John Besh opens a new restaurant in New Orleans, the “Newspaper”: “New Orleans Advocate” reported last week, seven years after two dozen employees alleged a culture of rampant sexual harassment at its restaurants. The newspaper says Delacroix Fish Camp & Bar, which is opening next to the Riverwalk Outlets shopping center at Spanish Plaza, marks Besh’s return to the restaurant business, which raises the question: Did he ever really leave the restaurant?
In an eight-month investigation by the thenTimes-Picayune According to a 2017 investigation by reporter Brett Anderson, 25 current and former employees of the Besh Restaurant Group reported experiencing workplace sexual harassment, resulting in two formal complaints filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Besh himself has also been accused of sexual misconduct. One former employee alleged in an EEOC complaint that she and Besh had a “long-term, unwanted sexual relationship” and that he once performed “oral sex” on her while she was “barely conscious.” That complainant also claimed she experienced workplace retaliation when she tried to end the relationship.
Just days later, Besh resigned from his role as CEO of Besh Restaurant Group (later renamed BRG Hospitality), admitting in a statement that it was a “consensual relationship.” He expressed regret for the “harm this may have caused” and apologized “to all employees, past and present, who found my behavior as unacceptable as I did.”
However, he never left the company or lost any financial interest in the restaurants. As a co-owner and partner in the company, he has continued to profit from BRG’s 12 restaurants over the past seven years.
So what makes Delacroix, described as a Louisiana seafood restaurant with an oyster bar, different? What role does Besh play in the restaurant? And why is now the right time for Besh to return to a more high-profile role in the company?
BRG’s communications manager told Eater that Besh’s role at Delacroix “is the same as his previous role at the other BRG restaurants. He will primarily work with the behind-the-scenes kitchen staff and mentor and train BRG’s many chefs.” He is not the executive chef at Delacroix, it was said (whether that will ultimately be someone BRG promotes internally or brings in from outside is still being decided).
As for the characterization of Besh’s “return,” the spokesperson said, “Neither BRG nor Chef Besh have stated that he intends to make more public appearances. Chef Besh is enthusiastic and excited about the Spanish Plaza project and was simply responding to a call,” the paper said. They reiterated how the advocate reported that Besh “is not trying to get back into the spotlight, but instead wants to work behind the scenes to teach and inspire BRG’s young chefs, as that is currently Chef Besh’s passion.”
BRG says Shannon White, who replaced Besh as CEO after the allegations, will remain in that role and oversee the restaurant group’s day-to-day operations. Octavio Mantilla, who co-founded the restaurant group with Besh in 2005 and was also accused in Anderson’s report and the EEOC complaints of fostering a culture of sexual harassment and coercion, remains a co-owner of the company. Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry recently appointed Mantilla as commissioner of the Ernest N. Morial New Orleans Convention Center. Mantilla told the newspaper that Besh’s “primary role” at the company today is to “teach and inspire.”
Over the past year, Besh has been more busy with BRG staff at August, his flagship restaurant in New Orleans, and Luke, his second restaurant, according to the newspaper. Besh said, “That’s what the company needs as new projects emerge.” But what is The?The involvement of a former celebrity chef who was tarnished by behavior he himself considered “unacceptable”?
Another element driving Delacroix is the involuntary public participation in its financing. Earlier this year, the New Orleans City Council approved a measure that allows the operator of the Riverwalk Outlets mall, Houston-based real estate developer RockStep Capital, to raise up to $25 million for new retail, restaurant and entertainment offerings in Spanish Plaza – financed by collecting an additional 2 percent sales tax from customers of the Riverwalk’s stores. Thus, the money taken from the public will be used to invest in Besh’s newest restaurant in New Orleans.
In the years since Anderson’s groundbreaking report, which followed two months later, New York Times and Eater investigations into sexual misconduct by New York City restaurant owner Ken Friedman and celebrity chef Mario Batali have seen the defendants lose business, restaurants, and popularity. Still, there are plenty of people who enjoy eating at the defendants’ restaurants, and lately, these men have been trying to reclaim their former positions in society. Friedman quietly worked behind the scenes to bring LA hotspot Horses to life in 2021, and late last year, Batali began teasing a comeback on Instagram.
Construction on the Delacroix Fish Camp & Bar began this week, BRG says, and it is scheduled to open in early 2025.
