Approximately 40 members of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority were celebrating one of their sorority sister’s impending move to California when the manager of Bahama Breeze in Orange Village allegedly racially profiled the group by calling the police this week, believing they weren’t going to pay their bill.
Chante Spencer spoke to Cleveland.com on Wednesday, stating trouble began after a sorority member, who had been waiting 25 minutes for her bill, said she was going to leave.
Although the woman ultimately waited and paid the bill, Spencer said that police were still called and the manager wanted officers to wait until each member of the party paid their bills as well.
In her interview with Cleveland.com, Spencer said “Police were standing there to make sure everyone paid, which we felt was racial profiling.”
The news quickly spread across social media.
Bahama Breeze is part of Florida-based Darden Restaurants, the parent umbrella that also owns Olive Garden and Longhorn Steakhouse. Darden’s senior director of communications, Rich Jeffers, offered a brief statement to cleveland.com stating, “We clearly fell short of delivering great service, and we’ve invited the guests back in order to provide an exceptional Bahama Breeze experience.”
According to the police report provided by Orange Village, the manager informed police that some members of the sorority threatened to leave without paying, and the manager requested the police stay until the bills were paid because members of the group caused a “disturbance” and used profanity toward the manager.
The police report does confirm that all of the bills were paid and the police were on premises for about one hour after arriving around 8:30 p.m. Police did not take any action against any of the sorority members, and the report states that one member of the party told police when they arrived that she would be staying to ensure all bills were paid.
Given that the group celebrating was predominately female and people of color, it’s difficult not to view this incident as anything other than racial profiling.
A protest is underway in front of the restaurant this evening.
This isn’t the first time Bahama Breeze has come under fire for their racial insensitivity. Back in 2009, it paid $1.26 million to settle complaints about alleged racial harassment of 37 black workers at this exact location.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed the lawsuit in 2008, alleging that managers at the restaurant had repeatedly harassed black employees by using racial slurs, mimicking black employees and denying them work breaks.
In addition to the $1.26 million payout, Bahama Breeze had to update its chain-wide discrimination and harassment policies and provide anti-discrimination and diversity training to its Beachwood employees and managers.
Looks like it’s back to the drawing board.
This article appears in Jun 20-26, 2018.
wow smh
There should be a lawsuit filed. I will not eat there again. I hope they loose business and are forced to close. One time is too much, two times is blatant prejudice as a practice. You have to hit white folks in bad reviews and the court system. They only understand when they loose money, they business fail and their reputation is destoryed
Color me not-shocked.
Dont blame the management whatsoever. I would have done the same.
I dont understand. If any group of people create a disturbance and threaten to not pay their bill police can and should be called. How is that racial profiling? Because the patrons were people of color as the article states? What if they had been any other race? What would it have been called then?
This article seems very slanted to me.
Why not just state what happened? Its like you purposely want to stir up division between people.
Nasty food
Nasty food.
I mean if I had to wait 25 minutes after finishing my food for my bill to come, you know DAMN WELL Id be threatening to leave too!
Ive been in similar situations and you know what happened when one of us spoke up to the manager?
Oh Im sorry sir, we will comp your meal Dont wanna make the whites upset! What woulda happened if we were black? Sir. SIT DOWN. I AM CALLING THE POLICE.
If you were a manager and you knew the party was threatening to leave without paying their bills, wouldnt you, you know, rectify the problem? They were upset that it was taking so long for their bill to come, sounds like a easy fix that doesnt involve police….
The article did not say the party was threatening to leave! It said one person of 40 was waiting over 25 minutes for her bill and stated “she’s going to leave.” Keep in mind, she paid her bill and 39 others were subjected to a police check.
I bet the server made over a $1 tip on that party.
Will we ever learn. Never go there, ever again!!!!
Stop patronizing these peckerwood establishments when they show they don’t like you.
Glad to know that the manager was fired.
Been there a couple of times. Nothing memorable. Food was blah and ambiance was meh.
Gotta be better places to have your party, even if you feel you have to have it in Beachwood.
Its not profiling if you threatened not to pay your bill.
Smh one person doesnt speak for 40, it amazes that the police entertained that nonsense. And almost a half hour for a bill… absurd,what if she had somewhere to be? But to call the police instead of cashing her out shows one of the many problems. It is sad that Im 2018 this is still going on.
Jumping people in large numbers, robbing, shooting, rape, dealing death through heroin laced with death does not count as a ‘racist’ activity….nor could it give people the impression that they could, at any time, be dealing with a highly emotional and unstable general populous. Logic and baseline understanding of odds are always being decried.
If you’ve really been around people that prove their own stereotypes CONSTANTLY…what exactly do you want from people when they act defensively? It’s only their brain acting normal…stating that odds are bad in this scenario with these people. Yes I said ‘these people’. These people (the element), or whatever you want to call it gives a general guideline to people. Judge a book by it’s cover….it’s not as if people can read past an 8th grade level anyways, and people just look at the internet instead of books anyways.
Only following standard protocol and maintaining any kind of standard counts as racism.
If you can’t jump over the bar….just lower it until you can. Make abnormal normal.