BANGOR, Maine — An Orono woman has sued a Brewer restaurant owner alleging that he did not hire her because she is of German and Jewish descent.
Elizabeth Eisenstadt also alleged in her complaint, filed in September in Penobscot County Superior Court, that the owner called her a Nazi.
Michael Kessock, owner of Schooner’s Seafood & Steakhouse restaurant, has denied the allegations, saying Eisenstadt withdrew her name from the pool of applicants seeking to work at the restaurant that was the Muddy Rudder before Kessock bought it in June 2011.
In the complaint filed by her attorney, A.J. Greif of Bangor, against Mackess LLC, which owns Schooners, Eisenstadt said that she had worked as a server at the Muddy Rudder Restaurant beginning in May 2010 under the previous owners. The incident that led to the lawsuit, she claimed occurred in May 2011 when Kessock was in the process of buying the restaurant at 5 S. Main St. in Brewer. Eisenstadt, who is a member of a Bangor synagogue and whose father is Jewish, was interviewed that month to determine if she would stay on, according to her complaint.
“In the middle of the interview, Michael Kessock, the owner of Mackess, LLC, entered the room and asked [Eisenstadt]: ‘What’s your last name?’” the complaint said. “[She] told him: ‘Eisenstadt.’ He responded: ‘What the hell kind of last name is that?’
“[Eisenstadt] told Mr. Kessock that Eisenstadt was a German name,” the complaint said. “He responded: ‘I should have known that. You’re a Nazi!’ At that point ,[she] covered her Star of David with her right hand.”
In his answer to the complaint, filed by Bangor attorney Frank McGuire, Kessock, denied knowing what religious faith Eisenstadt or her father practiced, and denied ever seeing her wear a Star of David. Kessock admitted that he spoke with Eisenstadt during the course of an interview and that she said her name was German, according to the complaint.
“Mr. Kessock strongly denies having any bias on the basis of German nationality, race or religion, against Ms. Eisenstadt or any person,” attorney McGuire said on behalf of his client in a statement emailed to the Bangor Daily News. “Mr. Kessock’s own heritage includes some German and Austrian ancestry. He lived in Germany for three years.”
McGuire called Eisenstadt’s accusation “untrue and unfair.”
“It is hurtful to Mr. Kessock, whose own son is Jewish,” the attorney said.
After the interview, Eisenstadt made it clear she was not interested in working for Schooners and rebuffed Kessock’s efforts to speak with her, the attorney said in his answer to the complaint.
“To call a prospective employee a Nazi is beneath contempt,” Greif said in an email. “To address these words to a woman wearing an obvious Star of David is behavior I am confident any Maine jury will find outrageous. This type of behavior will only end when it is exposed in the bright light of a Maine courtroom.”
Eisenstadt is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, reinstatement, back pay and attorney’s fees. A trial date has not been set.
So who was conducting the interview with the aggrieved party
before Mr Kessock walked in?
Are there any other witnesses to these alleged scurrilous remarks.
Its never a good idea to use the “N” word.
he said, she said
Maybe they said? In the article it sounds like there was another interviewer already present:
“In the middle of the interview, Michael Kessock, the owner of Mackess, LLC, entered the room”
Man I hate lawyers….
Seriously, who’s telling what tale here? In job interviews nobody ever commented on my last name, not once. In fact, other than making sure I was the right person, didn’t talk to anybody who seemed to give a damn if my name was Macaroni.
Was the manager stoned or drunk, or already had a gang of people hired and decided to goof on this woman? Seems real far-fetched to call anybody a N – Nnnn – N-N-Na… National Socialist in this day and age. Dang, about half the people around wouldn’t understand it as an insult.
Did this gal walk in there thinking she had it made cuz she worked a couple years for the previous owner, then got the amscray and filed suit out of spite? Saw that big Walmart sign up ahead and decided to cause some grief, and called A.J Grief?
More will be revealed on “In Search for Reality.” LOL
There are many ignoramuses around and people with no classiness whatsoever. It sounds like this restaurant manager falls into that category. As for the word “Socialist”. It is bandied about often on the BDN comment pages by people who do not even know what it means. They use it loosely and when it does not even pertain.
Somebody looking for a large payday from the deep pockets?
Yeah……….I’ll go with that one.
greedy lame people out there today, no wonder insurances are sky rocketing!! frivolous lawsuit, in my opinion! called the applicant a name, maybe it happened, but then again maybe NOT!!! Sounds like, a he said, she said deal, to me. Could be a made up yarn !!! I am shocked this particular lyer took the case, what is up with that???
