“It was humiliating,” one of the black customers, Julia Cook, told the Daily News of her treatment at 230 Fifth in the Flatiron District.
She said a bouncer told her that she and her friends were “classless black b------” whom he wouldn’t let inside.
“People were laughing at us,” the dance instructor said Thursday.
Now Cook, 29, and three of her fellow partygoers are suing the rooftop club for discrimination because of the alleged incident on Feb. 13, 2010.
“It’s unfathomable in this era to believe this kind of thing is going on,” said their lawyer, Fred Lichtmacher. “This is 1930s-style Alabama treatment.”
The four plaintiffs had planned on hooking up at the hotspot to celebrate the 27th birthday of Jermaine Sanders, who said he had called earlier in the day to reserve a table, and was told it wouldn’t be a problem — if he used the club’s bottle service, where patrons pay hundreds of dollars for a single bottle of booze.
Sanders said he was told one bottle would cover 10 patrons — but when he, his brother and two pals arrived at 11 p.m. to meet a group of four women who were already there, a bouncer told him, “You guys cannot get in.”
Sanders and his party going to 230 Fifth were charged $320 for a bottle of Grey Goose Vodka, a liquor that typically costs $60 or less in stores.
Sanders explained his girlfriend was inside and had already bought a $320 bottle of Grey Goose, but the bouncer said, “You didn’t buy it from me,” and shook down Sanders into buying another $320 bottle, the suit says.
When Cook, her sister Niyah and their friend Nyisha Haynes showed up about 30 minutes later to join the party, the bouncer told them, “There was no more room” as he continued letting white patrons stroll inside, the suit alleges.
Sanders came down and tried to explain to the bouncer that they were part of his party, but the bouncer ignored him, the suit says.
When the women complained that the bouncer was only letting white patrons in, he went ballistic, called them names and ordered them to leave.
“I let enough of you up here tonight,” the suit quotes him as saying.
Sanders, who works in guest services at the Barclays Center, left the club a short time later “extremely upset” and out of a lot of money.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages for discrimination. Officials at the club, which boasts the city’s largest rooftop garden, declined to comment.
The club is defending a similar suit over a 2009 incident, where a group of 15 African-Americans say they were referred to as “you people” and pressured to buy four bottles for their party before being thrown out.
