By Nina Mandell
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — The fight between celebrity chef Mario Batali, Joe Bastianich and their former employees is getting nastier by the day.
Several former Babbo employees claimed in a suit filed on July 22 that the owners had stiffed them out of tips, with the restaurant taking 4.5 percent of its wine sales and subtracting it from the tip pool every night.
Now lawyers for Batali and Bastianich, who have hired a public relations firm, are likening the case to a shakedown, according to Eater NY,.
"I would love to come back with a ruling from a judge and have them throw it out," Bastianich told Eater. "We're going to fight this to every inch of the law, because we know we're right. We're not going to let them shake us down for a quick settlement."
The plantiffs' lawyer Maimon Kirschenbaum fired back Thursday.
"I find it bizarre that someone who's accused of stealing money from his own waitstaff would turn this into an issue of being shaken down by their lawyer," Kirschenbaum told New York Magazine.
He also amended the suit to include more employees and former employees, raising the total of plaintiff's from two to 11.
Kirschenbaum told New York Magazine that he had heard from numerous other former employees who had come forward with complaints. He also promised there was no way a judge was going to go along with Bastianich's wishes.
"He talks about a judge throwing it out as if he knows the judge and he's going to throw it out," Kirschenbaum said. "Judges don't just do that."
