A Black couple alleges that a Missouri Waffle House denied them in-dining service because they were Black. The incident took place in a St. Charles restaurant when a sever told hem they had to take their meals t0-go, while at the same time other people were allowed to eat inside the restaurant according to KMOV 4.

Jimmiecia Benit and her wife Camry spent the day at Hollywood Casino in St. Charles when they decided to get dinner at the Waffle House that wasn’t too far away.

“Before we can even get in the door, an employee goes ‘you can only do to-go orders. We’re not taking dine-ins,’” Benit told KMOV 4. “We were dressed nice, came in properly, not loud, but as soon as we got to the door, no, only to-go orders.”

The couple initially thought nothing of not being allowed to eat inside, because of COVID-19 and they believed the restaurant was following guidelines. The couple ordered the food and waited for their to-go order. But while they waited an older white man came in and was allowed to sit down.

“We are sitting there looking at each other like, ‘you are going to let him sit down and a cup of coffee,’” Camry Benit said.

Then they started recording video as another couple, also white were able to sit down.

“I was in shock,” Jimmiecia Benit said. “Is this really happening?”

The server seemed exasperated.

“I am the only server here, and I am trying to catch up from the last shift. So, I have my own reasons for telling you this,” the server said in the video.

However, the Benits say at no point did anyone offer for them to sit down.

“I felt like I was begging, like, why wouldn’t you let me sit here and eat?” Jimmiecia Benit said.

The couple feels there is only one reason they were turned away. “Race,” Jimmiecia Benit said. “No other reason.”

The Benits’ attorney Lynette Petruska says “when the only customers who can’t dine in are the Black customers, it just doesn’t look like they are doing things for a legitimate reason.”

“Is this an isolated incident with an isolated server who did something wrong or does Waffle House have a systematic policy of trying to send a subtle message that African American customers aren’t welcome?” Petruska said.

Njeri Boss, a Vice President of Waffle House, told the news station, “We really are deeply sorry that we have two customers who had a bad experience with us and left feeling very unappreciated.”

Boss says the company has done an investigation into the situation. “Out of that investigation what we found was very poor customer service that was rendered by a very young, inexperienced and flustered server,” Boss said. However, she denies there was any racial motivation behind the incident.

“Earlier in the shifts, we have video of her serving no problem customers of diverse backgrounds, Black and white customers with no issue,” Boss said. The vice president says pandemic-related staffing shortages have made normal operations more difficult.

In the end, she said the company takes discrimination very seriously.

“I know it can’t take away the hurt that these customers feel and still feel, but we hope it goes a long way to understand that’s not who we are not and not what we stand for,” Boss said. Boss said the server voluntarily resigned and also added that the manager of that particular Waffle House is Black.

“I was humiliated,” Jimmiecia Benit said. “I just want to make sure it doesn’t happen to anyone else. Nobody else goes through this.”

The vice president offered the Benits to meet with their CEO about the experience.

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