The company behind Los Angeles’s iconic Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles restaurants has promised to come up with a plan by Oct. 1 that explains its path out of bankruptcy, The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. The pledge came from restaurant officials who put four Roscoe’s locations into bankruptcy on March 25 while they appeal a $3.2 million award to a former employee who said he was a target of racial discrimination and sexual harassment. The restaurant locations — three in Los Angeles and one in Pasadena — employ nearly 400 people. A successful appeal could lower the amount that the restaurant operator owes to ex-Roscoe’s worker Daniel Beasley, a black man who sued in 2013 saying he worked later shifts and got fewer schedule requests than his Hispanic coworkers. Beasley’s lawyer said one of his managers, a Hispanic woman, commented that black workers were lazier. Documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Los Angeles show that the restaurant operator transferred the trademark rights to an entity called Roscoe’s Intellectual Properties in January. The new payments will boost the restaurant’s revenue. Last year, its operations pulled in $17.5 million in revenue, a slight decline from $18 million in 2014. (Subscription required.)
