appeal. They didn’t sign up to be treated like strippers and whores and putting on a free strip show for dirtbags, who’d get a free strip show and tip them a dollar.”

'Tone Grade'

According to the EEOC complaint, Blaylock was hired in April 2016 before the opening of Twin Peaks at 16154 South La Grange Road, Orland Park. Blaylock signed an employment agreement consenting to wear an “approved Twin Peak Girls Uniform.” Although not spelled out in the agreement, the uniform consisted of short shorts and different v-neck shirts provided by the restaurant. The tops exposed female employees’ cleavage and a small section of midriff “which I did not mind wearing,” Blaylock says in the complaint.

Six months into her employment at the Orland Park location, Blaylock said management implemented “dress up days, forcing me and all other female waitresses and bartenders to wear inappropriate clothing similar to what one would see in a strip club, including lingerie and bikinis.” In the dead of winter Blaylock said she and her Orland Park colleagues were required to wear bikinis for “Snow Bunny Week.” During Christmas, employees had to wear underwear that exposed a portion of their buttocks.

“We were not given an option to refuse wearing these costumes; in fact it was compulsory,” Blaylock states in the complaint. “Management told me, ‘If you don’t like it, you can leave.’ I feared I would lose my job if I did not comply with the dress-up days, despite feeling uncomfortable.”

The Twin Peaks Girls were also subjected to “ranking,” where they were lined up against the wall and graded on hair, make-up and “tone.” According to Blaylock, the managers took pictures of the servers and degraded their appearance, based on the tautness of their stomach, legs, arms and buttocks. Those considered too fat received a low grade, which determined where servers were placed in the restaurant.

“If you got a bad tone grade you worked Tuesday lunch in the party room where you wouldn’t make a lot in tips,” Holder said. “If you got a good tone grade you worked in the main room on Friday night.”

Blaylock maintains that it was common knowledge around the restaurant that if women slept with or gave a certain manager — whose name is redacted from the complaint — illegal drugs, servers were able to increase their tone grade.

“I always avoided him for this reason. As a result, however, my grade suffered,” Blaylock said.

The Raid

Orland Park police visited Twin Peaks on Feb. 10, 2017, after fielding an anonymous citizen complaint about employees wearing lingerie that was “very exposing in nature,” according to a police report. Officers informed managers that they were in violation of the village’s Conduct of Licensee ordinance. The employees changed into different clothing that covered their bodies.

Blaylock was not working that evening, but was on duty a few days later when Orland Park plainclothes cops returned to see if the restaurant was in compliance. Blaylock, along with three other female employees were ordered to go to the manager’s office in front of patrons and other employees, the complaint said. The women were cited for indecent exposure. Humiliated, Blaylock says she changed clothes and finished out her shift.

When the women asked the managers about the tickets, they were assured the tickets would be dismissed. It wasn’t until recently did the women learn from Holder that Twin Peaks hired a private attorney, who pleaded guilty to the violations on their behalf during a village administrative hearing. The restaurant was fined $250; Blaylock and the others were fined $100 a piece, the Orland Park Police Department said.

“The women now have records for indecent exposure, nor were they informed within a 30-day time frame so they could appeal,” Holder said.

The complaint also maintains there was no door on the female employees’ dressing room adjacent to the kitchen, who had to change in full view of the male cooks. The company did not have an HR department or offer sexual harassment training. Eventually, Blaylock says, she quit changing her clothes at the restaurant and instead dressed for work at home. In April 2017, Blaylock says she stopped coming into work.

“I could no longer handle the hostile and abusive work environment that caused me, and continues to cause me extreme emotional distress,” Blaylock states.

Holder says that Twin Peaks management lured her clients with a classic bait and switch, changing up the uniform requirements and introducing the ranking system when the women were deep into their jobs.

“Why didn’t they leave? They were young, they didn’t know any better,” the attorney said. “They didn’t feel they could leave because they were abused. You don’t think you’re good enough. If you can’t make it at Twin Peaks where can you make it?”

She says the case isn’t about #MeToo, it’s about a company violating the law.

“This is about standing up and saying no,” Holder said. “We’re standing up for women in the 80 other Twin Peaks restaurants across the country. It’s abusive and it’s wrong.”

Photos provided by the Law Firm of Tamera Holder