Three black women claim to have been asked to leave a Los Angeles-area Cheesecake Factory because of their race, NBC Los Angeles reported.
Latonia Whyte, Kimberly Jones, and Lucy Ngaujah all claim that, back in 2017, a white female server told them, “I’m closing you both out, and you people should leave,” roughly 20 minutes after they were seated, the complaint alleges.
While the server offered to bring them soup, the trio said they saw white families being served full meals in the restaurant.
“Our computers are down, and I’m not serving you people,” the waitress allegedly told them.
She said they would not be working for another 17-20 hours and brought the soup to the table, which arrived cold.
Whyte asked point blank if they were being treated differently because they were black, to which they claim the server replied, “Yeah, that too.”
Getting ready to leave the restaurant, they went to complain to a white female manager who seemed dismissive of their claims, when a male employee offered to serve them instead.
The plaintiffs allege they were finally able to order food two hours later. Shortly after, the manager they were speaking with earlier demanded Whyte hand over her cellphone for taking pictures of non-black guests who were being served.
“You all think you’re celebrities. Everybody wants to sue, and you are nobody,” they claim the manager said.
At that point, a black server came and waited on them for the rest of the night.
Several days later, Whyte says she submitted a complaint to a guest relations agent who offered a $25 gift certificate along with the message, “Very sorry to learn this visit was so disappointing,” the suit states.
In a statement, Sidney Greathouse, Cheesecake Factory’s vice president of legal services, said, “We do not tolerate discrimination in any of our business practices.”
“While we will not comment on the facts of the case, we deny the allegations in the complaint and look forward to this matter being resolved in the appropriate forum,” she continued.
This suit is the latest in a string of racial discrimination and civil rights lawsuits that have impacted popular eateries such as Starbucks and McDonalds.
