UPDATE: Developer ‘taking a pause’ on Localis chef’s plan to expand in Sacramento
The Abridged version:
- Former employees described instances where chef Chris Barnum-Dann groped staff in the kitchen, propositioned them for sex and humiliated them in front of coworkers.
- Barnum-Dann owns Localis, a Michelin-starred restaurant, and Betty Wine Bar + Bistro in Sacramento. He is in the process of expanding his business in the area.
- In an email to Abridged, the chef admitted ‘making mistakes’ and apologized, but said sexual harassment allegations are ‘simply not true.’
Former Localis and Betty Wine Bar + Bistro employees are accusing chef/owner Chris Barnum-Dann of a slew of misdeeds, including sexual harassment, withholding tips and using racial slurs against staff.
Critics of Barnum-Dann surfaced in a torrent of social media posts after he announced plans to expand Betty to East Sacramento and open three new businesses at 16th Street and Broadway.
In a series of interviews with Abridged, four former employees — including two men and two women — accused Barnum-Dann of repeated sexual misconduct during their time working at Localis and Betty.
The former employees described instances where Barnum-Dann groped staff in the kitchen, propositioned them for sex and humiliated them in front of coworkers. Former employees recalled one incident in which Barnum-Dann bent over a kitchen staff member and pressed his body against her during a staff lineup.
Alleged misconduct from 2018-2020
The former employees also recalled multiple times when Barnum-Dann propositioned staff to have a “threesome” with him and his wife. The alleged sexual misconduct occurred between 2018 and 2020 at Localis. A former employee also recalled sexual comments made at Betty in 2025.
State regulators that oversee sexual harassment and discrimination accusations in the workplace have not received any complaints against Localis, Betty or associated West Walking Rose LLC, according to a Public Records Act request filed by Abridged. The California Civil Rights Department said it does not generally release information about complaints against individuals to protect the privacy of both the accuser and accused. No former employees have sued Barnum-Dann, according to Sacramento County and Placer County Superior Court records. No one interviewed by Abridged said they filed a state sexual harassment complaint about Barnum-Dann’s conduct.
Celebrated chef plans expansion
Localis is one of Sacramento’s two Michelin-starred restaurants, along with The Kitchen. Barnum-Dann was a James Beard Award semifinalist for Best Chef: California in 2022 and won the Michelin Guide’s sommelier award last year, the only person in the state to receive the honor. With the planned expansion, he could be considered this generation’s Randall Selland or the late Randy Paragary, acclaimed restaurateurs with regional reach.
Restaurant kitchens have seen a cultural reckoning in the past decade, and Barnum-Dann and his staff noted changes within Localis during that time. Yet he is the latest in a long line of chefs to be accused of unsavory behavior, from claims of sexual misconduct against Mario Batali in 2017 to former Noma chef René Redzepi’s alleged physical and emotional abuse detailed last month.
Barnum-Dann admits ‘making mistakes’ but says sexual harassment allegations ‘simply not true’
Barnum-Dann denied the allegations of sexual harassment. In an emailed statement to Abridged, he said, “These accusations are simply not true.”
Barnum-Dann admitted to a “few instances” where an employee confronted him about feeling uncomfortable, and he said he dealt with the incidents with “genuine concern and correction.”
“I admit making mistakes and apologize for contributing to a culture in our industry that is unhealthy and needs change,” Barnum-Dann wrote. “I’m truly sorry for anyone whom I may have hurt. I’ve learned a lot from my mistakes and am evolving to be better. A better chef, manager and person.”
Barnum-Dann also denied accusations about compensation issues at his restaurants.
In an earlier email interview, before he was asked to respond to specific accounts of alleged misconduct, Barnum-Dann described that before the pandemic his “back was always against the wall.” Work at Localis was “difficult and constantly changing” and he was learning how to run a business and “what it means to be the boss.”
“Nowadays, the kitchen is a very peaceful place,” Barnum-Dann said.
