Two Black women are suing the Verse LA restaurant as well as owner Manny Marroquin, a multi-Grammy-winning mixing engineer, alleging their civil rights were violated during a visit to the Toluca Lake establishment when they were asked to leave their bar seats in late 2025 while a white woman was not.
Kiana Welsh and Traonne Bailey are the plaintiffs in the Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit that also alleges intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence and negligent hiring, retention and supervision. The pair seek unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. Marroquin is a co-defendant with his restaurant as well as chef and managing agent Oscar Torres.
“Plaintiffs were targeted and constructively removed from the restaurant solely on the basis of their race and gender as Black women,” the suit alleges.
A representative for the restaurant did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the suit brought Tuesday. However, the suit states that Marroquin later left a voice mail for Welsh in which he acknowledged that the incident “was not handled properly” and characterized what allegedly occurred as “a hospitality error from our end.”
Marroquin has worked with such renowned artists as Rihanna, Bruno Mars, Kanye West, Alicia Keys and Taylor Swift. He is known for shaping modern sound, particularly on hits like Lizzo’s “About Damn Time.”
In December 2000, Marroquin went to Lake Forest to criticize the City Council for not selecting the city’s first Black city councilwoman as mayor, according to the suit, which also states that Verse LA bills itself as having “the foremost in Angeleno cuisine” while mixing “food, sound and libations in a perfect acoustic environment.”
“Marroquin has publicly positioned himself as an advocate for racial inclusion while personally overseeing a business environment that discriminates against Black women,” according to the suit.
After seating themselves at the Verse LA bar on Dec. 12 at the invitation of departing guests, Welsh and Bailey had already ordered when an employee told them to leave because the seats had been reserved, even though a White woman who seated herself at the same time was not asked to give up her chair, the suit states.
The worker told the plaintiffs, in a raised voice to take their drinks and stand against the wall, characterizing the bar seats as being “for people,” a remark the two Black women considered “vague, humiliating and dehumanizing,” according to their complaint.
When asked to do so, the employee refused to verify that the seats were reserved and the bartender contradicted the other worker by saying he was “unaware” that the seats were reserved, the suit further states. Meanwhile, a second employee arrived and repeated the first worker’s insistence that the plaintiffs get off their chairs, the suit states.
Subsequently, the bartender paid for the women’s drinks with his own money and told them that management should have done what he did, the suit contends. However, the plaintiffs by this time were so upset that they could not drink the shots, according to the suit, which additionally states that the white patron was never approached and asked to depart from her bar seat.
The two employees who allegedly subjected the women to disparate treatment told them,”Have a good night, ladies” as they left and the plaintiffs subsequently shared a video documenting their visit on social media, receiving more than 400,000 views and over 1,000 comments, allegedly with widespread public recognition that the conduct was racially discriminatory, the suit states.