{"id":48936,"date":"2026-10-10T15:02:22","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T15:02:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/48936\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T15:02:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T15:02:22","slug":"owner-of-former-uws-barbecue-restaurant-indicted-for-wage-theft-manhattan-da","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/48936\/","title":{"rendered":"Owner of Former UWS Barbecue Restaurant Indicted for Wage Theft: Manhattan DA"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Au Jus on the Upper West Side had a Marshal\u2019s sign posted on its window in the lead-up to its official closure. Photo by Sara Lewin Lebwohl.<\/p>\n

By Gus Saltonstall<\/p>\n

The owner of a former barbecue restaurant on the Upper West Side has been indicted for wage theft, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Patrick Griffin, 71, was indicted for allegedly stealing at least $8,000 in wages from five of his employees, according to the DA\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

Au Jus, the Oklahoma-style barbecue chain, had three New York City locations, including at 2621 Broadway, on the corner of West 99th Street. All three are now closed.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs alleged, Patrick Griffin, owner of the popular Au Jus restaurant, took advantage of his workers and stole their hard-earned wages while they provided physically demanding labor,\u201d Bragg said in a news release. \u201cGriffin was allegedly vacationing in Europe while his employees were begging him for their money that they earned and need to support their families.\u201d<\/p>\n

Au Jus\u2019s Upper West Side location closed in September of 2025, after the front door was boarded and a Marshal\u2019s Notice was posted on the front door. The neighborhood outpost opened in 2020.<\/p>\n

Griffin allegedly engaged in a \u201cpattern of wage theft against his workers\u201d beginning in January 2025, and ignored messages and blocked phone numbers when those employees followed up for their payment, according to the Manhattan DA\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

\"\"Depictions of Texts from Workers to Griffin. Courtesy of the Manhattan DA\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

\u201cGriffin told a former employee that he would not be paid unless he and his coworkers returned to work at the restaurant. When the worker returned to work, Griffin continued withholding his wages, and the worker was forced to leave again,\u201d the Manhattan DA\u2019s office wrote. \u201cIn another instance, Griffin demanded that a worker sign a document that falsely claimed he did not have government-issued identification. When the worker refused to sign the false document, Griffin withheld his wages.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the unsuccessful attempts to recover the wages, employees reported Griffin\u2019s conduct to the Worker Protection Hotline, which led to the Manhattan District Attorney investigation.<\/p>\n

Griffin is officially charged with grand larceny in the third degree by wage theft, scheme to defraud in the first degree, and failure to pay wages in accordance with the labor law.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to West Side Rag\u2019s FREE email newsletter\u00a0here. And you can Support the Rag\u00a0here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Au Jus on the Upper West Side had a Marshal\u2019s sign posted on its window in the lead-up to its official closure. Photo by Sara Lewin Lebwohl. By Gus Saltonstall The owner of a former barbecue restaurant on the Upper West Side has been indicted for wage theft, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[332,396,389,302],"class_list":["post-48936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-restaurants","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-restaurants"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dc\/117417223333565541","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}