Worker says she saw a ‘sexualized workplace’
Larrissa Liberko said she was hired as a server at Localis in 2018. She was early in her hospitality career, and she found herself heavily invested in the job’s demands.
During her two-year tenure working at the restaurant, Liberko said she experienced a “sexualized” workplace and recalled multiple times where Barnum-Dann propositioned his staff for sex, touched staff inappropriately and made comments about employees’ bodies.
“It was very frequent that he would bring up threesomes with his wife,” Liberko said. “We kind of just tried to laugh it off, or take it as a joke, mostly because his behavior could become very unpredictable.”
Another time, she and her colleagues watched Barnum-Dann and his wife go into the connected garage at the restaurant and return “looking flushed,” Liberko recalled.
“He announced to staff, ‘I just smashed,’” Liberko said.
A series of text messages sent in 2018 and reviewed by Abridged show Barnum-Dann repeatedly texted one of his employees to send nude photos of herself. The text messages also show Barnum-Dann after midnight asking a female employee to meet him in a storage area at the restaurant.
Frequent outbursts alleged
Barnum-Dann’s outbursts were frequent at the restaurant, Liberko said, adding that she watched Barnum-Dann yell at a colleague until they cried. After, she heard him tell another staff member that he liked it when he could “break someone.” Multiple times, staff, including herself, would leave their shifts in tears.
“One time he screamed in my face words to the effect of ‘I hate you, you are all greedy and I am going to go in there and strangle (coworker) until his eyes pop out of his head,'” Liberko said.
Then, the aggressive comments would be followed by praise, she recalled.
Liberko said that during the same years that were filled with outbursts and sexual harassment, Barnum-Dann gave her opportunities and a title that boosted her career. He paid for her introductory sommelier training, she said. Liberko has gone on to lead the beverage programs at other upscale establishments in Sacramento.
“I felt a sense of loyalty and connection at times,” she said. “Some of the patterns I learned in that environment were not healthy, and unlearning them has been an ongoing process for me.”
Physical contact in front of staff
Taylor Lovelace said she was hired as a sous chef at Localis in October 2019. Lovelace only worked at Localis for five months and described her time there as “volatile.”
“You don’t want to say the wrong thing in fear of setting him off,” Lovelace said.
During a staff lineup, Barnum-Dann approached Lovelace, pushed her head downwards near a prep table and pressed himself against her, Lovelace said. The experience was humiliating, she said, and left her crying right before the start of dinner service.
During a different shift, she said Barnum-Dann grabbed her breast and made a comment about her needing a mammogram.
“He frequently made inappropriate comments to me, including asking if I found him attractive and propositioning me for sex,” Lovelace said.
When Lovelace declined his advances, Barnum-Dann would make her feel uncomfortable, like she was letting him down, she said.
“These experiences had a lasting impact on me,” Lovelace said. “They affected my sense of safety at work, my confidence and my overall well-being, and ultimately contributed to my decision to leave (Localis).”
Barnum-Dann denies sexual misconduct allegations
Barnum-Dann denied the allegations of sexual misconduct at Localis.
“The individuals who are accusing me of sexual harassment have been spreading these things and worse since our employer-employee relationships soured for various reasons years ago,” Barnum-Dann said in a written statement.
Others describe workplace conduct
Others, too, said they felt uncomfortable with Barnum-Dann’s sexual conduct and commentary at his restaurants.
Erick Avila was a cook at Localis for four months in 2019 and said he and Barnum-Dann’s personalities clashed from the start. One day during that time, he saw a female employee sitting on a counter before service. Barnum-Dann walked up to her, spread her legs with his hands, wrapped them around his waist and pretended to “violently” have sex with her on the counter, Avila said.
“This lasts at least five or six seconds, which is kind of a long time for something like that, and then he just walks away laughing like there’s no problem,” Avila said. “And she didn’t make a big issue about it. But we were all kind of looking at each other, like, ‘What the f— just happened?’”
Zayn Skinner, a former Betty bartender, server and eventual front-of-house lead, recalled being with two other male employees when Barnum-Dann walked in and commented on a group of female customers.
