Buckle up, bitches, because I am pissed off. Last week, a server named Justin sent me a photo of a receipt he received while working at Hickory Tavern in Indian Trail, North Carolina. The customer, as assholes are so often wont to do, decided to leave a bit of social commentary written on the receipt explaining why they were unhappy with their dining experience. This particular customer wasn’t dissatisfied with the food or service, but was upset with the sexual orientation of the server.
Our gay waiter made me wanna throw up my food. Ruined my experience tonight. Will not be back.
After first concealing the name of the homophobic piece of shit, Justin sent the photo to a few of his friends on Snapchat and the next thing he knew, that photo ended up being shared to other social media outlets. Enough people saw the receipt that it encouraged one customer to come in the following day to try to make up for the insult by leaving him a $500 tip on a $2.75 check. Written on the receipt.
Justin, God is love. Jesus loves you and Hickory Tavern is lucky to have you. Merry Christmas!
I asked Justin about that tip and he explained to me that the man who left it to him told him that he had a gay son and no one should be talked to that way. Well, rather than this story having a happy ending where the original asshole learned a valuable lesson and Justin learned that there is more love in this world than hatred, Justin went to work the next day to discover he had been fired because “they have to protect their customers.” He’s not sure if he signed a social media contract prohibiting him from posting online about his job, but he was fired nonetheless.
Alright, here I go: Fuck. That. First off, Justin didn’t even expose the name of the person who spouted hate and I wish we had because I would be all over that garbage human right this very second. I mean, they want to complain that a gay person ruined their meal? Really? There are literally hundreds of things that straight people have ruined for gay men. For me, it starts with riding the school bus because in seventh grade some 15-year-old asshole put on a pair of “Fag Proof Glasses” and then announced to everyone that when he wears them he no longer sees me. Straight people have also ruined holding hands in public because if I do that with my husband, undoubtedly someone will call us fags. Straight people have literally murdered gay people just because they didn’t like them, but this asshole thinks her fucking chicken wings were ruined because a gay man is the one who placed her food on the table. Fuck that.
And fuck Hickory Tavern for caring more about the privacy of a hate-filled customer who spent $30 rather than the feelings and safety of one of their employees. Maybe Justin should not have posted the receipt, but he didn’t say the name of the person who wrote the note. You would think that in this situation they could have said, “Hey Justin, we understand how upsetting it must have been for you to receive that note, but in the future, maybe the best thing would be to not post a picture of it online. I’m sorry that happened to you and we have decided to ban that customer from ever coming here again because Hickory Tavern is a place where we want our employees to feel respected.” Instead, they just fired him which means they definitely care more about keeping homophobic customers than they do about keeping a valuable employee.
When Justin first sent me the photo, I told him I did not want to share it for fear of getting him into trouble. Now that he has been fired, he told me he no longer cares. He, just like me, wants people to know that this happens to gay people all the time. People decide to hate us for no reason other than who we are. We don’t know the name of the person who wrote on that receipt, but if enough people share it, perhaps it will eventually get back to them and they will know what a total piece of shit they are. And maybe they will have a tiny bit of remorse for writing it when they realize that Justin was fired for expressing his disappointment with the human race.
If you want to go to the Facebook page of Hickory Tavern to express your own disappointment in how this situation was handled click here. (Link disabled.) And if any of you run a restaurant in the area of Indian Trail, North Carolina and a server named Justin applies for a job, I hope you will give it to him. He doesn’t deserve to be unemployed.
UPDATE:
Jon
Homosexuals are ad disgusting as child molestors as most are by PERCENTAGE. Nothing good comes from thst deviant sinfull act. Lev20:13 enforcer. Also, I might be a closet homosexual and I am filled with self-hatred and loathing.
Molly
My serving days are over but as a cocktail waitress, I am shocked to know that this happens more often than we know. I am a legendary 50% tipper because I know how it is. I took a friend out for lunch and she was utterly horrified at my high tip. She tried to take the money back so I ran it up to the cashier so that the server would get the tip I intended. Greed is not good.
The Prozac Queen
So did he go back?
Nikki
I want to know if he got to keep that $500 tip! He deserves it.
Smh…I’m a server too, and there are good people out there (like that generous tipper!!), but most people just disgust me :/
Stef
Better question. WHAT WAS THE PATRON’S NAME.
G.B. Miller
Most, if not all, c/c receipts only show the last four digits of the card. Sometimes they’ll identify the carrier (i.e Visa or MasterCard), so that excuse is 100% bullshit.
Personally, it sounds like they only offered his job back as a p.r. move and not for actually wanting to hire him back.
