Two Former Kitchen Workers Sue Al's Family Restaurant Under FLSA

Two former kitchen workers, Erick Mendoza Ramirez and Thelma Aracely Lazaro, filed a federal Fair Labor Standards Act wage‑and‑hour complaint March 6, 2026 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, captioned Mendoza Ramirez v. Al's Family Restaurant of Streator, Inc., No. 1:26-cv-02551. The filing names Al's Family Restaurant of Streator, Inc. as the defendant and is styled as an FLSA action; the Original Report supplying the filing details did not include the complaint’s factual allegations, damages sought, or counsel names.

The publicly available filing notice identifies the plaintiffs as former kitchen employees but contains no additional factual particulars in the excerpt provided, such as alleged pay rates, time frames of the claims, whether overtime or minimum wage violations are alleged, or whether any owners or managers are named. The case is now docketed in the Northern District of Illinois; the complaint itself must be pulled from that court’s docket to read plaintiffs’ detailed allegations and counsel entries.

As context for the type of remedies available under the FLSA, the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division summarized a separate enforcement matter in a release dated April 7, 2015, Release No. 15-0455-SAN. That earlier case, filed in 2013 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, named business owners Huang "Jackie" Jie and Zhao "Jenny" Zeng Hong and corporate entities Pacific Coast Foods, Inc., d/b/a J&J Mongolian Grill, and J&J Comfort Zone, Inc., d/b/a Spa Therapy. A unanimous jury found the defendants systematically denied minimum wage and overtime pay and interfered with and retaliated against workers who cooperated with the Labor Department investigation; the Department sought back wages for 101 employees and the jury awarded back wages and compensatory damages to four employees who suffered retaliation in the form of threats, reduced hours, and termination. The Department of Labor said many affected workers in that case spoke little to no English, and the agency’s regional Office of the Solicitor in Seattle represented the government.

The Department of Labor release framed the FLSA obligations this way: “The FLSA requires that covered, nonexempt employees be paid at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour as well as time and one‑half their regular rates for every hour they work beyond 40 per week. The FLSA also prohibits employers from retaliating against employees and requires employers to maintain accurate records.” The Wage and Hour Division’s toll‑free helpline is 866‑4US‑WAGE (487‑9243), and its Seattle office can be reached at 206‑398‑8039.

The sources that produced the 2026 filing and the 2015 Department of Labor release do not identify any corporate or ownership link between Al's Family Restaurant of Streator, Inc. and the owners or companies named in the 2013/2015 Washington litigation; that connection has not been established in the materials provided and must not be assumed. Reporting next steps include obtaining the Mendoza Ramirez complaint from the Northern District of Illinois docket, pulling the Western District of Washington docket and judgment for the 2013 matter, and reviewing corporate registration records for Al's Family Restaurant of Streator, Inc., Pacific Coast Foods, Inc., and J&J Comfort Zone, Inc. to determine any ownership or managerial overlap.

The Mendoza Ramirez case is now on the federal docket as No. 1:26-cv-02551 in the Northern District of Illinois; whether the plaintiffs’ claims will mirror the Department of Labor’s earlier findings that produced back wages for 101 workers and compensatory awards for four will be revealed through the complaint, subsequent filings, and any court proceedings.