“He was like, ‘You three must be walking erections in here,’” said Skinner, now a bartender at Paragary’s in Midtown Sacramento. “And we were just dead silent. Like, so f—ing uncomfortable. … It’s so weird. It sets such a weird precedent in the workplace. I don’t want to hear that from anyone, let alone someone who owns your restaurant and one other.”
Racial slur allegedly directed at dishwasher
Lovelace recalled an instance when Barnum-Dann used a racial slur to describe a Black coworker at Localis.
“He basically said the N-word, like with a hard ‘R,’ to our dishwasher who was Black,” Lovelace said.
Barnum-Dann tried to brush it off as a joke, but the staff was “surprised and taken aback by that,” Lovelace said.
The dishwasher “was upset and we were all upset for him,” Lovelace said.
In another instance, Avila said he watched Barnum-Dann yell “get out of the street (w–back)” at a Puerto Rican employee outside Localis. Avila’s coworker didn’t seem to mind, he said, but a group of passersby took offense.
Later, Barnum-Dann tried using the same slur toward Avila “jokingly, like he thought it was funny,” Avila said. Avila responded that he was mixed Black and white, not Hispanic. The next day, Avila said he and another Black employee arrived slightly late from opposite directions, to which Barnum-Dann sarcastically said, “Surprise, surprise, the Blacks are late.”
Barnum-Dann’s statement to Abridged did not directly address questions about his alleged use of racial slurs.
Withheld tips alleged
Skinner was already on staff at Betty when Barnum-Dann bought the Southside Park wine bar in November 2024. The new ownership’s first meeting with staff set a tone for changes to come.
At that meeting, Barnum-Dann told staff their tips would be pooled and distributed at the end of every week instead of each night, Skinner said. He also told them that salaried managers would be tipped out as well, a potential violation of California Labor Code Section 351.
That continued until November, when an employee threatened to report Barnum-Dann to the state Labor Commissioner’s Office, Skinner said.
Barnum-Dann then sent out back compensation checks to staff, Skinner said, and at the next meeting, announced that managers would no longer receive tips — but all hourly workers would take a $2 per hour pay cut retroactive to the start of that pay period. It felt like “retaliation for outing an illegal tipping practice,” Skinner said.
Meanwhile, Betty’s business exploded under Barnum-Dann’s ownership, as a wine market was replaced by more seating and Localis-like dishes landed on the menu. Yet those weekly tip pools barely budged, Skinner said.
It mirrored a similar practice at Localis during 2019, Avila said. Instead of front-of-house staff splitting tips with back-of-house workers, all tips were turned in to Barnum-Dann, who then distributed them to all employees.
“The money was never the money. The numbers were always off. The math was never mathing,” Avila said.
Tips for group outings?
Barnum-Dann splurged on his staff over the years, taking those interested on international research trips as well as domestic culinary hotspots such as Las Vegas. But Avila balked when Barnum-Dann said he was withholding some of the staff’s tips to fuel group outings.
“He would do things like straight-up tell us, ‘Oh, well, I’m saving some of your guys’ tip money so that I can take you guys on, like, a family outing, and I’ll take you guys to a nice Michelin-starred restaurant or whatever,’” Avila said. “In theory, that sounds great, but I was the only one working with a wife and two children at home. I needed my money.”
Barnum-Dann denied allegations that ownership received a portion of employee tips.
“Several months ago we identified a tipping issue at Betty involving certain supervisory employees that may not have fully aligned with applicable wage and hour guidance. … We took proactive steps, prior to any legal or administrative claim, to address the matter, including issuing payments to employees we identified as potentially affected and revising our practices,” Barnum-Dann said.
Barnum-Dann added that Betty is “cooperating fully” with the state Labor Commissioner’s Office to resolve a claim related to this issue.
‘I developed a big chip … on my shoulder’
Barnum-Dann has long been an outsized, divisive personality within Sacramento’s culinary scene. Raised in Foresthill, a small town in the Placer County foothills, he was an electrician and death metal drummer before attending culinary school. He worked in Placer County restaurants for six years before joining the late Chris Jarosz to open Localis in 2015, then bought it a year later.
