The Caterpillar Club was meant to be Swillhouse’s crowning jewel, boasting late-night opening hours, high-end cocktails and one of the world’s largest private vinyl record collections. Lines snaked around the corner every weekend for the former strip club turned New York-style speakeasy in Sydney’s CBD.

But former supervisor Reuby Kahl says Swillhouse’s newest venue was a volatile environment, full of high-rolling suits, drugs and vulnerable women.

Kahl is one of five Swillhouse staff who have now gone public with varying claims of sexual assault, intimidation and discrimination during their time at the Swillhouse group, which runs some of Sydney’s highest-profile venues.

A months-long investigation by The Sydney Morning Herald and Good Food published in August revealed claims that Swillhouse failed to support staff who reported multiple alleged sexual assaults. It also reported claims some managers encouraged staff to have sex with customers and take drugs while on shift, as it expanded from the Shady Pines, the Baxter Inn and Restaurant Hubert in the CBD to Le Foote in the Rocks.

Swillhouse chief executive Anton Forte stepped aside last Wednesday, but he will retain an oversight role as managing director of the company he owns.

Forte said the claims covered 16 years and “do not reflect the business we are today”.

“Swillhouse has worked very hard in recent years to promote a diverse, inclusive and safe workplace, an environment where bullying, harassment and discrimination will not be tolerated,” he said.

But in May this year, Kahl, a supervisor and host at Caterpillar Club, which opened in December, claimed another employee allegedly sexually assaulted him.

“I was groped intentionally, firmly and disgustingly, between my legs, on my perineum and my balls whilst clearing glassware on the dance floor,” Kahl said.

Kahl reported the incident to Swillhouse’s head of people and culture, who escalated it to the other Swillhouse executives. The alleged offender was sacked.

When the leadership team arrived for drinks at the Caterpillar Club just after 6pm on May 31, Kahl expected some form of acknowledgment from Forte.

“[The executives] had all been a part of the process behind the scenes. A check-in? Maybe a ‘Hey how are you? Thank you for showing up’?” Kahl said. “No, nothing.

“Instead, Anton wished to pull me aside because my attitude was filthy.”

Kahl said Forte laid into him in front of guests. “I had the power to throw his whole business under,” Kahl said Forte told him. “If I’m giving the CEO of the company that attitude I’m giving every guest that attitude and we can’t have a bar of it as it’s unacceptable.

“If you want time off, take f---ing time off. I’ll pay for it. You can’t be here like this,” Kahl said he was told.

Forte has a vastly different recollection of the conversation. In a statement issued by its public relations representatives Cato & Clive, Swillhouse said the attempt by Forte at “providing additional support by offering extra time off if the complainant felt that was necessary was clearly misconstrued”.

“That is regrettable and could have been better handled,” a spokesperson said.

In August, the NSW government launched an investigation into claims revealed by this masthead, including that the company had mishandled allegations of sexual assault and harassment at its venues made by five former bartenders and waiters.

They included Rachelle “Rocky” Hair, the first woman employed as a bartender at Swillhouse venues Frankie’s Pizza, Shady Pines and The Baxter Inn, and Jenna Hemsworth, the 2018 Australian Bartender of the Year.

Now, two more former employees, Claire Jones and Brittany Rowe, have come forward to add their names to the list of claims the company created a dangerous work environment that led to them being marginalised when they reported claims of sexual harassment and assault.

‘This is happening now’

“This is not something that only happened in the past,” Jones said. “This is happening now. I will not accept their lies or their empty apologies. I will not be silenced. I will not stop fighting for myself and other victim-survivors.”

After Jones alleged she was sexually assaulted while working at Hubert last year, employees were instructed by managers in restaurant meetings to monitor her to see if they could find any excuse to fire her, two former managers claimed. Another manager denied this had occurred.

Swillhouse said it had no knowledge of these purported comments, “but they do not reflect appropriate workplace behaviour and would result in disciplinary action”.

The company supported Jones in reporting the alleged assault to police. But Jones later had her hours cut at Le Foote (Swillhouse says it was due to a rostering discrepancy) before her last shift in February, leaving her feeling like she was being pushed out of the company as she struggled to pay her mortgage.

“This is who Swillhouse really is,” Jones said. “This is how they treat their employees. This is how they treat victims of abuse and sexual assault. They dehumanise us. They see us as a ‘problem to get rid of’.”

