Dallas Restaurant Groups' Blame Game Leaves Servers Hungry for Wages and Tips

Stephanie Rodriguez had worked at El Bolero for only about a month before her job there ended abruptly.

Management of the upscale Mexican restaurant on Oak Lawn informed her and her co-workers the restaurant was being sold and they needed to go in to fill out paperwork for the new ownership group, Local Favorite Restaurants, the parent company behind El Fenix, Snuffer's, Meso Mayo and at least a half-dozen other brands. Rodriguez was excited about the transfer of ownership: with this new group, she would get benefits.

Representatives from Local Favorite Restaurants came to El Bolero and the staff there completed onboarding paperwork. However, a couple of days later when they arrived at work, Rodriguez and others were informed the sale didn't work out and El Bolero was closing.

Rodriguez says the next day El Bolero's CFO sent a group text telling employees if they wanted to pick up their check from the previous pay period, they could meet him at the restaurant.

"So a lot of us did," Rodriguez says. "He also advised us he was not sure if we would be getting our last check [for the final pay period in dispute]. So now it's two weeks later and nothing. We have a group text and all we keep hearing is 'reach out to Local Favorites since we onboarded with them, they are liable.'"

When she contacted El Bolero owner Richard Ellman, he wrote her back, "If this relates to the final few days when Local Favorite took over, then you would have to contact them."

When employees reached out to Local Favorite Restaurants, they told her they backed out of the deal and El Bolero should pay what is owed.

"This was a part-time job for me," Rodriguez says. She used the cash to pay car insurance and buy her son clothes and school supplies. "All the others are owed way more. We have no help or info on when or if we are getting paid."

Rodriguez says she is owed for about 15 hours from the period Aug. 25–29 at $2.13 an hour, and about $300 in tips.

Jamie Olivarez also worked at El Bolero and says he's out money along with 10 to 20 others after El Bolero closed.

"I saved my daily printouts after each shift, and it was $875 in tips only not adding the $2.13 that goes into taxes," Olivarez told the Observer. His unpaid shift tickets go back to Aug. 22. He kept a paper trail because he said he "knew this would happen."

Kevin Mata, another server, says the two companies keep blaming the other. "I just want to get what I'm owed cause we don't make anything from hourly and all our money comes from tips," Mata says.

Ellman is the cofounder of Apheleia Restaurant Group (ARG), which owns the El Bolero. His other restaurants — Pakpao Thai and Shodo Sushi, both upscale spots in the Design District — are also shuttered. Pakpao closed in July. Someone with the restaurant posted a response to a Google review that they hope to reopen in August. Shodo, which was in the former location of the lauded spot Oak before it closed in 2021 and was also owned by Ellman, was open for less than a year.

Ellman was working on a deal to sell all three restaurants to Local Favorite Restaurants.

Both companies and the employees we spoke with report that the employees created a new log-in for the point of sale system, Toast, for Local Favorite Restaurants days before the sale fell through. Olivarez says they were issued a new number for accessing Toast, but on Wednesday during a pre-shift huddle, they were told to use the old El Bolero numbers because the deal fell apart.

"We clocked in on Toast with El Bolero clock-in numbers, not the new number issued the day prior the contract break," Olivarez says.

Ellman's lawyer, Geoff Henley, shared a letter he sent Local Favorite Restaurants attorney asking for $40,000 from Toast from transactions for the few days spanning the onboarding process and the closure of the restaurant and threatening to file suit.

Bill McMahon, CEO of Local Favorite Restaurants, says Ellman received money from them before the deal fell through.

"The redirection of their POS was one of several steps taken during the due diligence process," McMahon tells the Observer. "Additionally, payments significantly exceeding the amount collected from a few days of business were made directly to Mr. Ellman and to his landlords in order to settle his delinquent rent and prevent a lockout while we were in good faith negotiations. However, as previously mentioned, we terminated our letter of intent during the due diligence period. At no point did Mr. Ellman's staff become our responsibility or employees."

Matt Scott with SGT Law Group in Dallas works in employment law and says that depending on the hours owed, failure to pay wages in Texas can lead to criminal charges.

Scott says the first thing employees who are owed wages should do is to contact the Department of Labor, wages owed division and, as a group, file a wage claim with the Texas Workforce Commission.

As of the last time we spoke with both companies, neither has plans to pay the workers their tips or wages.

Olivarez has already landed a new job and is completing his training, but unexpectedly losing his job and pay took a toll. "I have five dogs, and I hate borrowing money from my family to help a situation that never had to be this way," he says.