Tavern On the Green To Settle Suit

Central Park landmark Tavern on the Green will pay $2.2 million to settle a discrimination suit brought against it by the federal government, a person with knowledge of the deal said last night.

The suit, filed by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission last September in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, had accused a former director of operations at the restaurant, Leon Drogy, of calling black and Hispanic employees by racial epithets. The suit also accused Mr. Drogy of groping one female hostess at the restaurant.

At the time of the suit's filing, the New York Times reported that Mr. Drogy's lawyer, Brian Kaplan, had said that "Mr. Drogy is outraged and repulsed by the deliberately false and scandalous allegations being made against him and is thoroughly committed to clearing his name of these falsehoods through the legal process."

It was not immediately clear how the $2.2 million payment will be divided among various employees and former employees of the restaurant.

The EEOC will announce the settlement today. A spokesman for the agency declined to comment yesterday.

Tavern on the Green opened in 1934 in a building that had previously been a sheepfold, the restaurant's Web site said.