Bikini top gets woman kicked out of Alabama restaurant. ‘Ludicrous and unnecessary’
A woman wearing a bikini-style top to an Alabama restaurant said she was harassed and embarrassed by a manager who told her she needed to cover up.
Aireal Bonner refused to put on a shirt given to her Friday by the manager at Birmingham’s Southern Kitchen & Bar, leading to the general manager asking her to leave.
The woman, who is Black, said she was being racially discriminated against by the privately owned restaurant. Responding to those allegations, the restaurant said the incident was strictly over Bonner’s attire.
“The event in question centered around a manager observing her in what appeared to be a bikini top, which is not consistent with our appropriate attire policy,” Southern Kitchen & Bar wrote on Instagram. “As a family-friendly, neighborhood restaurant, we have an appropriate attire policy in place to provide an experience that meets both our standards as a brand and our clientele’s expectations.”
Bonner said the restaurant did not post its clothing policies inside the business, according to WIAT. They are also not listed on the restaurant’s website.
The woman was wearing a crochet top and pants to the restaurant, pictures and video posted on Facebook show. Bonner also shared video on Facebook of the manager approaching her about the outfit.
“I’m trying to provide you one for free,” the manager said, referring to a shirt she had in her hand. Bonner responded by telling the owner would need to come talk to her himself about her attire.
In a Facebook post where she outlined the incident, Bonner called the request by the manager “ludicrous and unnecessary.”
“I was threatened with police action simply because I wanted to sit and eat in an outfit that I felt comfortable and happy in,” Bonner wrote. “There was no customer complaint that prompted the situation. This was purely the way that the ‘owner’ chose to run his business.”
A second video shows the general manager and Bonner exchanging words before the woman exits the restaurant. Bonner claimed the general manager aggressively yelled in her face.
By not posting its dress code, the restaurant, Bonner said, left “the door open to discrimination and instances like this where they can make up rules on the spot,” according to WIAT.
“One day it can be my clothing. The next day it could be somebody else’s hair,” she told the station.
Protesters planned to gather at the restaurant Wednesday afternoon dressed in swimwear before the gathering was canceled due to weather. A second protest put on by Alabama Rally Against Injustice is scheduled for Saturday.
Southern Kitchen & Bar took down its Facebook page, and a slew of negative reviews has been left on its Yelp and Google pages. In its statement on Instagram, the restaurant apologized for interrupting Bonner’s dinner to address her clothing.
“Clearly, the matter should have been discretely handled upon the patron’s entry into our restaurant,” it said. “But we should also not the attempt to follow company police was ill-timed but not ill-intentioned.”
Bonner said in a Facebook post Tuesday she does not accept the restaurant’s apology.
“My clothing was an excuse to not have me dine there,” Bonner told WIAT. “I think the biggest issue with my appearance is that I look very Afrocentric. My hair is an afro texture. The way that I dress is Afrocentric. So I believe that because they can’t directly say things like ‘We don’t like the color of your skin, we don’t like the way that your hair looks,’ my clothing was just used as an excuse.”
This story was originally published August 11, 2021 at 3:05 PM with the headline "Bikini top gets woman kicked out of Alabama restaurant. ‘Ludicrous and unnecessary’."