Cafe Gratitude, the popular local chain of raw/vegan restaurants with locations around the Bay Area and as far south as LA, has been slapped with a lawsuit from a former employer who was not pleased with the company's quirky tip-pooling practice. As the East Bay Express reports today, former Cafe Gratitude server Sarah Stevens not only missed out on the shift breaks required by labor laws, but she also had to pay out a large part of her tips to everyone from an off-site kitchen to her shift bosses. From the EBX:

Stevens alleges that after tipping out 20% of her daily tips to the “central kitchen” — an offsite kitchen on 14th street — Stevens must then split the remaining 80% of her tips equally with all of the Café Gratitude staff, including the “shift leaders” and retail employees.

Of course, this isn't the first time the Express has called out the Raw/Vegan Bolsheviks - they previously took the chain to task for being creepily cult-like and allegedly forcing employees to take part in a self-help program.

On the bright side, at least this gulag has some tasty hummus.

[EBX]