A bartender at a Memorial City restaurant is accusing his employers of wage theft after they allegedly took tens of thousands of dollars out of the employees’ shared tip pool to pay managers.
Michael Baron, a bartender at Relish Restaurant and Bar, filed the lawsuit in federal court last week against the restaurant and its owners, Addie and Dustin Teague. Baron is being represented by employment lawyer Josef Buenker, whose firm filed the lawsuit on behalf of Baron and other tipped employees. Other tipped employees are allowed to opt-in to the lawsuit.
An email seeking comment from the restaurant on the allegations went unanswered Sunday.
According to the lawsuit, tipped employees like Baron are paid less than minimum wage, as the restaurant takes a tip credit, which allows an employer to count tips toward minimum wage.
Relish requires Baron and fellow employees to put their tips into a shared pool from which the restaurant pays each tipped worker’s share based on their position, hours worked and a points system, according to the lawsuit.
Baron is alleging the restaurant used his and other employees’ tips to pay the maitre’d, who also had managerial roles, such as disciplining employees. The maitre’d was allegedly paid at least $21,000 in 2026 from pooled tips, according to the lawsuit. The maitre’d position is not included in the restaurant’s notice about which workers get paid from the pool, according to the lawsuit.
“Paying a manager with the workers’ tips lets (the Teagues) run their restaurants for less and gives them an unfair advantage over competitors who follow the law,” the lawsuit states. Baron said the restaurant, between its two locations, brings in at least $500,000 in sales each year before taxes.
Baron alleges the manager of the Town and Country location was also paid from the tip pool and received “one of the largest shares of the pool since the restaurant opened.”
The restaurant allegedly didn’t explain how the tip credit worked until a wage dispute in early October, according to the lawsuit. Baron is accusing the restaurant of violating the Fair Labor Standards Act, a federal law that prohibits employers from wage theft, according to the lawsuit.
