Not with the fried jalapeños
Natalie Wester and her husband were waiting for their appetizer to arrive when the server came to their table, not with the fried jalapeños, but an ultimatum.
Take your masks off or get out.
On Sept. 10, the couple left their 4-month-old son, Austin, with his maternal grandmother and went to Hang Time Sports Grill & Bar in Rowlett, Tex., a Dallas suburb — a rare night out for the young parents, Wester told The Washington Post…
]T]hey got kicked out in what Wester called a “bizarre” incident because they chose to wear masks to protect Austin, who has cystic fibrosis and is immunocompromised. The restaurant bans customers from wearing masks as part of its dress code, something owner Tom Blackmer said is his right as someone who purchased and has invested in a private business.
Except that it’s not a dress code, it’s a medical issue.
After they made their way into the restaurant, Wester and her husband, 25-year-old Jose Lopez, put the masks back on, met some friends and ordered drinks and an appetizer.
About 30 minutes later, their server came over and sat next to Wester. She told her that the manager had sent her “because I am nicer than he is. … But this is political and I need you to take your masks off.”
But this is not political, it’s simply made political by fanatical I can do whatever I wanters.
Wester and Lopez left the restaurant.
Some childish part of me feels that the correct response would have been to take off their masks and proceed to cough theatrically for the duration.
What to call this. It’s more than just being an asshole. Vice signalling? Performative Trumpism?
Are there other medical devices people are supposed to dispense with upon crossing the threshold of this establishment? Canes? Wheelchairs? Pacemakers? I realize that the mask is not an item of clothing, but just imagine the owner demanding the removal of other specified articles of apparel. I wonder if they have any “No shoes, no shirt, no service” signs posted?
Is this even legal, to require someone to be more likely to catch a deadly disease to use your business? I feel like it’s gotta be against the Americans with Disabilities Act or something.
Good question. There may be different laws for essential v non-essential services and businesses?
Probably in a grey area, but I’d hazard that it’d be a state level thing which in Texas, well, who knows?
Doesn’t strike me as even close to a gray area.
Private businesses can generally impose whatever requirements they like on their customers, however irrational or stupid or morally offensive, unless they violate a specific legal right (e.g. discrimination on the basis of race, gender, or other protected characteristic).
And I seriously doubt that “my right to wear a mask for the 20% of the time I’m inside the restaurant, before the fried jalapenos arrive and again after the dessert course while we’re waiting for the check, but not the 80% in between while we’re eating” is going to be covered by any statute.
The only law anyone has cited here as being potentially applicable is the ADA, but (1) I doubt that “wanting to wear a mask some of the time because of our child at home’s medical condition” would meet the ADA’s definition of disability; and (2) the ADA doesn’t allow a person’s disabilities to override any rules, they’re only entitled to a “reasonable accommodation.”
As many beleaguered store employees have had to explain to anti-maskers who declared that mask rules were a violation of the ADA, “wait outside and we’ll bring your food/shopping purchases to you” is a reasonable accommodation.
This restaurant is stupid and immoral and has idiotic rules. People should boycott them, mock them, criticize them ruthlessly. But not every stupid or immoral or idiotic thing can or should be addressed by litigation.