Two diners at a restaurant in New Jersey left a hateful suggestion instead of cash for their multilingual server, according to the restaurant’s owner.
Scrawled on the back of their guest check, the couple wrote:
Don’t Tip Immigrants!!!
Santiago Orosco is the proprietor of Under the Moon Café in Bordentown, New Jersey. He assailed the anti-immigrant message left by those diners in a social media post over the weekend.
At first glance, Orosco noted, everything seemed okay.
“Thursday night we had a couple come in to dine at our restaurant, they were in their mid to late 40’s, raved about the food, the décor and the service,” the lengthy Facebook update begins. “Upon arrival they seemed very excited about dining at Under the Moon, complementing the ambiance, as well as all the recommendations that our server had made. At the end of service our server grabbed the check from the table, told the customers goodnight and thanked them as they were leaving.”
Orosco then explained what happened after those seemingly normal and gracious diners left:
While our server was closing out for the evening and reconciling sales receipts, she noticed that these customers had written a note on the back of their bill stating, “DON’T TIP IMMIGRANTS”. I can only assume that they heard our American multi-lingual server speak Spanish to another employee. I am utterly shocked at this blatant ignorance.
Lorena Bossi is the server who waited on the couple before receiving their brief anti-immigrant screed.
In comments to local ABC affiliate WPVI, Bossi said the mood soured after she thanked another employee for helping her bus a table.
“I spoke Spanish to him and I thanked him ’cause he was helping me clean up because he doesn’t have to do that,” she said. “It was so weird that they had just transitioned from loving me as a person to all of a sudden ‘Oh, she speaks Spanish. She must be an immigrant. Let’s leave.'”
Later on in the Facebook post, Orosco described his own experience as an immigrant who came to the United States in 1991.
“I am a very proud immigrant,” Orosco wrote. “I came to this wonderful country for a better future, which, with a lot of sacrifice, heartache, pain and sweat I have accomplished. My family has tirelessly worked to create a great life and I owe it to this country and all its opportunity (America has always been great!!!). Immigration and cultural blending are what created this special country; I truly believe that immigrants are key contributors to our society.”
Finally, Orosco had a couple of pointed messages for the diners themselves.
One was an all-caps request/demand: “PLEASE DO NOT COME BACK!!!”
The second message made note of the couple’s basic error in judgment–aside from their bigotry and opposition to immigrants being paid for work performed.
“PS,” Orosco noted. “Your server, who helped create an excellent experience for you, who you discriminated against with written ignorance and no tip, is not an immigrant, she is of Spanish descent, born in America and is multi-lingual.”
[Image via screengrab/WPVI]