The new year started with bad news for cake lovers: Sweet Lady Jane shut down on January 1. The 35-year-old bakery had six locations across the city and was a favorite of celebrities and everyday Angelenos. Some theories for its closure: inflation, a too-quick expansion, and legal action over alleged wage theft and mismanagement.
In the lawsuit, a woman who worked at the bakery for two months is accusing the employer of not compensating her for all hours plus overtime, not honoring meal periods or breaks, and not keeping proper payroll records. Increasingly, other employees are speaking up about problems with the company, while Sweet Lady Jane is denying the accusations. That’s all according to Mona Holmes, a reporter with Eater LA.
She says former employees told her that work was going downhill after founder Jane Lockhart sold the business a few years ago, and they were nervous about the new parent company, particularly what it would do if they aired their grievances. Employees added that the quality of baked goods dropped, prices for customers increased, and workers received no additional pay or benefits.
Sweet Lady Jane had six locations across LA. Photo by Elina Shakin/KCRW.
Holmes notes, “We don't know all of the details yet. We don't know the full statement from Sweet Lady Jane. We don't know exactly what happened with this one employee that is filing the lawsuit.”
These cupcakes were on offer at Sweet Lady Jane in 2012. Photo by Elina Shakin/KCRW.
Last year was a tough one for restaurant owners, akin to the early days of the COVID pandemic, Holmes points out. That’s due in part to higher costs of goods and services, the Hollywood strikes, and even an especially rainy season.
“We are very much used to having executives go out, buy out a restaurant, have it catered, or those people who work on TV or film sets that have the money to go out — they just weren’t because they were out of work and many of them … are still out of work because the strikes truly have not ended yet.“
Four colorful cupcakes fill a box from Sweet Lady Jane in 2012. Photo by Elina Shakin/KCRW.