An unspecified number of employees have been fired from a suburban Illinois Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant after they allegedly asked a mixed-race group of people celebrating a child’s birthday to move because a regular customer did not want to sit near black people.
The group of 18 would-be customers of a Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant in Naperville, Illinois, about 30 miles west of Chicago, had just been seated at the restaurant when, two members of the party said, they were asked to move because of the color of their skin, reported the Naperville Sun.
It was about 8:30 p.m. on Oct. 26, and Justin Vahl and Marcus Riley said that a host asked Vahl what his ethnicity was, and that a manager later on asked them to move.
Vahl’s wife, Mary Vahl, was also there.
“The host went up to my husband and asked, ‘What race are you guys?’” she wrote in a detailed Facebook post chronicling the incident. “My husband asked him why it mattered and the host responded that a table with two of their ‘regular customers’ were next to where we were to be seated and he didn’t want us sitting there because he’s ‘racist.’ ”
She noted that the “us” in question was a “group of minorities, mostly consisting of African-Americans.”
The “racist table” was pretty obvious, she said.
“We knew right away who it was because the guy was staring at us the entire time and giving us looks as we were being seated,” Mary Vahl wrote. The manager even tried to tell them that the tables they’d been seated at were reserved, and that they had been put there by mistake.
However, the Naperville Sun learned, that location does not take reservations.
“It’s apparent that this staff knows these two individuals as they were playful with conversation and took their time to make our experience difficult,” Mary Vahl wrote in describing that evening. “In 2019, this type of behavior should not be accepted because of certain views.”
She suggested that those who want to choose who they sit near in public should probably stick to “the comfort of your own home.”
Hardest to bear were the kids’ reactions when the adults in the group finally decided enough was enough and took their business elsewhere.
“A moment to hang out with a group of friends after a birthday party, turned into a discussion with our young impressionable sons about how we didn’t get kicked out, but willingly CHOSE to leave because of the unfair treatment we were being given,” Mary Vahl wrote.
Riley’s sons, age 6 and 10, had questions such as, “Why does he not like us?” Riley told the Naperville Sun. “That was the most troubling thing for me.”
They also thought they had done something wrong. But Riley explained that the adults simply did not want to spend their money there.
“If they don’t value us as people, as human beings, would you want to pay them?” he said to the children. Buffalo Wild Wings’ corporate office responded to initial media requests with a statement.
“We take this alleged incident very seriously and are conducting a thorough, internal investigation,” Buffalo Wild Wings spokeswoman Claire Kudlata told the Naperville Sun. “We’re in direct communication with the guest to understand their account of what happened and to offer our deepest apologies for any unacceptable behavior.”
On Sunday, WFLD-TV reported that the employees in question had been fired, but did not give a number.
“We take this incident very seriously, and after conducting a thorough, internal investigation have terminated the employees involved,” a corporate spokesperson told WFLD. “Buffalo Wild Wings values an inclusive environment and has zero tolerance for discrimination of any kind.”
There was no word on whether the allegedly racist customers had been banned from the restaurant.
