No contact order against Acadia chef Ryan McCaskey extended; lawyer says he wants to figure out who created site to harass former worker
A no contact order against acclaimed Chicago chef Ryan McCaskey will remain in effect at least two more weeks after his attorney said at a videoconferenced hearing Monday morning that he wants the chance to clear his client’s name in court.
Cody Nason, a former employee at McCaskey’s fine dining restaurant, Acadia, was granted a no contact order last month after alleging in a court petition that the chef created a website, multiple email addresses and fake online reviews to harass him.
“We want to conduct discovery and figure out who actually did this,” McCaskey’s attorney, Roger Malavia, said during Monday’s hearing.
Cook County Circuit Court Judge Levander Smith Jr. set a hearing for Oct. 22. The no-contact order will remain in effect at least until then.
Last month a judge ordered the chef and owner of the Michelin-starred Acadia not to contact Nason after Nason alleged in a court petition that McCaskey launched the website codynason.com on Aug. 13, posting Nason’s photo, phone number and home address, along with claims that Nason is “a pedophile.”
The website at various points also included racist and homophobic language, solicitations for sex, links to a Ku Klux Klan website and multiple references to Nason’s deceased brother. The website was deactivated in late September.
The order signed Sept. 14 by Associate Judge Callie Lynn Baird prohibits McCaskey from contacting Nason or coming within 1,000 feet of him, among other restrictions. Under Illinois law, McCaskey did not need to be notified of the original hearing or given a chance to defend himself.
At Monday’s hearing, Malavia called the allegations against McCaskey “outlandish circumstantial allegations that have already ruined by my client’s reputation.”
Nason’s attorney, Daliah Saper, had sought a two-year extension of the no contact order Monday.
“The severity and type of messaging that continues to emanate from Mr. McCaskey is concerning,” Saper said during the hearing.
Saper said there is reason to believe McCaskey is responsible for the website because of “extensive circumstantial evidence.”
“There is information only Mr. McCaskey would be privy to and could act on, which further corroborates the fact that he is behind this concerted activity and this constant harassment,” she said during the hearing.
In an interview, Saper said Nason last received an email from an account affiliated with the codynason.com website Sept. 22.
McCaskey did not attend the online hearing; his attorney cited poor connectivity issues in Maine, where McCaskey also maintains a home. Nason was present, but did not speak.
Nason’s original petition also alleged that McCaskey created Facebook and Instagram accounts for Nason’s deceased brother as well as posting one-star Yelp reviews in the name of Nason’s deceased brother for Nason’s most recent employer, Yugen, another fine dining restaurant in Chicago.
In the reviews, which have been removed from the Yelp website, Nason was accused of sending shots of sake to customers, slipping them his number and trying to meet up with them later in the evening; readers were directed to codynason.com for more information, according to the petition.
Nason said he began working at Acadia in April 2019 and was fired that October. He has said in an interview that he doesn’t understand why he was fired. In an interview last month, McCaskey told the Tribune that Nason was let go because he was “a disgruntled employee.”
Nason confirmed to the Tribune that he contributed to a post about Acadia published July 22 on the Instagram account @the86dlist, which is dedicated to amplifying allegations of racism, sexism and other toxic workplace cultures in Chicago restaurants.
The post included various allegations about Acadia from multiple anonymous former employees. Nason said he thought his contribution could be readily identified because of references to his previous work experience and information that was available to few people.
Nason said he learned of the codynason.com website on Aug. 13, when he received an email from an address based on his name that is affiliated with the website.
According to Nason’s original court filing, Saper sent an email to McCaskey on Sept. 1 with multiple requests, including that all content be removed from codynason.com, the Facebook and Instagram accounts in the name of Nason’s deceased brother be deleted and an apology be issued on the Acadia website.
The chef did not respond, Saper said. McCaskey said he received the email but forwarded it to his lawyers without reading it.
Saper said she also sent the letter to an email address affiliated with the codynason.com website. The response, she said, was “Bring it on b----es.” According to the court filing, Saper was subsequently subject to racist and vulgar abuse from the email address and made aware of another website, codynasonrapeshisdog.godaddysites.com.
McCaskey opened Acadia in 2011 and was awarded a coveted Michelin star within a year. In 2015, the restaurant was given a second Michelin star, a designation it has maintained ever since. It is one of just four restaurants in Chicago with at least two Michelin stars. McCaskey, who has been nominated for multiple James Beard Foundation awards, is the restaurant’s sole owner.
After being open for to-go and patio service during much of the COVID-19 pandemic, Acadia announced in August it would close temporarily “due to the pandemic’s impact.” A reopening date has yet to be announced.
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