A Black woman and her 9-year-old son were denied service over the weekend at Ouzo Bay, an upscale Greek restaurant in Baltimore, after being told that her son’s outfit violated the restaurant’s dress code.
Marcia Grant and her son Dallas used her cellphone to record the confrontation with the restaurant’s manager before posting the footage on Facebook.
The video shows Dallas wearing an Air Jordan T-shirt with athletic shorts and sneakers. Grant then turns the camera toward a white boy wearing a similar outfit who was dining outside at the restaurant.
“I can’t really say why they wouldn’t let me in the restaurant originally. But once I pointed out to the guy that there was a white kid there with similar dress, I can only imagine that it was based on the fact that Dallas was Black,” Grant told “Good Morning America’s” Michael Strahan on Wednesday.
“I kept on insisting that, you know, the White kid has the same thing that Dallas has on, why won’t you let my son in,” she continued, holding back tears. “He just would not, regardless of how hard I pushed for [Dallas].”
Atlas Restaurant Group, which owns Ouzo Bay, issued an apology, calling the incident “incredibly disturbing.” The company said the two managers involved in the incident have been fired following an internal investigation, CBS News reported.
“This should have never happened, the manager seen in the video has been placed on indefinite leave,” Atlas said in a statement. “We are sickened by this incident. We sincerely apologize to Marcia Grant, her son and everyone impacted by this painful incident.”