He has inspired deep loyalty in some longtime employees and clashed with many in the area’s restaurant scene as well. He didn’t come up through the same kitchens as other top chefs and doesn’t party as much as many, he said.
“Before I even started working in Sacramento, there were already rumors going around about my knowledge and cooking skills in a negative way. From that point, in my mind, it made it me versus them, and I developed a big chip … on my shoulder,” Barnum-Dann wrote in an email. “I really had to toughen up over the years and accept my responsibility and accept that I would not play a big role in the city’s culinary industry.”
Long-term employee says she has not seen nor experienced sexual harassment
Nevertheless, that lack of popularity gnaws at him, said Amanda Smith, who joined Localis in November 2018 as an unpaid intern while attending culinary school and has stayed on ever since. She rose to the restaurant’s executive sous chef position, became Betty’s general manager after the ownership transition and returned to Localis following maternity leave to lead the morning prep team.
Few early-career hospitality employees remain with their businesses for eight years. Smith has stayed that long because of the loyalty and honesty she has received from Barnum-Dann, she said. During that time, she said she has never seen nor experienced sexual harassment at either restaurant, including while leaving the line to pump breast milk.
“Staying here for so long as a woman with a so-called sexual predator, I don’t think I would still be here working for him if he was a sexual predator,” Smith said. “I think this kind of says something for itself.”
Barnum-Dann often makes sexual jokes, Smith said, but without malicious intent. She recalled hearing him yell at someone twice in the past eight years, and said he was strict, passionate and emotional but wasn’t angry or mean in the vein of, say, celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay.
Barnum-Dann survived a suicide attempt in 2020 and converted to Christianity. Smith said Barnum-Dann has become more empathetic and loosened his grip on the kitchen, trusting employees more to succeed without him.
‘Never maliciously tried to hurt anybody with his words’
Barnum-Dann wants to be liked, Smith said, and his sense of humor can cross HR manual guidelines. Restaurant kitchens are full of off-color jokes, but they can carry a different feel when made by the owner, Smith said. That’s where she’s seen him go wrong.
“It’s kind of that fine line of like, he wants to be everyone’s friend, but he forgets that he’s also the boss and the owner. And I think that is what’s kind of biting him in the back,” Smith said. “He wants to be cool with everybody, and everyone wants to be cool with him, but … he’s writing the checks out and creating the business and everything. So on that line, it’s kind of like ‘that is wrong,’ but he’s never maliciously tried to hurt anybody with his words in that aspect.”
Why speak up now?
Liberko was ready to come forward with the allegations before, and in early 2020 began gathering statements from current and former Localis employees about Barnum-Dann’s conduct.
“I reached out to media outlets and either didn’t get a response or didn’t feel like the response felt safe,” Liberko said.
“I felt really discouraged at the time and decided to move on,” she added.
The recent headlines about Barnum-Dann’s plans to expand his businesses pushed Liberko to speak out again.
“Former employees who did not have a voice at the time are speaking now so that the public can make informed decisions about who they are supporting as the restaurant expands,” Liberko said. “Sacramento’s food scene is a point of pride, and workers deserve environments where they feel safe and respected.”
Lovelace said she didn’t file a formal complaint with state authorities and was stressed at the time about being among the only people willing to speak out. Instead, she decided to quit Localis in March 2020, a week before the pandemic-related shutdowns.
“Places I worked after Localis,” Liberko said, “I think also helped me realize just how crazy the environment was. In those other kitchens, I wasn’t really subjected to managing my owner’s emotions and behavior.”
Benjy Egel is the senior food editor at Abridged. Born and raised in the Sacramento region, he has covered its local restaurants and bars since 2018. He also writes and edits Abridged’s weekly food and drink newsletter, City of Treats.
Felicia Alvarez is a reporter at Abridged covering accountability. She’s called Sacramento home since 2015 and has reported on government, health care and breaking news topics for both local and national news outlets.