Racial Discriminiation Outrage at Eden Cafe

[slkinsey]

I was just made aware of this report by CBS 2's "Shame On You" segment. The deal is that they are denying reservations of their private rooms to black people and granting them to whites.

This place is in my (multi-ethnic) neighborhood, and I am now ashamed to say that I've had drinks there a time or two. Never again.

[docsconz]

Despicable. It certainly appears blatant.

[Rachel Perlow]

I love "Shame on You." If you look at the bottom of the page, the CVS in Montclair incident, that was sent in by an eGullet member and my friend. She was so upset by what happened and didn't know where else to turn so I told her to write in. I'm glad that Ms. Borden called in Arnold Diaz to expose these bigots.

[bloviatrix]

We've walked by there a couple of times and commented it looked like a nice place to keep in mind for drinks. I guess it's going on our verboten list.

I find it hard to believe that a manager would be doing that with out the permission of the owner. But that's just my opinion.

[Daniel]

I dont know if you should keep a grudge against a restaurant for something the manager has done. If he is still kept on, then you can blame the owner.

[slkinsey]

I find it hard to believe that a manager would be doing that with out the permission [or knowledge] of the owner.  But that's just my opinion.

My thoughts exactly. Daniel, this is a very small place. I find it hardly credible that this was all going on without the owner's knowledge.

Luckily, their drinks really aren't all that good, so we're not missing much staying away. I'll be interested to see what this report does to their business. If the owner's smart, he'll immediately fire the manager, make a public statement condeming his activities and offer the complaintant a free party in the private room.

[Daniel]

I was thinking that the owner most likely could care less who he does business with as long as they pay. I could see a manager using this practice because he might be the one to personally deal with the people he is racist towards. But like i said, i would be interested to see if the manager is still working there? Because that would provide more information as to wether the owner condoned this type of behavior.

[slkinsey]

If the owner wants to stay in business after this, regardless of his personal feelings on the matter, I don't see how he could possibly continue to employ the manager.

[bloviatrix]

Not that it's any excuse, but do you think something happened during a prior booking that caused this manager to engage in this despicable behavior?

It always looked like a place with a racially diverse crowd.

[KatieLoeb]

Regardless of whether the owner was in fact, aware of the discrimination, I think he'll be the one to pay the possible $50,000 fine as the owner of record, won't he?

The manager should be blackballed from the business.

The bad publicity alone will probably cause enough of a downturn in business to shut the doors soon enough.

[Brian Young]

If true, disgusting.

Best thing to do is never give them business and let the ultra competitive market swamp them

[Pan]

Truly shocking! But the bright side is that Arnold Diaz and his co-workers were able to publicize it. Diaz must get some satisfaction from knowing that he is able to help people through his work.

[Squeat Mungry]

I guess I don't have anything substantial to add to this thread, but I can't resist registering how repellant, how repulsive I find this.

In fact, now that I have decided to do so, I find myself at a loss of words.

I'm so sorry. It's so sad.

Squeat

[Mabelline]

How sad and truly ignorant...I am appalled by that; what year did youall say it was? Ms. Theola Borden has my apologies, and kudos for her excellence of handling a dirty, nasty, creepy thing. You go girl!!

[Pan]

But what's really sad is that Arnold Diaz can't be around to expose these abominations every time.

Edited March 19, 2004 by Pan (log)

[robyn]

I was just made aware of this report by CBS 2's "Shame On You" segment.  The deal is that they are denying reservations of their private rooms to black people and granting them to whites.

This place is in my (multi-ethnic) neighborhood, and I am now ashamed to say that I've had drinks there a time or two.  Never again.

Easy case. How about this one. It's clear that certain restaurants discriminate against certain sub-groups of African Americans. Like rappers - or people who dress and act like rappers.

A New York example is Bouley Bakery (I'm not sure it's still there - but I suspect the chef is still around). How do they discriminate? Dress code. No sneakers - or caps. I once found myself in Soho at lunch time and wanted to eat at Bouley. My shorts were ok. My husband's jeans were ok. But my sneakers and cap weren't. I could of course take off my cap - but I couldn't take off my footwear. By the way - Bouley isn't unusual. I ran into similar dress restrictions at a Beverly Hills restaurant (which was owned by an African American and served soul food). The rules are also - in somewhat different form - common in malls in my neck of the woods (no big sneakers with untied laces or caps worn backwards).

