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Cucina Italiana of Alodia in Lexington has been fined by the South Carolina Department of Labor for failing to pay her workers on time, 4 months after abandoning the task saying they hadn’t been paid in weeks. The IRMO site is expected to reopen on October 17.
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LEXINGTON — Four months after painters who hadn’t been paid for about two weeks abandoned their paintings at Alodia’s Cucina Italiana in Lexington, the South Carolina Department of Labor fined the restaurant’s owners.
The South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation fined the restaurant $2,100 for failing to pay 18 workers on time in June, according to documents received through The Post and Courier. The overdue invoices amount to $4,213. 24 in wages for those workers, according to the investigation.
“I’m glad they’ve found something out and I hope other people know that none of this is a lie and that we’re all telling the truth. We had no explanation as to why they lied about not getting paid,” said Zoe Spires, a former waitress at the restaurant whose viral Facebook post drew attention to the late payments.
The letter announcing the conclusion of the investigation is dated October 2. The restaurant’s owners have 30 days to file a protest if they disagree with the decision. From there, they have 30 days to pay the fine, according to the Labor Department spokesperson. As of October 17, this amount had still been paid.
When staff left the Lexington restaurant, it temporarily closed before reopening and from its site in Irmo was moved to the Lexington site in mid-July. Alodia’s in Irmo remained closed until it reopened on Oct. 17.
The Italian restaurant’s owner, Adam Huneau, faced backlash on Facebook when Spires reported late payment in a viral post that has since been deleted. At the time, Huneau declined to comment to the Post and Courier, but responded in a Facebook comment. under the post.
“Zoe (Spires) is right, there had to have been a money problem,” Huneau’s comment reads. “We are actively taking steps to correct this factor and it will be rectified. . . We will reopen and continue to serve the greater network there. “
Huneau may not be available for comment.
This is the first time Alodia has faced monetary or government agency messes.
In early July, the Lexington-based company went on temporary sale before being taken off the market after Huneau changed its mind, saying it had noticed consumers returning to the Lexington site for support, the Post and Courier had reported in the past. .
But this is the second time IRMO has been temporarily closed. In May 2021, it closed for five months until it reopened in October. The owners cited “labor market shortages” as an explanation for the temporary closure. Irmo reopens in mid-October, it has been closed for about 3 months.
A full-service restaurant business run through Huneau, known as Umberto Enterprises LLC, earned more than half a million dollars in COVID-19 Paycheck Protection Program loans: $262,105 in April 2020 and $353,955 in January 2021.
Despite this, former Allodia workers had told The Post and Courier in the past that paychecks were routinely bounced and invoices consistently arrived late.
“A lot of other people doubted (us) and said ‘Adam (Huneau) would never do that’ and ‘They’ve been given smart business, they’re acting smart with other people’ and all those things, essentially downplaying what we’ve been through,” the elder said. “The fact comes to light, and it’s a relief that it is even though everything has been revealed. “
The local Italian eater serves typical cuisine, such as poultry parmesan and prawns with shrimp. It opened on an Irmo Plaza near Lake Murray in 2008 and then expanded to downtown Lexington’s main street in February 2018. Huneau was named Small Business of the Year in South Carolina through the Small Business Administration in May 2019.
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