A restaurant boss has deleted his Instagram account containing a sexually suggestive username in the wake of a damaging sex scandal currently engulfing one of Sydney’s leading bar and restaurant groups.
Swillhouse, who owns six high-profile venues across the city including Le Foote restaurant in The Rocks and the Baxter Inn whisky bar, has been rocked by a litany of disturbing allegations, including multiple accusations of sexual assault, widespread drug use on shifts and staff being encouraged to have sex with customers.
An investigation carried out by The Sydney Morning Herald She spoke to five former female employees who allege the company failed to support them after they reported allegations of sexual abuse and harassment by male employees.
Swillhouse chief executive Anton Forte, who is not personally accused of any misconduct, stepped down from the board in the wake of the exposé.
“We sincerely regret and apologize to all former employees who felt unsupported,” Forte told the paper.
Now, Daily Mail Australia can reveal that Swillhouse creative director Jordan McDonald, who is not personally accused of any wrongdoing, has been forced to delete his Instagram account after being criticised for his sexually explicit username.
Mr McDonald, who handles creative direction, events, entertainment, public relations and strategy for the restaurant group, previously had the username ‘@wangdangsweetpoontang’ on one of his accounts.
It is a reference to the title of a 1977 song by American singer Ted Nugent, which fantasizes about a “teenage queen”.
Swillhouse, who owns six high-profile venues across the city including Le Foote restaurant in The Rocks (pictured) and Baxter Inn whisky bar, has been rocked by a litany of disturbing allegations, including multiple accusations of sexual assault, widespread drug use on shifts and staff being encouraged to have sex with customers.
Daily Mail Australia can reveal that Swillhouse creative director Jordan McDonald (pictured, above), who is not personally accused of any misconduct, has been forced to delete his Instagram account after being criticised for his sexually explicit username (below).
“She looks so clean, especially down there,” the lyrics say.
Nugent, who is now one of the most outspoken Donald Trump supporters in the music world, sings in a later verse: “She’s so sweet when she pulls my flesh.”
Since the investigation broke, Swillhouse has been inundated with complaints from disgruntled former customers.
“The fact that their PR head and Frankies director could get away with using the Instagram username ‘Wang Dang Sweet Poontang’ (the title of a sexually explicit song about a teenage girl) says a lot about their company,” one person wrote.
Mr McDonald told the Daily Mail Australia it was his “private Instagram” and insisted it had “nothing to do with Swillhouse”.
“I changed the name because it was not appropriate and I regret it,” he said.
When asked why he tagged Swillhouse Hospitality and Frankie’s Bar in the description, he did not respond.
Mr. McDonald was a drummer in rock and roll bands before Forte and former Swillhouse co-owner Jason Scott asked him to run Frankie’s Pizza in 2013.
The bar quickly made a name for itself with its raucous live concerts, daily $1 pizza slice specials, and its secret “Fun Room” — a former green room turned bar hidden behind an unmarked brown door.
Mr McDonald (pictured) was a drummer in rock and roll bands before Mr Forte and former Swillhouse co-owner Jason Scott asked him to run Frankie’s Pizza in 2013.
Frankie’s Pizza quickly made a name for itself with its raucous live concerts, daily $1 pizza slice specials, and its secret “Fun Room” – a former green room transformed into a bar hidden behind an unmarked brown door.
Debbie Harry showed up the second night Frankie’s was open and insisted on waiting in line.
“She was so punk that she didn’t want to just go to the front of the line,” McDonald previously said.
The institution was ultimately forced to make room for an underground station in December 2022.
After closing its doors for the last time, Mr McDonald described it as “an emblem of an era of excess that will never be seen again”.
The Sydney Morning Herald investigation exposed long-standing concerns about the culture within Swillhouse venues.
A woman who worked as a waitress at Hubert, another of the company’s award-winning restaurants, alleged that a colleague had raped her in the bathroom in 2013 after he prepared a cocktail for her that contained 10 different gins.
“I got completely drunk and passed out and came to while he was raping me in the women’s bathroom at work,” the woman, who filed a complaint with the police, told the newspaper.
Other restaurant staff claimed there was a special room where they would do lines of cocaine during their shifts, while the all-male bartending team at the Baxter Inn allegedly competed to sleep with customers in a storage room.
A $1,000 bottle of wine was reportedly up for grabs for the first waiter to have sex with a customer.
A former staff member told the Herald that all conquests were written down and ranked in order of attractiveness during staff meetings.
The all-male bartending team at the Baxter Inn (pictured) allegedly competed to sleep with customers in a warehouse, with a $1,000 bottle of wine offered to the first to win.
Mr Forte acknowledged there were “instances of childish and regrettable behaviour” but said many of them approached the level of “urban myth”.
“Yes, some of these stories were inspired by events that occurred in the early days of the Baxter Inn’s existence,” he told the newspaper.
Mr. Forte said the hotel group, which also owns the Caterpillar Club, Alberto’s Lounge and Shady Pines Saloon, treated the sexual assault allegations with “the utmost level of urgency and care.”
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Swillhouse for further comment.
