BALTIMORE — The Atlas Restaurant Group is now saying that the incident that happened at Ouzo Bay was not racially motivated.
In June, Marcia Grant, an African American woman, released video of a situation that happened at the Baltimore restaurant. In the video, the audience can see that her nine-year-old son, Dallas, was wearing tennis shoes, athletic shorts and a t-shirt. As a result of this, they were told that his outfit was in violation of the restaurant's dress code, therefore, they could not eat there. Grant then pointed out a young white boy that was in similar clothes.
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In a statement on Friday, the restaurant group confirms that two managers were immediately fired, however, it wasn't because they were being racist. It was for how they handled the situation.
The owners feel that they should have had more empathy, better judgement and that they should have sat the family. They also stated the young white boy was actually in different clothes. According to them, he was in J. Crew-type khaki shorts with front and back pockets, a zipper and a button down closure in the front, while Dallas was in gym shorts.
To go along with their statement, the Atlas Restaurant Group also released several photos of black customers eating at the restaurant that day and six positive statements from black vendors and employees that they've worked with.