Swillhouse said it had never discriminated against an individual based on their bringing forward a sexual assault allegation.

“We are dedicated to maintaining a supportive environment for everyone; a safe and inclusive workplace where there is zero tolerance for bullying, sexual harassment, harassment of any kind and discrimination,” it said in a statement.

NSW Police said they had suspended their inquiries into her alleged sexual assault but urged anyone with more information to come forward.

Jones criticised the police for delays in her case, saying it showed why some women were reluctant to go to police over sexual assault allegations.

“Why did they wait a year to bring in the alleged perpetrator for questioning?” she said. “It would seem that they did nothing with my case until my lawyer had submitted a request for access to my case file.”

‘They offered me no support’

Brittany Rowe alleged she was brutally assaulted by a Restaurant Hubert co-worker at home in 2021. Rowe said she reported the incident to Swillhouse management and asked to be rostered on separate shifts from the alleged perpetrator. Instead, she said she had to continue working alongside him.

“They let him continue to be employed there, and they offered me no resources, no support, nothing,” Rowe said.

“If [speaking out] means that an 18-year-old girl working for them isn’t going to be assaulted, then it’s worth it.”

The company said it handled sexual assault allegations with the highest level of urgency and care.

“Since our earlier days, our approach to creating a safe and inclusive workplace has evolved and we have worked hard to improve our systems and processes,” a spokesperson said.

At Swillhouse company headquarters in Surry Hills last year, one bartender who alleged she had been sexually assaulted was called a “loser” and staff were told “she’s not to be trusted”, a former head office employee said.

The company said Swillhouse had no knowledge of these purported comments, but it also said: “They do not reflect appropriate workplace behaviour and would result in disciplinary action”.

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Another bartender who worked at Swillhouse whiskey bar The Baxter Inn until 2023 said she had watched as “the old guard” of managers pushed a culture of “sex, drugs and rock’n’roll” onto a new generation of staff employed in the years during and post-COVID.

She said that meant passing on rituals such as “Mad Chat Mondays”, when staff would switch off music to discuss the sordid details of their sex lives; call “Code Pink” over the radio to inform coworkers they’d be out of action to have sex with a customer in the bathroom; and down shot after shot while on shift, despite the dry bar policy Swillhouse introduced in 2023.

“Management would be like, ‘Oh, we’re still moist, we’re still damp … as long as we don’t get caught, we’re kind of fine’,” she said.

“[They] were adamantly serious about all of these things and the historical [significance] they had. It was the most unsafe workplace I ever worked in.”

Swillhouse said it had no evidence of these claims.

“Any such conduct would have been in breach of the company’s policies and subject to disciplinary action,” a spokesperson said.

Don’t speak to media

Earlier this year, when anonymous Instagram complaints began surfacing about the industry and Swillhouse’s venues, the company responded by trying to stop employees from speaking to the media.

“In the event media ever approach you, it is our strict policy not to comment,” the general manager of the Caterpillar Club wrote after offering support to employees.

Kahl resigned in June. He is one of a dozen Swillhouse employees who have come forward over the past three months with allegations of mistreatment.

“You don’t want to be affirmed through other people’s pain, but then you realise, I’m just another statistic to how this has been dealt with,” Kahl said.

“I am now reckoning with leaving an industry I adored, worked so hard for and craved to succeed in and amongst that world.”

Kahl said Swillhouse’s response claiming it was not the same company that it was a decade ago is an “absolute crock of shit”.

“They are trying to sweep it under the rug and not hold accountability for what goes on,” he said.

In August, Forte said the company “has a policy of zero tolerance for drug use”.

Cocaine room at Hubert

In an email from Hubert’s general manager, to other managers at Hubert in November 2018, he urged them to buy “cinque” (cocaine) “before Thursday and Friday lunch management shifts” from his favourite dealer.

Six former staff members said the “cinque room” in Hubert was used for snorting cocaine before, during and after shifts.

Hubert’s general manager also suggested another staff member be put in charge of securing the cocaine while he was on holiday.

“She is good mates with my drug dealer so I would love it if she could continue giving him business while I’m away – they are great guys!” he said.

In the same email, Hubert’s general manager said another manager should continue to send offensive messages to a female Hubert bartender. “They seem to get along good if he doesn’t get too touchy-feely,” he said.

The bartender would later report being sexually assaulted at her home by another colleague.

The company initially said the general manager was dismissed for gross misconduct, but it later confirmed that he had not been sacked until 2022 due to unrelated theft allegations.

