PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — A former employee of a Federal Hill restaurant that was ordered to closed following a stabbing spoke to ABC 6 News about her experience working there amid an investigation by the Providence Board of Licenses. The stabbing at Saje Kitchen on Nov. 8 happened inside while a comedy show fundraiser was going on. However, the City of Providence said the business does not have a license for entertainment. “It’s something that the business owner knows they cannot do, and they are choosing to do it anyway,” Providence Board of Licenses Chair Dylan Conley said. The stabbing was not the first violent incident at the restaurant and lounge, in October 2023, the Board of Licenses ordered Saje to close after a customer bit a police officer. Conley said the state then allowed it to reopen. “We found for cause that they were not safe to operate, they were allowed to operate, something terrible happened,” Conley said. “I have no confidence that they can operate safely.” One former Saje Kitchen server, who asked to remain anonymous because she’s concerned about her safety, said she worked there for a month-and-a-half in 2023 when she was 17-years-old. “It’s basically like a strip club in a way, they could say whatever they want to and it’s not like, ‘Oh, no you can’t do this,’ there was no professionalism at all, and that’s why I had to leave,” she said. She said Andre Samuel, who served as her boss, was at the center of most problems. “Coming into that job he wasn’t very specific about what I was doing, you’re just thrown into the fire, there’s no proper training, it wasn’t a safe environment for me, I used to be scared even leaving late at night,” she said. According to the city, Samuel currently is only allowed at the restaurant as a patron and not an owner, but was involved in the stabbing. “Mr. Samuel, as far as I’ve seen over the course the entirety of this license has been a manager and or an owner, he intervened in a knife fight, I think that’s atypical behavior for a patron,” Conley said. “Mr. Samuel has been associated with at least two other clubs that have had violent incidents that we’ve closed and I think we’ve established a pattern of behavior.” No one called police for help during the stabbing incident, but a 911 call was made from the victim’s friend who wasn’t at the restaurant. The former waitress said she was paid under the table, served alcohol to customers as a minor, and was told to wear skimpy clothing. “The stockings, like the fishnets stockings, with like a bodysuit that shows the cheeks or whatever and that’s how all the girls were dressed after those times,” she said. “We were only able to do that after the downstairs closed, after all the professional people left, or the family and the kids, so that’s how I know like that’s kind of wrong.” She also said she used to serve tobacco hookah on the second level. “I remember when I worked there when the fire alarm used to go off, they would have this emergency thing where they would basically have everybody take all the hookahs into a secret room, lock it, and pretend like there’s nothing going on,” she added. Conley said that a specific classification is needed for hookah, and that he’s “confident” Saje does not have that. Saje Kitchen will remain closed pending a show cause hearing next week. ABC 6 News reached out to the attorney representing Saje, who declined to comment. Categories: News, Providence, Rhode Island