I also know the lawyer, and I’m not surprised he took the case.
Actually this is kind of surprising for A.J. Greif, since he usually only takes the cases with a good chance of a big pay day. Anyone can see that the odds of getting anything out of this are slim to none. Typical he said she said, which is almost impossible to prove. The burden of proof lies on the party seeking damages and unless they have a recording of the conversation I would say they are going to lose. There must not be any good personal injury cases out there, since that is what Greif usually specializes in. I had a fair share of them against him when I was a liability claims administrator. I am really shocked he would take a case of this caliber. At best he would get a nuisance settlement for his client of around $4,000-$5,000 (of which he would get about $1,500) but the restaurant owner and his insurer might also say no way and make them go to trial (which is typical when you know there is no chance of the other party proving their case).
Attorney Greif believes that his client has been wronged. He is representing her. Why look for something cynical all the time?
good Grief, this lawyer might have lost his mind, if business is slow; and took the case out of desperation! UNBELIEVABLE. I contacted his office, for a guaranteed BIG $$ winnable case, and he declined! … I thought then he must be one stupid lawyer, because if this case had of hit the air waves, He would have been one hell of a celebrity! It was a case against the big HAVE”S and I figured he did NOT want to ruffle feathers again. He just won a suit against a hospitable that paled in comparison.
I don’t know all the details as I was not there. But this lawyer may consider other factors besides $$$. Ya think? There is enough greed in the world.
He IS a lawyer isn”t he? then He considers… $ in my humble opinion, they don”t usually work for free; unless your a good and decent lawyer from Holden, Maine!
I don’t see anywhere there where I mentioned doing it “for free.”
G-O-O-D and D-E-C-E-N-T and L-A-W-Y-E-R.
Now there is an oxymoron if ever there was one.
What a deeply strange thing to say to a complete stranger. I might even say “incredible”, in the sense of “not credible”, except that I am reminded almost daily that there really are people who are easily that daft and randomly offensive in the world, so I can’t discount it out of hand. Fortunately, the judge will presumably have more to work with.
Just ate Thanksgiving dinner at this guy’s place. $20 bucks for a turkey dinner no better than I could’ve gotten at Dysarts or Manna Ministries for that matter. No soup, no salad, not even cranberry sauce. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. It was a lousy restaurant when it was Muddy Mudder, now? As far as this controversy is concerned many, many Jews have German last names so I can’t understand why this would bother the owner. Could he have been joking around?
There was most definately cranberry sauce.. And as for soup and salad? I dont think the pilgrims were tossing side Caesar salads with the natives. The restaurant clearly stated they would have a limited Turkey Day menu.. And when you are as busy as they were yesterday it was probably not feasable to provide such items. Have you ever cooked Thanksgiving dinner for 500 people? All I know is the food was hot, came out fast, and servers were great!
I went to Schooners with a family of ten for Thanksgiving. Not only was the food fantastic, but it came out in less than 10 minutes! The portion sizes were huge, most everyone at the table had a take home box and the homemade apple crisp was delicious. They obviously were well prepared for the volume they were encountering yesterday. Well done Schooners! You made our family dinner special.
The Thanksgiving meal was amazing. Great staff great family atmosphere with a view over-looking the water. We brought my grandson in and the owner brought him to an ice cream counter and allowed him to make his own ice cream how sweet!!! Someone as good with my grandson certainly wouldn’t have made these Nazi comments…
This is a sad article of a person not wanting to work, instead free-loafing off a hard working man. A trend that happens all to often today. Thank you Schooners (Mr. Kessock) for a great dinner.
The first part of the above comment doesn’t even apply to this article. The food was excellent along with the service and price. You can’t beat paying $20 for a Thanksgiving Meal which included your option of select entrees with all the fixings included such as potatoes, stuffing, CRANBERRY SAUCE, rolls and so on.. We got all that and had absolutely no dishes or cleaning to do. It was definitely a great time and a fun time had by everyone I came with.
As for the article, this is a case of “he said, she said”. Sounds very much like a person just trying to create attention and obtain money for herself. The mans own son is Jewish, he himself is german? why would he ever make such a comment and insult himself and his own family. The woman making the complaint is fraudulent.
