Fattboy Burgers & Dogs recently closed, and some workers say they’re still owed money. Credit: Google Maps Screen Capture

Fattboy Burgers & Dogs this week shut down its brick-and-mortar location with the owner telling MySA he plans to focus on operating a food truck.

In comments to the news site, Frank Torrez blamed his restaurant’s sudden closure on the landlord raising the rent. However, former workers’ comments in Facebook forums and to the Current suggest other money issues are at play.

Indeed, multiple former Fattboy employees and their family members maintain that they haven’t been paid for hours they worked at the eatery, located at 2345 Vance Jackson Road — an allegation Torrez denies.

What’s more, Texas Workforce Commission spokeswoman Sarah Fischer confirmed to the Current that two separate wage claims have been filed against Fattboy Enterprises and that the cases are “in progress.”

“Everybody to my knowledge is up-to-date,” Torrez said of payments to former employees when the Current contacted him by phone Friday morning.

However, when provided with names of employees who argue they’re owed money, Torrez added that he “doesn’t think he took care of” Joshua Gonzalez, a worker whose family argues is still owed back pay. Torrez also wouldn’t say whether he paid another former worker, Anna Rodriguez, whose daughter maintains on Facebook that she’s owed cash.

Joshua Gonzalez’s mother Lisa told the Current her son got a job at Fattboy at age 17 and worked there for six months. Gonzalez said she felt good about her son’s  first job because the family ate at the restaurant and knew Torrez outside of the business.

However, Gonzalez maintains that Fattboy owes her son more than $300 for his last month of wages. She also alleged that some of the restaurant’s employees were undocumented, which might make them reticent to contact authorities if they haven’t received paychecks.

“My son is 17, he’ll be fine if he doesn’t get paid,” Gonzalez told the Current. “But some of them have families to support.”

Another worker, Kimberly Garza, told the Current she worked more than 77 hours as a cashier for the restaurant without compensation.

Both Gonzalez and Garza said Fattboy’s management didn’t have workers fill out government-issued paperwork, such as I-9s or W-2s, at the start of their employment. Other former employees who spoke to the Current said they never signed formal paperwork either.

Beyond that, the former workers said Fattboy had no computerized system for keeping track of hours, so employees tracked their own hours on napkins and slips of receipt paper, of which several provided photos.

During his phone call with the Current, Torrez declined to say what kind of paperwork his business required employees to fill out, if any. 

Both Gonzalez and Garza also maintain that when Fattboy employees did receive money, it was sporadic.

In a string of texts Garza shared, she appeared to repeatedly ask Torrez for payment, or even partial payment, of the wages she alleged she was owed.

“I explained that I was relying on that money for my son and myself,” Garza said in a comment on a Facebook post about the restaurant. “[Torrez] doesn’t care. At all.” 

Texts appear to show Torrez pledging to send Garza a partial payment after she peppered him with multiple requests. However, Garza told the Current that her former boss eventually blocked her number instead of sending the money.

Contacted by the Current, Torrez denied blocking Garza but said he wasn’t sure whether he still owed her wages.

A separate string of texts between Joshua Gonzalez and Torrez shared by Gonzalez’s mother appear to indicate that he waited more than three months between payments this summer.

Text messages obtained by the Current show Gonzalez begging Torrez repeatedly for payment, often with no response. When Torrez did respond, he appeared to offer a variety of reasons why he couldn’t pay, saying at various points that his truck broke down, that he got COVID and that his child needed surgery.

When Joshua Gonzalez threatened to report Torrez to the Texas Workforce Commission, Torrez texted back, “Call ’em bro. I don’t need threats. I can’t pay right now and they won’t do anything to help you.”

The Texas Payday Law assists employees who weren’t properly paid their wages, as long as those workers file a claim within 180 days of the date the payment was supposed to be made, according to Texas Workforce Commission spokeswoman Sarah Fischer.

Undocumented workers also might have more recourse than they think, she added.

“A worker does not need to be legally documented to file a wage claim, nor does TWC evaluate or report on the immigration status of wage claimants,” said Fischer, who added that providing a Social Security Number is optional.

Chris Alcala, who worked as a prep cook at Fattboy from July to September, said he’s also trying to contact the Texas Workforce Commission. Alcala maintains that the business owes him over $1,300 in wages. He said he worked up to 95 hours during one two-week period without overtime.

Like the other workers, Alcala shared threads of texts begging Torrez repeatedly for payment. Alcala stressed the urgency in messages, saying things like “my daughter needs diapers.”

Anabelle Rodriguez has been vocal in the comments section of Fattboy Facebook posts about the $450 she argues the business owes her mother, Anna Rodriguez, for two to three weeks of work.

Other Rodriguez family members and friends joined the chorus, especially on a December hiring post. In response to the restaurant’s call for new hires, multiple commenters chimed in with remarks such as, “Let’s pay Anna Rodriguez first.”

Anabelle Rodriguez said her family also filed a complaint with the Texas Workforce Commission.

Fattboy now operates strictly as a food truck, located at 17080 TX-46 in Spring Branch, according to the recent MySA story. The business also has two additional food trucks, which it uses to cater events.

Several former employees provided screenshots of CashApp transactions to the Current showing how they allegedly received payments from Torrez.

When asked about the transactions, Torrez denied paying via CashApp but wouldn’t specify how he paid employees.

When asked if he plans to pay workers who claim they’re still owed back wages, Torrez answered “of course.” But after further questioning, he ended the conversation, adding “talk to my attorney if you have further questions.”

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This article appears in Sep 25 – Oct 15, 2024.

Stephanie Koithan is the Digital Content Editor of the San Antonio Current. In her role, she writes about politics, music, art, culture and food. Send her a tip at skoithan@sacurrent.com.