Fred
Looks like they changed their mind! From their Facebook page
Posts
Hickory Tavern Sun Valley
3 hrs ·
We strongly condemn the insults directed at one of our team members in remarks left by a patron on their credit card receipt. We value diversity and do not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation or for any other reason. We also value the privacy of our patrons, and posting of credit card receipts violates our confidentiality policy. Although the team member was initially terminated for violating this policy, after further discussions with the team member, we made the decision to offer his job back. We strive to strike the right balance between supporting our team members and protecting the private information of our guests.
Mark
The posted picture DID contain the last 4 digits of the CC card and what type of card it was. I don’t know if that’s enough to do anything with, but maybe that’s what they meant.
I certainly believe a reprimand would have been sufficient, especially given the circumstances.
Morgan
Every receipt has that information on it. At least for restaurants and retail.
Josh
They just updated their facebook with this message:
“We strongly condemn the insults directed at one of our team members in remarks left by a patron on their credit card receipt. We value diversity and do not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation or for any other reason. We also value the privacy of our patrons, and posting of credit card receipts violates our confidentiality policy. Although the team member was initially terminated for violating this policy, after further discussions with the team member, we made the decision to offer his job back. We strive to strike the right balance between supporting our team members and protecting the private information of our guests.”
Philip
…but no private information was shared!!! Unless you were attempting to identify through handwriting recognition, or happened to get a DNA sample of the bigot’s acidic sweat, how the hell would he have been identified?
Regardless, a half-assed apology after a “oh, shit, we done fucked up!” And not even that.
River
I want to know, exactly, how did the customer even know that Justin was gay? Did he come to the table and say, “Hi, I am Justin, and I will be your fabulously gay waiter this evening?” if Justin did not introduce himself in this way, then his shitty awful homophobe of a customer made a pretty damn big assumption.My gaydar is good, personally, but sometimes I am wrong, too.
Injustice was done to this young man, both on the account of the customer as well as the restaurant. He’s effectively been fired for an assumption that a customer has made about what Justin does in his own private time, outside of the restaurant, and with consenting adults. I will be surprised and dismayed if several lawyers do not jump on the opportunity to sue the crap out of that restaurant. I also hope there is a big, fat, gay sit-in in that place. All people deserve fair and equal treatment. LOVE WINS!
Philip
Their Google reviews are imploding. Keep it up!
nolared
I’m a GM in New Orleans. I literally just had a guest come in 2wks ago and when he was greeted by one of my gay servers, he asked to be seated in the “hetero section”. He thought he was being funny. My server didn’t find it funny & told me about it. I didn’t find it funny either.
So I decided to stand up for my server. When the man asked me which way to the restroom, I asked him which one…the “hetero one”? And I proceeded to tell him how insulting that was to say to him and that we don’t tolerate bigotry in Nola (he was obviously a tourist)…I absolutely shamed him.
To his credit, he sat down, enjoyed his meal and tipped his gay server well…
John Evans
Good job!!!!!!
Just A Poor Server
Hopefully, a lesson will be learned here in all parts. Justin will learn that not every place of employment cares about its employees and he will find a better job, one where he’s accepted for who he is and treated with respect. The tavern will hopefully learn that pleasing guests shouldn’t always take precedence over making sure your employees are looked after. If you make sure your employees are happy, they will make the guests happy. There are exceptions, of course, and you should strive for guest satisfaction, but if your guest comes in and insults one of your servers/bussers/hosts/cooks/managers/etc. either physically, verbally, emotionally, psychologically, or even spiritually, then they are NOT a guest you want to come back and visit.
“Oh but what if they tell other people not to come!!” Good, let them. Their garbage friends probably share the same views. Or, more likely, they will lie about what happened during their visit and paint your business in a bad light. For every person that vows not to come back, there’s usually 2-3 around the corner willing to come in.
The sad thing is that the restaurant would have gotten so much love had they backed Justin up. Did he do something stupid? Yeah, he shouldn’t have posted that. He took the necessary measures to protect privacy, but he still shouldn’t have. A reprimand, verbal warning, anything else would have been fine, but they had to fire him to protect their guests? Bullshit.
They are gonna learn a painful lesson soon.
Lori Riis
It’s a relative of mine and he didn’t post it. Someone else did
Nichelle
You can’t leave a comment on the actual facebook page, but plenty of people have started commenting on all of their recent posts! Keep it up. #JusticeForJustin
Kathy
NC is the state that has bathrooms that transgender people can’t use. Maybe Justin will get a BETTER job. Let’s hope
Thomas Bell
It’s back up for those who are saying it is down. I can see it anyways. I will be letting them know how terrible it is to treat Justin that way! Thank you Bitchy Waiter for letting us know.
Cadavelier
Asshats! Looks like they took down their FB page. Cowards.
Amy Breckenridge
Lol tbe taverns fb page has been removed
popdeva
https://www.facebook.com/HT.Hickory/