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After losing job, ex-Upperline chef sparks Twitter tirade against Uptown restaurant
BY IAN MCNULTY
JAN 7, 2019 - 1:00 PM

James Cullen lost his job as a chef of Upperline restaurant Sunday night, but after his last shift he was hardly done with the well-known Uptown New Orleans bistro.

By midnight he began a series of Twitter posts that grew through the wee hours into a tirade against Upperline. Many were specifically leveled at Upperline proprietor JoAnn Clevenger, although some of his critiques took aim at the New Orleans restaurant industry as a whole.

By mid-morning Monday he had posted over 90 tweets calling Upperline “evil” and “easily the most toxic place I’ve worked” and variously disparaging his former boss as “a psychopath,” “a monster” and “abusive.”

In separate tweets, he accused Clevenger of assault, claiming she shoved him during his last night at the restaurant, and he claimed he had earlier found files on Upperline’s computer regarding an incident of sexual assault at the restaurant.

Cullen did not respond to requests for comment about his messages.

Clevenger said Monday that she does not use or follow social media. After a reporter described Cullen’s messages, she said he would not address any of his allegations directly, but said she was concerned.

“I’m concerned for the staff, and I’m concerned for my reputation in the community,” Clevenger said.

She noted that service would continue as usual at Upperline, which is closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

Cullen started as chef at the 35-year-old restaurant in September.

Since arriving in New Orleans in 2012, he has held chef jobs at the nonprofit Café Reconcile, St. Lawrence, Treo, Press Street Station (the since-closed eatery from the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts) and Southern Yacht Club, his last stop before joining the Upperline team.

Through the night, Cullen vented against the local restaurant industry more broadly, writing that “New Orleans restaurant culture is a cesspool” and “New Orleans kitchens operate like a modern plantation system.”

A slew of rapid-fire tweets is not unusual for Cullen, who routinely posts dozens of messages a day to Twitter, often observations about life as a chef.

In one tweet early Monday morning, Cullen wrote that “I got fired for ‘being on my phone.’ Why was I on my phone? Because I was bored! I wasn’t allowed to make specials. Or do anything else. Because it was the JoAnn Clevenger show.”

Another tweet, posted a short time later, read: “So Upperline needs a curator not a chef. It is a museum. Not a restaurant.”

Upperline, which Clevenger opened with her son Jason in 1983, holds a prominent place in the New Orleans dining scene.

It is known for Creole flavors, for the collection of art covering its rambling rooms and for Clevenger herself. She is constantly in circulation around the dining rooms, greeting regulars and chatting tableside with her customers.

The Upperline menu has evolved but has also kept a consistent culinary style through the decades and through a succession of head chefs. Dishes like duck etouffee and roast duck with ginger peach sauce are signatures, and the restaurant holds claim to originating shrimp remoulade with fried green tomatoes, a dish now found on many New Orleans menus.

Clevenger has garnered plenty of hospitality industry honors through the years. She’s been a perennial contender for the James Beard Foundation’s Outstanding Restaurateur, being named a finalist for the award for four consecutive years.

In 2015, the regional food culture group Southern Foodways Alliance honored Clevenger with its Craig Claiborne Lifetime Achievement Award, joining past recipients including Leah Chase, Ella Brennan and John Folse.