His first restaurant, Salare, was one of the city’s “most anticipated openings,” with a menu drawn from his experiences growing up in Florida, cooking with his grandmother in Georgia, and coming up in high-profile kitchens like the French Laundry and Per Se.
But according to a new Seattle Times investigation by reporters Jackie Varriano and Asia Fields, there’s another story here: “As his profile rose,” they write, Jordan “also subjected employees and other women in the local restaurant industry to sexual misconduct or unwanted touching,” according to 28 sources, including 15 women who said they had experienced his inappropriate behavior.
Ten more women told the Times that, as recently as 2019, Jordan had made “sexual comments, including about their breasts, or frequently touched them in unwanted ways, like hugging them from behind at work.” Those allegations were backed up by 13 more people, ten of them Jordan’s colleagues, who had either spoken to the women at the time about his behavior or witnessed similar incidents.
Later, Jordan tried — four times, she says — to kiss her on a work trip; when they’d arrived at the hotel, she’d been alarmed to discover their shared hotel room only had one bed.
What does Jordan say?He has denied the majority of the allegations against him, saying in an email to the paper that he does not recall most of the alleged incidents happening.
So what happens now?Jordan already announced last week that Salare would close for good on July 3, citing the prolonged financial drain of the pandemic.
Meanwhile, nearly all of Jordan’s staff have quit, telling the Seattle Times that while Jordan had warned them the article was coming, they hadn’t realized how “serious the allegations were.” Once it came out, “it was not really a question,” one ex-employee said.
I continue to ensure that my workplaces are safe and equitable environments for all employees and free of toxic behavior.