I don’t understand why she would cover the Star of David she was wearing at that point. It seems like that would be a perfect time to point it out.
maybe she was afraid that he was about to say he was one too, welcome to the club!
considering this guy has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to umaine and it took this girl 18 months to file this lawsuit….i think it’s pretty obvious what is going on here.
I’m glad you are not a judge. You’ve assumed from an article here in the BDN exactly what has happened. So much for being impartial.
well there was a witness so I doubt this guy would be stupid enough to call someone such a name.sounds like someone is sue happy.
People are so thin skinned…
Being of Irish decent I’m not terribly insulted when folks imply that we like beer more than others-it happens fairly often and might very well be true. However- the atrocities of WWII committed by the NAZIS is a much more serious subject to folks of Jewish and German background as well many other groups. Any individual or employer should realize that and avoid questions or statements that are even close to being intrusive,offensive or hurtful. Just don’t go there unless invited.
This is complete BS. This woman is looking for money and attention. I hope Mr. Kessock files a counter lawsuit for defamation. What a wench!
According to the story “… she was not interested in working for Schooners and rebuffed Kessock’s efforts to speak with her, BUT THEN, this:
“Eisenstadt is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, reinstatement, back pay and attorney’s fees.”
If she had “talked to him” she would not have needed an attorney, thus no fees, and if she is not interested in working there, why is she seeking reenstatement.
I hope the jury sees through this obvious ploy.
Who would want to work there after , allegedly, being spoken to in that manner?!!
I have continued to work in places where I have been called far worse than that.
For me, when I’m on the job, all I hear are work related instructions. Then I pick up my pay and go home. The boss can say any racist, sexist,ethnic thing he/she wants, and I’ll still smile when I take their money to my bank.
The only line I draw is that no one puts hands on me… after that everything is cool.
I think it is a riot that the BDN columnist can use the word N@z! with impunity, but we can not post a reply with that word in it. What a hoot.
No soup for you!
This place is known for racist remarks. I have ate there twice and will never ever go back after the things i have heard about them
I have not heard many good things about that place either. There are plenty of great restaurants around, luckily, so would not bother with that one.
Is that what a soup-na$i is all about?
There are too many ignorant owners and managers. They should have to pass a test to receive a license to be an employer, so that when they get caught they won’t be allowed to feign ignorance. Ignorance of the law is no excuse.
I am dumbfounded. This has to be the lamest story ever. She said he called her a Na$* and he said he didn’t. He wanted to talk to her and she didn’t. Either there is a lot more to this story or I’ve missed something,. Either way, it seems stupid.
Orono? hahaha. Anyone ever meet a happy German? They are still angry over losing the war.
I am of German decent, and am known to be a happy camper, so your dead wrong… Have you been to Germany since the War, to see what a beautiful place it is? That country rose from the ashes to become the most cleanest/ modern and wealthiest places in the world. The people are more friendly than any other country. MY daughter met a perfect German stranger on the plane, and he gave her, his parents address; which she went to visti; and they gave her their house key, as they were going out of town for a few days, She stayed there without cost!! for a week. You think that would happen in Maine. NOT ….
The German people are wonderful, they didn’t start WWII any more than you and I started the war in Iraq.Take a trip over there in October. They close down factories and drink a lot of beer- they are pretty happy. I think folks in the deep south are more upset about losing the Civil War than the Germans are over WWII.
It seems unlikely that a person of German ethnicity that is a Jew would be called a Nazi, but if he did, it’s laughable and a very sad comment on the guy’s education. He should sue society for his ignorance if true.
I don’t really believe this.
Before everybody bashes these folks out of business why not let the system work. The truth will come out-it most usually does. In the mean time don’t penalize hard working staff members that have families to support. Cooks, dishwashers, waitresses bar tenders and others have no part in this dispute.
Uh Oh AJ is involved may as well pay up now and save some money
Grief is the key word here, the only grief we are getting is a wast of taxpayer money wasting the time of a court room. Unlees is was recorded throw it out.
eisen = iron
eisen-stadt = iron city/state
eisen-berg = iron mountain
eis berg = ice berg
eisen hof = iron park/garden.
BDN probably shouldve waited to print this story. From the sounds of it, the girl’s not getting her money (considering there was another interviewer present, who is not longer employed w/schooners but has given a statement in favor of Schooners/Kessock) … but, the girl did get her so-called complaint known thanks to the BDN. Sure, the case will be thrown out in court … but let’s hope for the sake of the cooks/servers/bartenders/hosts/etc. that it won’t affect business. Journalism today is about who can print the he-said-she-said first. How sad.