FEDERAL WAY, Wash. — A customer called out a waitress and manager at the Federal Way, Washington, Denny's online Thursday after what he called a racist incident.
The customer, Palmer L. Pellham, said he watched as a waitress and her manager targeted a group of young African-American men, asking them – and only them – to pay for their food in advance.
Pellham narrated the incident in a Facebook post that he made public and which was then shared more than 32,000 times.
Pellham said the group of young men had to wait about 10 minutes before they were seated, though the restaurant was empty.
“The server comes out … and walks over to the young men’s table with their order slips,” Pellham writes. “She then asks for them to pay before the cook will prepare their food.”
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Pellham said the waitress told the group she had several people order food and leave without paying, so her manager said she had to have them pay in advance.
Pellham told the group of men to ask the manager why they were asked to pay in advance when Pellham and Pellham's wife, Esther, were not.
Denny's officials wrote on the chain's Facebook page early Saturday morning, condemning the incident and saying the employees involved had been fired after a swift investigation.