Ex-Warlord Chef Trevor Fleming Accused of Assault

Julia Suhr was one of the first hostesses at Warlord, the walk-in-only Avondale restaurant that became a genuine Chicago sensation after opening in 2023. She managed sidewalk lines that stretched four hours long. She got press attention. The job felt like something real.

Then Trevor Fleming sexually assaulted her, she said. That was May 2024.

Suhr didn’t hedge when she finally went on record. “It was assault,” she told reporters. She’s not the only one making allegations against Fleming, the chef who built his reputation at 3198 N. Milwaukee Ave. before his career collapsed under the weight of what former employees, co-workers, and ex-partners have described. But she’s among the most direct.

Eight former Warlord employees, along with four of Fleming’s ex-partners, told reporters about a pattern of conduct that goes well past what happened to Suhr. According to those accounts, Fleming pursued sexual relationships with multiple women who reported to him, mistreated staff members, and shared explicit photos of women without their knowledge or consent. Former employees said the behavior wasn’t hidden. Co-owners Emily Kraszyk and John Lupton, they said, knew.

Fleming has denied the allegations. Through his attorney, Robert Rascia, he specifically denied Suhr’s account.

The situation turned into a legal matter in January, when Fleming was charged with distributing an explicit image of a woman without her consent. A felony charge. Other women who spoke to reporters said Fleming shared nude photographs of additional former partners, also without permission. It wasn’t a one-time thing, they said.

Kraszyk and Lupton didn’t wait long after the charge became public. They cut ties with Fleming and, in February 2026, filed a lawsuit seeking to push him out of the business entirely. The suit is direct about why: the two co-owners “refuse to be associated with an individual who allegedly preys on women, terrorizes employees and has brought shame and destruction upon the business they worked so hard to build.”

Fleming has since been removed from Warlord’s day-to-day operations. He’s said he intends to open somewhere else.

When contacted about Suhr’s specific allegations, Kraszyk and Lupton didn’t answer directly. They sent a statement. “Trevor broke our trust,” Kraszyk and Lupton said, conceding the restaurant’s own attempts to address problems had come up short. The statement went on: “The actions of Trevor and allegations against him do not represent the values of John, Emily or the restaurant and our staff. Our main concern now is the safety and wellbeing of our staff.”

Careful language. Measured. Suhr’s wasn’t.

She worked at Warlord for just over a year, long enough to understand what the place was and who ran it. Her reason for talking now isn’t complicated. “It was always kind of my intention [to speak up] and not let it happen to anybody else,” she said. She doesn’t want another woman, whether an employee or someone who ended up in a relationship with Fleming, to go through what she says she experienced.

Sexual harassment and workplace abuse in the restaurant industry has a long and documented history, with kitchen cultures that can make reporting abuse feel impossible. Illinois has legal protections against that kind of conduct under the Illinois Human Rights Act, but enforcement depends on people being willing to come forward. Suhr came forward.

The full account of her experience was reported by Block Club Chicago on April 13, 2026, which published her on-the-record account alongside additional reporting on the broader allegations against Fleming.

Warlord remains open. Fleming isn’t there anymore. What comes next in the legal proceedings involving Robert Rascia and his client will play out in the courts, but the record being built outside those walls, by the women who worked for Fleming and the women who dated him, is already substantial. Suhr made sure her name is attached to her piece of it.