NY- AN after-hours orgy erupted at celebrity chef Mario Batali’s Bistro Du Vent last week, resulting in the firing of four staffers.
The randy sex romp between an openly bisexual waitress, a male chef, a female manager and a waiter was captured on the West 42nd Street restaurant’s surveillance cameras, which feed to a monitor right next to the host’s stand.
We’re told that the oversexed staffers were boozing it up at the bar after closing when things got physical.
Our snitch, who saw the steamy surveillance footage, says the X-rated action took place “on the bar top, down to the floor, on top of the banquettes – chef on waitress, manager on waiter, waiter on waitress, all four tangled up in one bunch.”
But apparently the night porter caught a glimpse of the freaky festivities, and told the incoming dishwashers and busboys that morning on his way out. They, in turn, tattled to the waiters and waitresses, who all crowded around the host stand monitor and watched the orgy unspool, freeze-framing it at points for maximum enjoyment.
Later that afternoon, Bistro Du Vent general manager Jeremy Noye announced to his staff that four employees had been fired, adding, “That’s all I’m going to say, and we’re going to move on from here.”
When we called Noye for comment yesterday, he told us, “I’m going to let Mario handle this. I’m not in a position to make any official comment at this time.”
Batali’s assistant claimed her boss was “out of the office” and could not be reached.
Batali – the rotund, red-haired Food Network star best known for his Italian meccas Babbo, Lupa, Otto and Esca – recently opened Bistro Du Vent with partners Joe Bastianich and David Pasternack.
Last month, we reported that a waiter at the restaurant refused a tip from “Hurlyburly” actress Martha Plimpton because it was too skimpy. A source claimed at the time that Plimpton and her posse “were so embarrassed, they pulled cash out of their pockets, left it on the table and slithered out of there.”
Bistro Du Vent’s sturdy Gallic fare recently earned a two-star review from The Post’s Steve Cuozzo, who described it as “an oddly endearing venue for satisfying French bourgeois cooking in a Midtown arrondisement full of bad, bad restaurants.”