A woman named Sara Farsakh recently posted on Facebook about the allegedly discriminatory treatment she and friends received while dining at Urth Caffé in Laguna Beach, Calif. In her Facebook post — embedded below — she writes that her friends were asked to leave the restaurant, ostensibly because they had been sitting for over 45 minutes, and had to give up their table to other customers per restaurant policy. Because there were many empty tables though, Farsakh believes restaurant staff asked them to leave because they were “visibly Muslim,” wearing hijabs.
Apparently, while Farsakh and her friends were waiting for their dessert and coffee, an employee named Tino told them that they would have to leave within 10 minutes, according to restaurant rules. Farsakh and her party didn’t believe they were breaking the rules:
We pointed out to Tino that according to the policy, so long as there are tables available we could remain for as long as we wished. We also pointed out that, just within our vicinity there were a number of empty tables (see the video below).
Tino simply ignored our responses and again insisted we had 10 minutes to leave or he would call the police to escort us out. We tried talking to multiple staff members to understand why we were being asked to leave and how it was in compliance with the policies stated on the tables. None of the staff could give us a clear answer, nor did they themselves seem to understand why we had been asked to leave.
A neighboring party of white women stuck up for Farsakh and her friends, saying that they had been sitting down for longer, but weren’t asked to leave. And when the police were called, they agreed that nobody broke restaurant policy, but that a private business had the right to refuse service anyhow. Attached to the Facebook post is a video of Farsakh showing how many empty tables there are in the restaurant, and of the police agreeing that they were asking them to leave, even though they had not violated Urth Caffé’s policy. Farsakh also posted a photo of the restaurant policy, stating that patrons could sit as long as they wanted if there were other free tables.
Farsakh concludes:
I truly believe that because I was sitting with visibly Muslim women, we were singled out when we were asked to leave. I can’t even begin to express the feelings of embarrassment and humiliation as police officers were called to escort out a group of Muslim women from a restaurant. Shame on you Urth Caffe for your disgusting and racist treatment of paying customers.
