Suit: Times Square waitresses had to serve more than drinks

Four women who once worked at Hawaiian Tropic Zone—the Times Square restaurant that says it offers patrons a “unique interactive experience with beautiful women” and that The Gothamist says “makes Hooters look like Chuck E. Cheese”—have filed a $600 million lawsuit claiming supervisors forced female employees to have sex.

The lawsuit alleges that Anthony Rakis, a former general manager, drugged and raped a female former manager and forced a hostess to perform oral sex in the basement.

Rakis “was not unlike a pedophile at a daycare center,” the suit says.

The women say managers in search of sex frequently visited female employees at Upper East Side condos owned by Manhattan nightclub impresario and Hawaiian Tropic Zone co-owner Adam Hock. According to media reports, the condos were basically dormitories for the restaurant’s waitresses.

The women say the company ignored their complaints until they notified the Manhattan district attorney.

In 2006, when Hawaiian Tropic Zone opened, Hock said his goal was to bring back “the luxury and grandeur of the Playboy Clubs of old.”