Posted on 08/19/2005 11:02:33 AM PDT by ExitPurgamentum
By HEIDI SINGER and CYNTHIA R. FAGENFri Aug 19, 6:00 AM ET
A posh Jersey Shore eatery, under fire for referring to a pair of diners as a "Jew Couple" on their check, is in hot water again.
Longtime customer Joanne Fordyce said she was outraged when she noticed that her check from Parkhill's Waterfront Grill in Loch Arbour printed, just below her table number, "Dirty Joanne."
"They're real nice to your face and then they let you know how they really feel when you get the check," said an outraged Fordyce, a human-resources director.
She said she was so shocked, she held onto her July 15, 2004, receipt for a year.
Fordyce said she bought $9 worth of cocktails at the bar, and added a generous $5 tip.
Later, she noticed the "Dirty" insult.
"How nice could I be? I felt like an ass after that," she said.
"I was going to let it go, but now I see they are still doing it.
"This is definitely not the normal practice if you want to stay in business. I know there are plenty of my friends that have had bad experiences there. That's why they don't go anymore."
She said that in her case, it was a female bartender who wrote up the check.
"I don't know, maybe the bartender is jealous because we drive a Mercedes. But they don't have to be jealous any longer. We just don't want to go there and be treated like this," she said angrily.
Fordyce, 34, said she decided to come forward after reading about diner Elliot Stein's shocking experience at Parkhill's, in Wednesday's Post.
In that July 8 incident, Stein's check referred to the 23-year-old Brooklyn shoe buyer and his girlfriend, Jennifer Cassin, as "Jew Couple."
"This is still going on? It's amazing," Fordyce said in disbelief.
She said she had a similar experience to Stein's when she went to complain to the same manager, Malia Wells, and received the cold shoulder.
"I was blown off like it didn't matter," said Fordyce, who lives in the area. "There was no apology."
Fordyce, who had been a Parkhill patron for seven years, said she once spent $3,000 on a baby shower at the eatery.
Fordyce yesterday filed a complaint with the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights.
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I liked it as Bob Davises (Sp???)
Haven't heard anyone else say it so I will: I bet these people are writing the comments themselves. Like people who put a roach in their food and try to get a free meal, only they are after 1) attention, or 2) a lawsuit.
Oh come on.
She could have walked out of the bathroom without washing her hands. She could tell dirty jokes. She HAS dirty blond hair. She could have stepped in poo before she came in. She could leave the table a mess when she leaves. She could like her martini's dirty. She might be a dirty girl!
But to leap to "dirty Jew"?
And yes, I AM a Jew. Sometimes dirty, but only because I work in the oilfield!
You confuse generosity with a gratuity, which was the crux of my post.
A TIP is a gratuity. A gratuity is an additional payment for services satisfactorily rendered, and therefore a transaction.
Generosity is an act of charity performed for the love of one's fellow human beings, and requires nothing in return.
Correct --- unless it happens in a business setting, where it it is behavior.
Serving customers is not speech, it is action.
I certainly DON'T want the government to go after the restaurant owners if they scream "Dirty Jew" in the street or spew their hatred in their own home. A abhor that but don't want the government to interfere. Business setting is about actions, not speech.
'cuz she does!
Why would anybody assume that the management condones such behaviour? I guess I am missing something.
I see. Racists don't offend you. This side of America is OK by your book. It's the thin-skinned people that are a problem.
I see. I really do. Thanks for letting me know what kind of person you are --- a true conservative.
Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded.
- Yogi Berra
That's two "ifs" there. Added to the one from yesterday. If "Jew couple" was meant to be an insult, and not an honest mistake in terminology. Many a FReeper here, without malice, confessed yesterday to having no idea that "Jew" is offensive when used as an adjective.
Certainly, if a slur was intended, there is no place for that. And any restaurant that allows its employees to identify patrons in a, well, patronizing manner, is just asking for trouble. I wonder when we'll here the complaints from "Stinky Bill" and "Laura Lush."
But I don't see how calling a blond "dirty" is supposed to automatically be a slur against Jews. Maybe she, in her years of patronage, slept around? Maybe she told dirty jokes? Who knows?
SD
Interesting, in looking for articles on the incident, I noticed an article referencing an increase in bias incidents in what looks to be the area.
I don't blame the woman for trying to get back at the restaurant. And wanting everyone to know about it to try to hurt their business.
The fact that she's "suing" is probably what has people here in an uproar.
Please don't doubt that if they were placing ignorant slurs on the check.....well you can just guess what they were doing to your food back in the kitchen!
Management does not have a policy of identifying orders by table number or something like that. Instead, the waitstaff routinely uses personal identifiers. This is just asking for someone to take offense.
SD
Instead of 1 or 2, try starting with
0) Read article before commenting. :>)
These are computor generated identifiers printed on the bill.
If that was meant to be sarcastic, you probably should have left no doubt by including something like a "[/sarcasm]" tag.
Otherwise, keep it up and don't be surprised when the FR powers-that-be decide you're a troll (troublemaker) just itching for banishment.
Whaaaaat? Are they too stupid to memorize table numbers? Jeez...And since when do the servers set policy? Inmates running the asylum. I hope they get sued right out of business.
It is not. Please read my preceding posts: it appears that you, like other good-hearted people on this thread, are simply unaware that "dirty" was an abbreviation of a well-known, old smear "dirty Jew."
The authors apparently thought thaught that it was so well-known that they did not explain that. That was a mistake.
This is much like someone telling to a black person, "Go eat a watermelon." If you don't know that that was (and apparently still) used as a slur, you may think that the black person that hears this and reacts to it as an insult is over-reacting: what's wrng with eating a watermelon?
You have to know the context.
Doubt it. If you read the articles there's nothing to indicate she's suing. She's simply filing an affadavit with the NJ Division of Civil Rights.
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