The libertarian in me insists that a private business should be able to refuse business to anyone. Back in the days before all the pettifoggery about “places of public accommodation” became accepted, it wasn’t uncommon to see signs in bars, restaurants, and the like stating, “We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.”
These same private businesses, though, also have the right to expect their employees to accept management’s rules about who and who won’t be served. So when a District of Columbia restaurant server announced her refusal to wait on Trump officials, her employer took swift action that would probably bring a grin to the president-elect’s face.
A Washington, D.C.-area restaurant server has been fired after she spoke out about possibly refusing service to incoming Trump administration officials.
“I personally would refuse to serve any person in office who I know of as being a sex trafficker or trying to deport millions of people,” Suzannah Van Rooy, a server at Beuchert’s Saloon on Capitol Hill, told the Washingtonian this week. “It’s not, ‘Oh, we hate Republicans.’ It’s that this person has moral convictions that are strongly opposed to mine, and I don’t feel comfortable serving them.”
Suzannah Van Rooy is entitled to her opinion but not on her employer’s dime. Her employer acted decisively. And correctly.
Beuchert’s Saloon told Fox News Digital that Van Rooy’s remarks were “reprehensible” and she had been fired for violating their “zero-tolerance policy on discrimination.”
Beuchert’s said the former employee was a part-time server and not a manager. It put out statements on social media condemning her remarks after being made aware of them on Thursday.
“Recent comments made by a member of staff who had no authority to speak on behalf of our entire restaurant have been, quite rightly, flagged as inappropriate, hostile, intolerant, and unacceptable. This staff member does NOT speak for us as a restaurant,” Beuchert’s initial statement on Thursday said.
This is the correct response.
Restaurants are one of the more challenging small businesses to run. My father-in-law ran cafeterias for almost 60 years until we finally talked him into retiring a few months before his 80th birthday, and he is always citing the fact that restaurants have the highest failure rate of any similarly-sized business. So a restaurant on Capitol Hill, in the District of Columbia, cannot afford to alienate half of the possible customer base or to let a nitwit leftist employee do so.
Mind you if a server was refusing to serve Biden administration officials against their employer’s will, the same rule applies. This is the kind of case where one applies the “shoe on the other foot” rule. Principles, not principals.
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I’m not planning on hanging out on Capitol Hill any time soon — the closest any plans take me is to National Harbor, Maryland, and I don’t plan on heading into the District — but were I to find myself in the area, I would happily patronize Beuchert’s Saloon and I’m guessing I would enjoy the experience.
The restaurant added:
“We are still the same restaurant known for its warm service and friendly staff, and hope you will all visit us soon. We look forward to serving you. All of you,” it wrote.
That’s sensible. Beuchert’s business is serving food and drink, not political activism. It’s good that their management understands that.
