On January 2, 2026, Plaintiff Bruno, by and through his attorneys, Borrelli & Associates, P.L.L.C., as and for his Complaint against F & J Pine Restaurant LLC d/b/a F & J Pine Restaurant (“F & J”), and 4 A Kids LLC d/b/a F & J Pine Restaurant (“4 A Kids”) (together as “the Entity Defendants”), and Anthony Bastone, individually, (collectively, with the Entity Defendants, where appropriate, as “Defendants”), alleges upon knowledge as to himself and his own actions, and upon information and belief as to all other matter, as follows:
Plaintiff worked for Defendants – – two New York limited liability companies that operate as a single enterprise to run a Bronx restaurant known to the public as F & J Pine Restaurant, as well as the enterprise’s owner and day-to-day overseers – – as a busboy and barback from on or around December 6, 2019, through the present. As described below, at most times throughout Plaintiff’s employment, Defendants have willfully failed to pay Plaintiff the overtime wages lawfully due to him under the Fair Labor Standards Acts, the New York Labor Law (“NYLL”) and the N.Y. Comp. Codes R. & Regs (“NYCRR”). Specifically, from the beginning of his employment until approximately December 2024, Defendants routinely required Plaintiff to work, and Plaintiff did work, in excess of forty hours a week, yet in exchange, Defendants paid Plaintiff on an hourly basis at his regular rate for each hour that he worked, and thus Defendants did not Plaintiff at the overtime rate of one and one-half times his regular rate, or one and one-half times the minimum wage rate, if greater, for the hours that he has worked over forty in a week. In further violation of the NYLL and NYCRR, Defendants failed to pay Plaintiff at the applicable minimum wage rate due to an improperly claimed tip credit. Specifically, throughout Plaintiff’s employment, Defendants were not permitted to claim a tip credit against Plaintiff’s wages due to Defendants’ failure to provide written notice of their intention to do so at the time of Plaintiff’s hire, as well as their requiring Plaintiff to spend more than twenty percent of his shift and/ or more than two hours a day performing non-tipped side work. Notwithstanding their ineligibility to claim a tip credit, Defendants did so anyway. As a result, Defendants paid Plaintiff at the tipped minimum wage, which was obviously below the non-tipped minimum wage rate that New York law requires, for all hours that Plaintiff worked. Moreover, throughout Plaintiff’s employment, for those days when Plaintiff’s shift has exceeded ten hours from beginning to end, Defendants have not compensated Plaintiff with an additional one hour’s pay at the minimum wage rate, in violation of the spread of hours provisions of the NYLL and NYCRR. Furthermore, throughout Plaintiff’s employment, Defendants have periodically failed to pay Plaintiff, who is a manual worker, all of his earned wages by each weekly payday, sometimes paying him late and other times not paying him at all, in violation of Section 191 (1)(a) of the NYLL. Additionally, Defendants violated the NYLL by failing to provide Plaintiff with an accurate wage notice at the time of his hire in his primary language or with an accurate wage statement on each payday. Defendants paid and treated all of their non-managerial employees in the same manner.
If any individual is or has previously been an employee of the Defendants named in the lawsuit and/or has information that may be relevant to this case, please contact Borrelli & Associates, P.L.L.C. as soon as possible through one of our websites, www.employmentlawyernewyork.com or www.516abogado.com, or any of our phone numbers: (516) 248–5550, (516) ABOGADO, or (212) 679–5000.
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