Victor “Sidd” Cadena thought he was running the kitchen at a buzzy Houston hot spot. Instead, the head chef at James Harden’s now-closed restaurant Thirteen says he wound up scrubbing raw sewage and working punishing hours for missing pay. In an April 2026 complaint, Cadena alleges he was routinely denied overtime and repeatedly ordered to clean up sewage backups, which he says left him with a severe, ongoing skin rash and permanent scarring. Thirteen was locked out and shuttered in September 2025 after its landlord posted a notice claiming more than $2.2 million in unpaid rent, and Cadena is now seeking up to $1 million in damages as the case moves through the courts.
What the lawsuit says
According to the Houston Chronicle, Cadena says he regularly logged more than 70 hours a week in the kitchen. He also claims he was blamed when a $2,000 blender went missing and alleges he was coerced into paying to replace it. The complaint describes at least five raw sewage backups that flooded the restaurant. Management allegedly brought in a professional cleaning crew only twice, with Cadena directed to mop up the remaining messes himself. The suit names 13 Strikes LLC as the defendant and was transferred to the U.S. Southern District of Texas because it raises federal labor law issues.
Restaurant response
The restaurant’s camp is not buying Cadena’s version of events. In court filings, its lawyer “accused him of failing to report or record the hours he worked and said any payments he made back to the restaurant were ‘voluntary and not the result of legal duress,’” according to the Houston Chronicle. Harden’s representatives did not immediately respond with new public comment, the Chronicle reports.
Locked out and landlord suit
The trouble was not limited to the kitchen. The Thirteen site was locked in September after the landlord posted a Sept. 1 notice saying Thirteen Hospitality Group owed $2,217,430.05, according to reporting by KPRC Click2Houston. Court papers cited by the outlet allege tenants failed to make monthly rent payments and to keep the space up to city and fire codes. The landlord is seeking unpaid rent along with attorney fees and court costs. That lockout, along with the separate lease dispute, left the restaurant operating under heavy legal and financial pressure before it ultimately closed.
Other pending lawsuits
Thirteen is also still tied up in fallout from a November 2023 downtown crash that killed seven people. Families filed wrongful death suits in late 2024, alleging the restaurant overserved the driver. Local station ABC13 reported on those dram shop complaints, which remain a separate legal thread even as Cadena’s labor case and the landlord fight move ahead.
Legal implications
Cadena’s overtime allegations fall under the Fair Labor Standards Act, which generally requires overtime pay for covered, nonexempt workers who clock more than 40 hours in a workweek and also puts recordkeeping obligations on employers, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Because the complaint was moved into federal court, those federal standards will control the wage and hour portion of the case. Separate state claims, including dram shop suits and the lease dispute, may proceed under state law or on parallel tracks. Remedies under federal wage and hour rules can include back pay and liquidated damages, while the other lawsuits carry their own potential damages and defenses.
What’s next
The case is now pending in federal court and will move forward on a civil schedule as both sides trade documents and legal briefs. Court watchers will be looking for the next round of filings to see how much of Cadena’s story survives early motions and what they reveal about life inside Harden’s onetime Houston restaurant.
