A restaurant that hosted a party for Barack Obama supporters on Super Tuesday has discriminated against blacks wearing hip-hop clothing and urban wear, the state attorney general charged Monday in a lawsuit.

The lawsuit made the claims against Tonic East the day a consent decree was filed settling the case.

The Manhattan bar-restaurant, through its lawyers, has agreed to pay $35,000 as damages, fines, penalties, attorneys' fees and costs of the probe.

It also has agreed to train its employees and impose a dress code that will not discriminate, court papers said.

The lawsuit said two black investigators from Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office who wore baggy pants and sneakers were told they could not enter the establishment last September because of how they were dressed.

A week later, it said, similarly dressed white investigators were allowed in.

Cuomo's office said it began investigating after it received complaints from blacks who claimed they were denied admission to the bar based on violations of the unwritten dress code.

Tonic East general manager Lindy Tsetseranos said the restaurant does not discriminate.

She said it hosted a party for supporters of the Illinois senator, who is black, on Feb. 5, when New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, who is white, won a majority of the state's Democratic primary votes.

''The only thing ever stated was the fact we are more upscale New York so we don't like to have really baggy jeans or street sneakers,'' she said. ''If someone's wearing a beanie, we ask them to take the beanie off.''

Tsetseranos said the bouncers at the restaurant are black and the clientele is racially mixed.

She said the rules about dress are not much different from those at many other Manhattan businesses.

''We're not necessarily that high end, but we do like to keep it presentable,'' Tsetseranos said. ''We're not going to have somebody coming in with their boxers coming out of their pants.''

Source: Associated Press