Le Bilboquet French bistro in Buckhead Atlanta was trending for all the wrong reasons last month after reportedly turning away former NBA legend Dominique Wilkins for wearing casual clothing.
At the time, Wilkins, a longtime star for the Atlanta Hawks, blasted the restaurant and accused it of discriminating against him due to his race.
“In my many years in the world, I’ve eaten at some of the greatest
restaurants in the world, but never have I felt prejudice or been turned away because of the color of my skin, until today,” Wilkins tweeted on May 22.The restaurant followed up with an apology to Wilkins and an update to its “business casual” dress code to include jeans and sneakers, Fox News reports.
“We, at Le Bilboquet, do our best to accommodate all of our guests. However, we have received consistent complaints from our patrons regarding other guest’s wardrobe choices,” the restaurant said. “As a result, to protect our restaurant’s culture, we installed a minimum standard in our ‘business casual attire dress code which includes jeans and sneakers but prohibits baseball caps and athletic clothing including sweat pants and tops.”
However, it’s now been revealed that The Real Housewives of Atlanta star Shamea Morton was also turned away from the same establishment on April 8 despite being dressed in “fashionable” attire.
“Morton came to Le Bilboquet around 3 pm for a business meeting,” a source familiar with the incident told EURWeb. “She had a reservation already in place. At the time, Shamea entered the establishment wearing a Fashionable suit. She was immediately told by management that she wouldn’t be allowed entry based on her attire.”
The insider detailed Shamea began to notice all of the “Caucasian” guests seated but not in compliance with the enforced dress policy.
“Shamea started recording videos of different ‘Caucasian’ guests wearing sneakers, some wearing ‘Slides’ which were prohibited according to the listed dress code,” the source said. After bringing this to the manager Mark’s attention, the insider claims the manager “insisted that they were within their rights to be seated.”
“Shamea went on to show Mark a video of a Caucasian woman wearing ‘Slides’ that were on the restricted Dress code list and his reply was simply ‘Those are Pretty,'” the source said.
A video clip supports Shamea’s claims of White patrons casually dressed. The source said Shamea told has been turned away from the establishment three times.
When considering Shamea and Wilkins’ experiences with the restaurant, they might want to consider hiring some inclusion consultants to help them get with the times.