Atlanta Restaurant Targets Group Of Black Male Patrons In ‘Blatant’ Racist Incident
Shane Smith, a white restaurant patron, says he witnessed a racist incident at an Atlanta restaurant last week.
Speaking with CBS46, he says he and his white friend were dining at La Hacienda in Midtown and befriended a group of three Black men at an adjacent table.
After sharing a few laughs and receiving their bills, one of the Black male patrons found something odd on their bill.
“One of the guys calls out holding the bill and says 'hey did you add auto gratuity to this?' He’s asking the server and the server goes yeah, yeah we add that to everybody’s bill,” Smith explained.
The auto gratuity was 20 percent and the server refused to take it off. Looking at his own bill, Smith noticed there was no auto gratuity added to his.
“So I looked at the server and said do you guys add auto gratuity to everyone’s bill, and he goes no we don’t, he winks at me and says no not everybody’s bill just some people. Then he nods over to the Black people,” Smith said. “It was just so blatant.”
Gabe Magana, one of the owners of the restaurant, told CBS46 that when he confronted the server he immediately quit. He also said that if the three Black customers who were victimized return to the restaurant, they’ll have some perks waiting on them.
“Definitely a gift card and an apology, and I know that’s the least I can do for what happened,” Magana explained.
The identity of the server has not been disclosed.