So is it ok for a restaurant to serve white people in jeans or shorts - but not to serve African Americans in sneakers? Robyn

[slkinsey]

Um... it sounds like they don't serve white people in sneakers either, so the question doesn't make any sense. That said, if you would like to start a thread on discrimination by restaurants via a dress code, please do. That's not the subject of this thread, however.

[Jinmyo]

Appalling.

[SWoodyWhite]

Quoting from the article reffed at the beginning:

“Our DJ is black, we have Mexican people in the kitchen," he told Diaz.

Just how many restaurants in NYC (or any major city, for that matter) don't employ Hispanics in the kitchen? Who does he think he's bluffing here?

More to the point, once hired, do the "Mexican people" have any chance of being promoted within the ranks?

[Stone]

Um... it sounds like they don't serve white people in sneakers either, so the question doesn't make any sense. That said, if you would like to start a thread on discrimination by restaurants via a dress code, please do. That's not the subject of this thread, however.

Actually, there are a lot of examples of dress-codes that are targeted at certain groups. In DC in the late 80s early 90s, a lot of bars banned baseball hats, leather jackets and gold chains. Even though it was evenly enforced, the gold chain ban was clearly an attempt to keep out the then burgeoning rap/hip hop crowd. A similar analogy would be police departments that banned certain hairstyles, including cornrows and dreadlocks. Such bans primarily affect African-Americans.

I don't have any reason to believe that a restaurant's ban against sneakers is racially motivated, but you can't be certain that it's not.

[lia]

In addition to Eden's manager being a racist, he's also apparently pretty stupid, but those two qualities tend to go hand in hand....

I don't know, perhaps i'm over paranoid, but if i was going to deny a reservation for a private room to two people, then shortly after have two OTHER people just happen to request the room for the SAME DAY, i might think something's up. guess he didn't. ok, march 6 is a saturday night, but still.

[winesonoma]

You gotta dress code I don't have a problem with that. Menlo park says Jacket and tie. Sonoma says show me the money. That's why I live where I live. Make it equal and tell me what I gotta wear to eat here. I wear what I want and I eat where I please.

[Sumontana]

Let me tell you a quick story. Two years ago I worked as a front maitreD for a high end restaurant. It had a front room and a back room. It seemed thed owner wanted the regulars, vips, the ones of more affluence to sit in the front room. He usually would first go through the reservations , see who he knows and tell me where he wanted them to sit , then tell me I can figure out the rest of the room. One day I sat in the front room a sweet older asian couple that had VIP on their reservation,but then my owner pulled me aside and gave me a long list of who he wants sitting in the front and in the back, and I was shocked that racism had a lot to do with it. Heck, another restaurant I worked at recently the front maitreD at another popular restaurant used to come to me in a panic quite often worried that he might have to sit some elderly couple in the PX area. My point is, don't count out the owner as being part of this, and that racism , ageism even is still rampant in these trendy restaurants.

[slkinsey]

Shame on you just ran a follow up on Eden Cafe.

Eden Bar's owner Claude Waryniak said he was shocked. "I was outraged because I never knew he was a racist," he said, adding "So I want to apologize."

Well, the owner promised there would be changes made and based upon the results of our recent test it seems he's kept his word.

This time, our recent black test couple spoke with a new manager.

"What's happened with Alan Bresson?" Diaz asked. "Well, Alan is no longer there...it was one bad seed, I think. And thank God it’s out," Waryniak said.

The new manager was both friendly and accommodating, offering the black couple lots of open dates in June.

"How do I book it?," our undercover tester asked. "Just tell me, we put it down, it's easy," the manager said.

No problems. Just the way it should be.

The report said that Eden paid a fine of around $10k and also settled with the original complainant for a similar amount. The owner turned out to be a person of color himself, which puts to rest any questions I might have had as to the origins of the racism troubles there.

Perhaps it's time to stop in for a drink.

[Pan]

I'm glad you posted that followup, Sam. Thanks.