UPDATE (4:50 pm): Owners of Triple XXX respond to allegations of discrimination

By Staff Reports

Publication Date: 11/10/2008

 The owners of Triple XXX Family Restaurant, 2 N. Salisbury St., released a statement today regarding an incident during the early morning hours of Nov. 2. In that incident, restaurant employees asked seven patrons – all of whom are black – to wait outside when there were open seats available inside the establishment.

The patrons were also asked to leave after a confrontation with a waitress, a request interpreted by the seven patrons to be racially motivated. Although the police have not released an official report on the incident, Meisha Waters, a senior in the College of Pharmacy, Nursing and Health Sciences, said her friend, who was five months pregnant, was grabbed by a man who appeared to be a security guard and was pushed into a window, which subsequently broke.

Greg and Carrie Ehresman, the restaurant owners, released the following statement regarding the incident:

“As a family owned and operated restaurant, we place the highest value on the relationships we have built with our customers and the community over the years.

“We highly value the diversity of this culturally rich community in which we live and which has been so supportive of our businesses.

“It has been suggested that an incident recently occurred at our restaurant which was motivated in some part by considerations of race. We find that repugnant. Upon learning of the incident we promptly contacted the West Lafayette Police Department and personally asked for a thorough investigation of the incident.

“Although we have never been contacted by any of the individuals involved in the incident, we understand that customers were asked to wait outside until seating was available.

“We ask the public to understand that we are required to comply with occupancy and fire regulations which limit and restrict the number of individuals in our business; this is the only reason we must occasionally ask patrons to wait outside until we can clean and prepare the counter for incoming patrons.

“We often ask patrons to adjust their seating to accommodate incoming customers so that we can maximize seating occupancy and limit the wait time for incoming patrons.

“We never have, and we never will tolerate discriminatory practices with respect to the services we provide to other customers.

“No one wants to have false accusations made against them, including us.

“If the continuing investigation indicates that any of our employees have acted improperly, we intend to take prompt and appropriate disciplinary action to assure that standards of conduct we so highly value are maintained. We will take whatever actions are required to make sure that the actions of our employees reflect the values of our family and the Triple XXX Restaurant, as we continue to strive to provide and maintain the highest possible standards of hospitality and service to all of our guests.”

For more on this story read Tuesday’s Exponent.