Harlem Restaurant Criticized For Racially Profiling Several Black Women

Numerous African-American women alleged a restaurant in Harlem, New York, racially profiled them and also falsely accused them of dining and dashing.

One of the women, 45-year-old Tara Fitzgibbon, visited the restaurant named Angel of Harlem on Frederick Douglass Blvd. for the first time Feb. 10 with her two friends. Seeing that the restaurant was packed, they went to the bar, a New York Daily News report said.

The women then proceeded to order their drinks, when the manager of the eatery approached them and asked them how they were planning to pay.

Fitzgibbon, who grew up in Bronx but is now a resident of New Rochelle, Westchester County, said the manager asked them, “You were here last week, and ran up a tab and left.”

She was confused by the manager’s hostility and explained this was Fitzgibbon’s first time at the restaurant. Hearing this, Fitzgibbon said, the manager snatched the menu from her hands and accused her of lying, the report said.

He proceeded to yell, saying he had a video of Fitzgibbon at the restaurant, in which she can be seen dining and dashing. The manager’s reaction resulted in the whole restaurant becoming silent.

Fitzgibbon said, “We were beyond embarrassed. … I felt dehumanized.”

She described the manager as being white or Hispanic. He showed the surveillance video from his phone to Fitzgibbon upon seeing which she said the woman in the video looked “nothing” like her.

Fitzgibbon added when the manager was accusing her of lying, her friend Tamara Young asked the manager, “What, do all black people look alike to you?”

According to a police report registered by Young and Fitzgibbon, the manager shouted at them and told them to get out of the restaurant. When the women were walking out, the manager kept pushing Young.

Fitzgibbon said, “They made us feel as if we were criminals.”

Her experience was not the only case of racial profiling that happened in the restaurant Feb. 10.

Another woman named Kristina V. wrote in a Yelp review a female bartender at the eatery attempted to overcharge her. When Kristina tried to talk about the issue with the bartender, the latter went “belligerent” and said her boyfriend had been stealing alcohol.

Kristina, a resident of Harlem, wrote in her review, “We were told that my partner had been stealing drinks from the counter and that is why we were charged extra. … If he had been stealing, why weren’t we kicked out then? This doesn’t make any sense.”

She added she told the bartender she had no right to accuse her partner, to which the she replied, “I’m from Europe, b----.”

“Being from Europe should make no difference in the way patrons are treated or spoken to,” Kristina wrote. “It is eye-opening how establishments are treating locals in Harlem and what they allow their staff to get away with…I’ve never been treated this way in my own neighborhood. I will not be going back nor will I recommend this establishment to anyone again.”

The owner of the restaurant, Anahi Angelone, refused to talk about the particular allegations but confirmed the female bartender was reprimanded and was sent on leave for a few days due to the complaints regarding racial profiling, the report said.

Angelone said, “It’s very sad that it went down the way it went down, but there are two sides to every story.”

She did not explain as to what exactly she meant by “two sides,” but described both cases as “unfortunate misunderstandings,” the report said.