Patrons question if restaurant segregates seating
Feb. 7—LENOIR — A number of Black customers say they felt slighted at a local restaurant following their seating assignments this past weekend.
On Saturday, Feb. 4 around 2 p.m., a local African American couple, Lozie and Dwayne Carson, decided to eat at the Mayflower Seafood restaurant located at 303 Blowing Rock Blvd. in Lenoir. In an interview with the News-Topic, Lozie said that she and her husband were seated in the back of the restaurant. After ordering their food, her husband noticed that other African American patrons were also being seated in their section, while white customers were being seated in the front area of the restaurant.
"Dwayne wanted to see if they would bring white people back here, but they didn't," said Lozie. "That's when we got to feeling kind of odd. We paid, left a tip, and I decided to call the manager on the way home."
Brian Harris, the owner of Mayflower Seafood, was "defensive" and "rude" during their phone conversation, according to Lozie. He explained to them that table seatings work on a rotation.
"He made me feel like it was my fault. I felt belittled whenever he said that," she said. "My husband was extremely upset."
Lozie's son, also named Dwayne, encouraged her to write an online review.
"When this started, my family wanted to be constructive. We're not looking for free food or anything," Dwayne said. "His response was irritating and unacceptable. We just want to make sure that when you have a negative experience, the owner respects the experience you had. It's his restaurant, sure, but patrons need to know, if they're spending money, to go somewhere where their opinion is respected."
In her online review, Lozie wrote, "Bad experience food was not good felt like they did not respect African Americans sat 3 groups of us in the back when there were tables out there with the white people could have been sitting all customers with the same hospitality will not recommend to anyone."
Eight minutes later, Harris wrote a response.
"The fact that you think a restaurant owned by a Native American, who has family that still lives on a reservation would segregate his restaurant, just shows how ignorant you are," he wrote. "We sit the restaurant in a rotation of sections and I tried to explain to you but you want to put race and how you perceive others above all obvious facts! Don't come back in here!!! It's my business and I don't like what you're insinuating!"
The News-Topic reached out to Harris to hear his side of the story.
"The restaurant is run with a rotation based on how people come in, like a hand on the clock," he explained in regards to the seating assignments. "It rotates all the way around, that's how it works ... I explained that to them. If you have ever worked in a restaurant, you'd know that the servers are set in a rotation. If those people had asked to sit anywhere else, we would have moved them.
"Why would I practice segregation?" he continued. "I'm a practicing Native American. My tribes were segregated; some of my people were even shipped off to other schools."
He added that where the Carsons were sitting was not in the very back of the restaurant, but on the left side, where bigger parties are typically seated.
When the Carsons told him they were going to leave a bad review, Harris told them that he would respond accordingly.
"They can insinuate all they want," he said. "I take offense when people call me a racist when I have been treated in the same way they have ... I just don't like to be bullied. It's plain and simple. I felt like them people were trying to bully me, and I'm just defending myself."
Lozie posted a photo on her Facebook page of her review and the owner's response. Nina Ervin, also an African American customer at the Mayflower, commented that she and her family were also seated in the back near the Carsons.
"I agree with your comments," Ervin wrote. "We noticed too that one by one we were all sat in the back as if we were all being segregated. What is upsetting is the response from the owner and blatantly telling you not to return!! ... We will not be eating there again. How dare they call anyone ignorant!"
Looking at other one-star reviews for the Mayflower Seafood restaurant online, Harris seems to have a history of responding similarly to customer's complaints.
Robin McNeal left a one-star review two months ago in which she wrote, "I've never got bad food here before but today me my husband and son stopped in for some good seafood. I got the Canadian flounder and baby shrimp and the fish didn't look nothing like Canadian flounder and wasn't done it was too fishy tasting far from being done. My husband got catfish and baby shrimp and his catfish was slimy. My son's steak was good. We took the fries with us. I told the lady our fish wasn't done and all she said was I'm sorry! We've never had this problem before with any of the food and it seemed she didn't care that our fish wasn't done! A nasty meal for $59.29. I won't do this again anytime soon."
The owner replied and wrote, "I own the restaurant, I delivered your food to your table and it looked perfect!!! You never had a complaint until it was time to pay the bill and if wasn't any good then why did you ask (for) boxes to take your generous portion of food home. $60 is not bad at all for a steak and two large combo fish plates. Please dine elsewhere, I won't be offended."
When asked about his way of responding to these complaints, Harris told the News-Topic, "When they tell me, 'I'm going to write a bad review,' I'm going to respond how I feel, and you can take it how you want it."
Lozie said that she and her family have no intentions to cause problems for Harris and his business. They are merely attempting to offer constructive criticism and bring awareness to how their experience in his restaurant made them feel.
"We pray for him," Lozie said. "Maybe this will give him awareness, so it won't happen again. Maybe if we call him out, he could do something different. Maybe talk to the servers, do better in the future."
