A server at an Austin IHOP probably wishes he had been more thoughtful when he served a traveling couple early Monday morning.
Arainia Brown and her boyfriend Rolman Sparkman stopped at an Austin IHOP around 3 a.m. Monday, KVUE reported.
All was well until the couple asked for the receipt.
When the waiter gave them their check, they weren’t thrilled with what it said.
There was no rude handwritten note and there were no out-of-the-ordinary charges.
What Sparkman and Brown took issue with was the at the top of the receipt.
It simply read “BLACK PPL.”
“You could have asked me my name,” said Brown, who added the incident was made worse because their server, Dwayne Williams, was also black. “Don’t ... label me. I don’t label you.”
Brown shared the receipt on Facebook rather than bring it up at the restaurant.
It has since been shared by multiple news outlets and the original receipt picture has been viewed thousands of times.
“This is not a joke,” Sparkman said. “It’s very serious and it hurt a lot of people’s feelings.”
"At the end of the day, everybody is a human being. Everybody is trying to work and make a living. Everybody is the same," Brown said.
KTBC reported that Williams apologized on Facebook and said he made the error in a rush to get orders out on a busy morning.
Williams said he was fired from the restaurant after the incident.
IHOP’s corporate office released the following statement about the incident:
“This was a poor choice made by our franchisee’s team member, and is not in keeping with policies and procedures. We recognize that it could be offensive and apologize. Everyone is welcome in our restaurants and our franchisee is using this as a teachable moment for the entire team so that it will not reoccur.”
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