A Chicago-area restaurant owner has gone viral for all the wrong reasons as a video of a heated exchange he had with a Black customer in the street outside of his business has ignited a debate over race and the culture of tipping in the United States. In the now-viral video, Kenny Chou, the owner of the Table to Stix Ramen restaurant in Evanston, Illinois can be seen following a Black customer down the street after he paid for his meal but did not leave a tip.
“What do you want, bro?” the customer asks in the video. “I paid for my food.
The customer went on to explain that he left $20 for his meal which was just over $19 and that he is not obligated to come up with anything more. His response only got the owner more riled up as he launched into an expletive-filled rant about not being able to pay his staff.
“Shut your goddam f****** mouth. How are my staff supposed to make money? I’ll slap the s**t out of you,” Chou replied.
Fortunately, the altercation never got physical, but in the days since the video went live, Table to Stix Ramen has had to stop taking calls and has shut down its social media as it receives plenty of backlash from people who think the customer was unfairly targeted because he was Black.
Others online argued that restaurants shouldn’t see tipping as something mandatory and should pay their workers fair wages instead.
“Tipping culture has to end. The level of entitlement from both restaurant owners and servers to money that isn’t even theirs is absolutely insane,” wrote someone on YouTube.
Now that the confrontation has received thousands of views online, Chou told CBS News Chicago that he takes full responsibility for his actions and after watching the video is ashamed of his behavior. He added that he has since had a conversation with the customer’s brother where he said he’s open to talk. He also sent the brother home with the customer’s favorite dish and a hand-written apology.
“My door’s open for you man. Come by any time,” Chou said.