Swillhouse sex scandal: The seedy nickname that a restaurant boss has suddenly DITCHED after the blokey chain of diners was rocked by damaging allegations

A restaurant owner has deleted his Instagram account with a sexually suggestive username, following a damaging sex scandal currently unfolding at one of Sydney’s top bar and restaurant chains.

Swillhouse, which owns six high-profile venues in the city including restaurant Le Foote in the Rocks and whisky bar Baxter Inn, has been rocked by a series of disturbing allegations, including multiple allegations of sexual abuse, widespread drug use while on duty and staff being encouraged to have sex with customers.

A study by The Sydney Morning Herald spoke to five former female employees who allege the company failed to support them after they reported allegations of sexual abuse and harassment by male employees.

Anton Forte, the CEO of Swillhouse, who has not been personally accused of wrongdoing, has stepped down from the board following the revelations.

“We sincerely regret this and apologize to all former employees who did not feel supported,” Mr Forte told the newspaper.

Now Daily Mail Australia can reveal that Swillhouse creative director Jordan McDonald, who has not personally been accused of any wrongdoing, has been forced to delete his Instagram account after being challenged over his sexually explicit username.

Mr McDonald, who is responsible for the restaurant group’s creative direction, events, entertainment, PR and strategy, previously had the username ‘@wangdangsweetpoontang’ on one of his accounts.

It is a reference to the title of a 1977 song by American singer Ted Nugent, in which he fantasizes about a ‘teenage queen’.

“She looks so beautiful, especially down there,” the text reads.

Nugent, who is now one of Donald Trump’s most outspoken supporters in music, sings in a later verse, “She’s so sweet when she yanks on my meat.”

Since the investigation began, Swillhouse has been inundated with complaints from former guests who are unhappy with it.

“The fact that your PR frontman and Frankies director got away with using the Instagram name “Wang Dang Sweet Poontang” (the title of a sexually explicit song about a teenage girl) says a lot about your company,” one person wrote.

Mr McDonald told Daily Mail Australia it was his “private Instagram” and insisted “it had nothing to do with Swillhouse”.

“I changed the name because it wasn’t appropriate and I regret it,” he said.

When asked why he mentioned Swillhouse Hospitality and Frankie’s Bar in the description, he didn’t answer.

Mr. McDonald was a drummer in rock ‘n’ roll bands before being asked by Mr. Forte and former Swillhouse co-owner Jason Scott to run Frankie’s Pizza in 2013.

The dive bar quickly made a name for itself with its lavish live performances, daily $1 pizza specials, and its secret “Fun Room”: a former locker room converted into a hidden bar behind an unmarked brown door.

Debbie Harry came by the second night Frankie’s was open and insisted on joining the line.

“She was so punk, she wouldn’t just go to the front of the line,” McDonald said earlier.

Ultimately, the facility had to make way for an underground station in December 2022.

After it closed its doors for the final time, Mr McDonald described it as a “symbol of an era of excess that we would never see again”.

The Sydney Morning Herald investigation highlighted long-standing concerns about the culture within Swillhouse establishments.

A woman who worked as a bartender at Hubert, another award-winning restaurant owned by the company, claimed she was raped in the bathroom by a male colleague in 2013 after making a cocktail containing 10 different types of gin.

“I got completely drunk and passed out, and then I walked in on him raping me in the women’s toilets at work,” the woman, who is reporting the incident to police, told the newspaper.

Other restaurant staff claimed there was a special room where they snorted lines of cocaine during their shifts, while the Baxter Inn’s male bar team reportedly held a competition to sleep with customers in a storage room.

There would be a $1,000 bottle of wine up for grabs for the first bartender to have sex with a customer.

Former employees told the Herald that all conquests were recorded and ranked for attractiveness during staff meetings.

Mr Forte acknowledged there were “instances of youthful and deplorable behaviour” but said many of them rose to the level of “urban myth”.

“Yes, some of these stories are inspired by events that happened in the early days of Baxter Inn,” he told the newspaper.

Mr Forte said the hospitality group, which also owns the Caterpillar Club, Alberto’s Lounge and Shady Pines Saloon, treated allegations of sexual abuse with the ‘highest degree of urgency and care’.

Daily Mail Australia approached Swillhouse for further comment.