Racism At Buffalo Wild Wings? Customers Speak Out About Treatment At Illinois Location, Restaurant Apologizes

In late October, a group of Buffalo Wild Wings customers in the Chicago suburb of Naperville were asked to move to another table. The group, which consisted of 18 individuals of many multiple races, were told that this was because another customer did not want to sit near black people.

On Tuesday, the customers from that group officially spoke out about the incident.

Speaking at a press conference, customer Justin Vahl said that the first offense came when the restaurant’s host asked the race of any additional members of their party. The host said that this was due to a regular customer who disliked sitting near black people. The group had attended basketball games together that day and were also celebrating a child’s birthday.

“I was appalled,” Vahl said. “I was immediately astonished I was even asked this question, but I responded, ‘What does that matter?’ and so the host said, ‘We have a regular customer here who doesn't want to sit around black people.’”

Vahl went on to describe how the customer in question continued to give them “dirty looks” as the night went on. While the group never interacted with them, the negative energy was plainly felt.

Two managers then came and asked the party once again to change tables. The group instead decided to walk out of the restaurant and contact the chain’s upper management about the incident.

“It brought tears to my eyes, to the point where when I walked out of the restaurant that night I called my mother and I couldn't even speak,” said Marcus Riley, another member of the group. “She answered the phone, it was dead silence, right, it's me with tears.”

Buffalo Wild Wings has since responded by firing the shift and service managers in the incident, and by banning the regular customer from all locations nationwide. The families involved in the incident are also asking for several more steps to prevent similar situations in the future: explicit zero-tolerance policies in company handbooks, signs in breakrooms devoting to fighting bigotry, and a hotline that people can use to report instances of racial prejudice.

“We have been in direct communication with the group of guests to understand their account of what happened and have offered our deepest apologies for any unacceptable behavior,” the company’s official statement reads.

“In addition to a company-wide RESPECT program we launched this fall, Buffalo Wild Wings will conduct sensitivity training throughout our Chicagoland sports bars in response to this incident.”