A restaurant in Dallas, Texas, quickly went viral after a video of the owner raising his voice at Black women who were dancing was uploaded to social media.
The women were allegedly twerking and dancing on the furniture when Kevin Kelley, the owner, approached them.
“I invested a lot of money into buying this building, into developing this concept so Black people could have somewhere nice to go to,” said Kelley. He then went on to tell the women to take their twerking to other establishments.
“I want em to show respect for themselves for how they carry themselves here, so how can I tell the men to respect themselves and you guys are twerking glass here. If you want to do it, fu** out of my restaurant,” Kelley continued.
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True Kitchen + Kocktails bills itself as an “elevated comfort food” restaurant, according to the Dallas Morning News, and Kelley made it clear in the video that he was running just that – a restaurant, not a club.
One social media user posted the restaurant’s strict dress code, which dictates things like bodysuits and “casual headwear” such as du-rags and hair caps are prohibited. The list also includes “no slides — especially fuzzy ones” and “no explicit words or visuals.”
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After the initial social media backlash, TRUE Kitchen posted a now deleted Instagram post telling their side of the story.
“We don’t see this at white establishments and families who dine at TRUE want to enjoy music and food without seeing this behavior here,” the statement read.
The statement continued to say that no matter what music is playing, there is never an excuse for that kind of behavior. It also included how the 4-month-old business has supported the Black community thus far. However, that justification wasn’t enough for Black Twitter.
One Twitter user pointed out that the restaurant that prides itself on not being a club is selling party packages for New Year’s Eve. The tweet reads, “True kitchen is charging $10,000 for a section on New Years. 10 GRAND. PEEP THE TRUE NIGHTCLUB!! LMFAOOOOOOO.”
Another person pointed out the lack of professionalism surrounding the situation. He said, “Lmao the root of the issue is that on top of how unprofessional True Kitchen already was, the manager going off like that just made it 100x worse. The twerking doesn’t even matter in the grand scheme of things.”
“Yes she was wrong for twerking at the restaurant.. yes he was wrong for cursing at the entire restaurant.. and yes the music sets the tone for the atmosphere of the restaurant.. all of these things can be true,” one user chimed in.
Kevin Kelley took to Facebook Monday to not only apologize to those he offended but to provide the entire story surrounding the situation. He mentioned that the now-viral video was a result of him addressing the guests many times and provided additional videos as evidence.
“From the outset we knew TRUE Kitchen + Kocktails would not be for everyone but we hoped everyone would understand we are moving with a cause to give a diverse group of customers comfort food in a way never presented in Dallas,” Kelley states. He continues with, “we are moving with a cause to show other minority entrepreneurs they can own their building, own their restaurant and they can be successful growing their own brand. There is nothing that will deter my team from this cause. We want the full support of the community who understands our cause because we value you and we will be here ready, willing and able to serve you with respect.”
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