Crisis worsens as head office reels

Inside Swillhouse HQ, the company is facing a growing crisis. Resignations have swept through one of Sydney’s most prestigious hospitality groups. So have booking cancellations. The company says Swillhouse venues continue to perform strongly.

The warehouse loft in Surry Hills, filled with Chesterfield couches and hanging plants, is an extension of the Sydney hospitality group’s multimillion-dollar portfolio of six handsome, character-driven bars and restaurants.

Behind Forte’s desk at Swillhouse headquarters hung a painting of five women surrounding a man in a suit.

Forte enforced a clear hierarchical structure. At the top was Forte himself. The Herald is not accusing Forte or other executives of sexual misconduct.

“The energy of the place shifted when he was in,” one former head office employee said. “What Anton says, goes.”

Corporate records show the 40-year-old is the sole director of Swillhouse. His family company Mangia Questa (Eat This) is the only other shareholder.

Below Forte were the rest of the men who ran Swillhouse.

“It was kind of everything I dreamed of. I loved their venues. They’re very cool. They’re sort of edgy,” said one head office employee. “But they are just white men in their 40s who like to party. They disregard anything but themselves.”

After more than two years of panic attacks and public disparagement at the company, one former office executive handed in her resignation. She was the first of seven women to leave her dream job at the head office of the multimillion-dollar Sydney hospitality group in 2023. A second left after being told to “stop being anxious, stop crying”.

“They worked people to the ground, and [didn’t] take any sort of mental health seriously,” she said.

A Swillhouse spokesperson said the company “utterly rejects” these characterisations of the company’s head office, pointing to an anonymous staff survey that found head office employees scored the business highly for engagement, leadership, feedback and teamwork.

The company said that after receiving feedback in exit interviews, it had “endeavoured to identify the cultural issues cited”.

But three former head office employees said the company was less concerned about staff welfare and more concerned about image. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect their future employment.

Initially, the head office was decorated with Native American paraphernalia taken from Shady Pines, the first of Swillhouse’s six venues.

“They pulled it out of there real quick because they were afraid of getting cancelled,” one staff member said. “Which is wild to me, [because] they didn’t care about anything else.”

When Swillhouse debated including an acknowledgment of country on its website last year, some staff worried it had been improperly worded and was insulting to Indigenous Australians.

Swillhouse creative director Jordan McDonald, who praised Swillhouse’s most controversial venue, Frankies, for pioneering an “era of excess never to be seen again”, dismissed those concerns by saying: “he’d consulted the Aboriginal tranny and they said it was OK”.

In a statement, the company said McDonald’s language was unacceptable and that he had been counselled. He has since left the company.

Swillhouse has brought in a crisis communications firm to manage its response to the fallout and announced an independent workplace review as it faces an investigation by SafeWork NSW. The NSW government has also made sexual violence prevention training compulsory for bar staff working in pubs and clubs across the state following the revelations.

On Tuesday, Sydney hospitality giant Merivale announced the appointment of Kate Eastman, SC, to investigate claims of sexual harassment, exploitation and drug use in its venues following a separate investigation by The Sydney Morning Herald, Good Food and The Age.

In September, Swillhouse said former Solotel chief executive Justine Baker would join the company as a strategic adviser, one of several high-profile changes to the company in recent months.

Former Etymon Projects chief executive Lisa Hobbs, a 20-year veteran of hospitality management, will take over from Forte as chief executive on November 11.

“As CEO, I will be responsible for day-to-day operations of the entire business, with Anton moving into more of an oversight role,” she said last week.

Hope Dawson, the previously part-time female human resources specialist, has been promoted to the all-male executive team.

“In recent months, including prior to the SafeWork NSW’s enquiries, Swillhouse has been working on a program of continuous improvement to promote workplace health and safety,” the company said in a statement.

“In the past eight weeks, it has implemented additional support mechanisms to assist staff, including extensive staff engagement activities, and the review and expansion of staff training programs.”

The editor of the company’s magazine, Myffy Rigby, resigned in September. She said she was “deeply shocked by the allegations” raised by this masthead.

Swillhouse general manager Toby Hilton followed her out the door.

“The past few weeks have been very hard but an important lesson in realising that good actions or intent mean little if the experience is not consistent for all,” he said.

“There is clearly a different reality between what we thought we had created versus what existed for some, for which I am truly sorry.”