This Week in the Mercury
Thursday, July 10, 2008
News Casey's Shortchanged Bartenders
Posted by Sarah Mirk on Thu, Jul 10, 2008 at 11:09 AM
The Pearl District gay bar Casey's bills itself as Portland's "premiere gay, lesbian and alternative nightclub complex" and opened last year amid a lot of excitement but a recent case reveals that Casey's wasn't paying some important bills -- its bartenders' paychecks. Last week, the Bureau of Labor and Industry found Casey's guilty of not paying two of its bartenders a combined $2,500 in wages.
Matt Stefanik mixed drinks at Casey's bar for three months last summer and early on had doubts about its finances. "That place was losing money left and right," Stefanik observed, having arrived back in Portland after co-owning a coffee shop in New York. Stefanik says Casey's owner, Karl Wilgus (who also runs the adjacent Eagle PDX leather bar) , would often give him a paycheck, then insist on cashing it immediately right there in the bar. Finally, in August Stefanik's paychecks totaling $1,600 bounced.
Here's Stefanik, with the bounced checks, across from Casey's steel upside-down triangle gaytini sign:
Stefanik says WIlgus wouldn't answer his phone calls, so the irate bartender sent him text messages along the lines of "you screwed me" and called him names on Myspace until finally filing a claim with the Bureau of Labor and Industry. Just last week, the Bureau found Wilgus filed a default judgment against the bar on behalf of Stefanik and another unpaid ex-bartender. After a year of paperwork, Stefanik is hoping he'll finally get paid.
Why didn't Casey's pay its bartenders? Wilgus hasn't yet returned a message left yesterday, but Stefanik thinks it's a sign that the bar is in the red and just doesn't have the money. In the meantime, Stefanik himself has gone into credit card debt trying to pay off the bills without his hard-earned dollars. He's also left the bartending life and now works at the library, whose checks have yet to bounce.
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NW 6th and Couch is actually in Old Town Chinatown.
www.portlandmaps.com
well, it looks (and sounds) like the typical Pearl bar / upscale cultural black hole. also gay, rather than trophy-wife + bmw convertible + just for men haircoloring ungay of the pearl-hole.
I have a friend who worked at this bar and it seems to be a trend....working for tips only! How are you supposed to pay the bills on tips alone when working weekday mornings or slow afternoons? He eventually was paid, in cash after a long drawn out disput with Karl. He didnt get the full amount he was owed, but they were able to settle on a smaller,cash paycheck.
Blowpony held once a month seems to be the only event keeping this bar afloat!
Oh man, that building used to be Lush, Portland's only Strip Club/Sushi Bar! I remember that they didn't last very long either.
@Michelle: Sounds like a winning combination, maybe they were just ahead of their time.
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