Amber Reid and    Brandon Eads

 Restaurant Discrimination

On May 24, 2014 at 10:30 pm I attended the Rosa Mexicano for the first time with a friend in the Atlantic station. We walked into this establishment expecting exceptional customer service and fine dining, instead we received horrible customer service and the environment quickly became hostile, arrogant, discriminating, belligerent, and malicious by the facility manager of the restaurant named Frank.

We were seeking an exciting night out that turned into a restaurant nightmare, my friend and I frequently shop around Atlantic station and never have we received such disrespectful behavior from any employee especially not from an employee in such a respectabable position.  I believe that the position of a restaurant manager is one that provides quick problem solving tactics, a welcoming positive personality and one who is flexible and able to adjust well to every type of consumer needs.

We were ordering from the appetizer section and found the nachos to be a great selection at Rosa Mexicano but we were told that the restaurant didn’t have it available. Since nachos is a popular dish through Mexican food and culture we thought it to be a bit strange since the restaurant advertises to be an authentic Mexican restaurant.

 Then we decided to add queso dip to the tortillas that were very stale that was given to us by our cold and unsanitary waiter Josh, In addition to Josh being unsanitary because he reeked of cigarettes that we could easily smell coming off him he also slung the drinks at us and tried to play it off as an accident, he would roll his eyes at us every time we asked him for something and seemed very unpleasant. Josh was very distant and uninterested in us as being first time guest at the restaurant. because we couldn’t have the nachos or the queso we wanted we decided to go with the quesadillas off the appetizer menu for $8, We thought this was a great selection, since it was something we were familiar with and for this being our very first time it would be safe, we asked Josh if the quesadillas under the appetizer came with steak and cheese he said no.

He said in fact that they weren’t even a menu item and that he would have to tell the chef we wanted just a simple steak and cheese quesadillas. He never informed us of any additional prices being added for this particular meet or cheese. He did not even inform us of it upping from an appetizer to an Entrée, he just said yes we can make the quesadillas any way you like.

We were led to believe that we would receive the appetizer portion of the quesadillas. He never admitted to the mistake until he came back with the receipt at 11:50 pm,  after Josh threw the receipt at or table my friend noticed that the quesadillas was $17.50 each for the entrees which ended up costing us $40.99. We told him that we were under the impression that we were receiving the appetizer portion of the quesadillas. He then gave us an apology and took full accountability for his mistakes, I then asked to speak with his manager so we could get a proper price adjustment.

 Unfortunately we were met by Frank who bullied me and my friend, Frank approached us with the sole intent to warrant an arrest based on discrimination of our age and ethnicity, he asked us with a boisterous and demeaning tone to state the facts of what happened so I relayed to him about the issue where the waiter had given us the wrong menu item and that he had lack of knowledge of the restaurant’s menu, and that he basically told us that the quesadillas that we wanted weren’t on the menu but he could have it made for us anyway we liked as an appetizer.

Frank began to go in a banter of how we should have known that steak was an expensive protein. He kept yelling “all you want is a free meal”, also he continuously stated in a rant “and the steak being added obviously would cost more you should have known”.

 I stated that this is wrong because this is our first time at this restaurant it was not our fault that we did not know the price increase for what we ordered especially since it wasn’t even on the menu and his waiter did not tell us of any price changes He continued to say what do you want me to do about this and as customers we were not right.

 He proceeded to waive his hands in my face as if to slap me in my mouth for speaking up, I was frightened out of my mind as he began to yell in a monstrous tone in my face, at this point I was ready to go I told Frank we were going to pay just not the $40.99 and he said “Oh you can’t pay for it” He laughed proudly and said he was calling the police.

He continued to taunt us and badger us about payment even though numerous times before we told him it’s not a problem paying we would only like the price we believed we would be paying when we originally ordered.

In many failed attempts to resolve the issue in a mature manner Frank made us feel as if we were nothing but young teens looking to run out with a free meal, Although the Atlantic Station police came to further resolve the issue he still continued to abuse his power as an authority figure at the restaurant and badger us relentlessly, the officer had to tell him to leave us alone and wait at the front desk at one point.

 I really hope this is not how the Rosa Mexicano restaurant basis its reputation because quite frankly the way Frank portrayed this entire company is completely and utterly disgusting to me not only because the situation could have been easily fixed, but because how cooperative and patient we as guest were and he still judged us based of our age and the color of our skin.

This lets me ponder on how long this type of treatment and behavior has really been going on at this particular restaurant, being that Atlantic station is filled with guest ranging in plethoras of ethnicities but majority are people of the African American race.

 We are in the age of Equal Opportunity and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects people like my friend and I from being subjected to this type of experience. I begin to wonder how many people who had to undergo such morally wrong circumstances.

 

In conclusion I feel that the company condones such inexcusable behaviors that my friend and I endured and we want to take the steps to make sure that this ordeal doesn’t happen to anyone else who is a patron looking for a great time at this restaurant.

We feel that we shouldn’t have had to pay for being disrespected and discriminated on. This was the mistakes of the waiter Josh and the management team of Rosa Mexicano We want you to investigate the matter thoroughly because we do plan to seek justice for the traumatic experience we had to partake and we will stand our ground. Thank You