The Hole in the Wall Pub served blackened chicken wings with the phrase "I CANT BREATHE."
Brandon Gonzalez the server who brought out the order noticed the phrase on the ticket.
"I initially brushed it off as a mistake, but the owner came into the kitchen and mentioned the joke to the kitchen workers," Gonzalez said. "They just looked at him."
Gonzalez finished out his shift, collected his tips, and quit.
"I work a tipped job. He's the owner and he could have done anything he wanted with my tips. I couldn't just leave after working eight-plus hours," he explains, adding, "I don't want their money anymore. I don't want anything to do with them."
Gonzalez then took the receipt and posted it on Twitter.
"Yesterday I was at work and my boss, hole in the wall co-founder Sam, thought it’d be funny to change the 'Blackened' wings to 'I Can’t Breathe'. Attention miami locals do not support this disgusting establishment. I quit today. #BlackLivesMatter."
Sam Diedrick, owner of Hole in the Wall, posted an apology on his Instagram and Facebook accounts.
"I want to apologize for my insensitivity in a lame attempt at humor. My intentions were never to offend or make any employee or customer uncomfortable. I will take this incident and learn from my oafish behavior. I truly am sorry."
Gonzalez says he had worked at three of Hole in the Wall's four locations since January without incident.
"I worked at the Kings Creek and the 184th Street restaurants where there are Black people in the kitchen and they are my friends. I'm a minority myself and I know what they're going through," Gonzalez says, explaining that his background is Mexican and Nicaraguan. "We've been talking about this whole movement ever since George Floyd was murdered. "You don't make a joke about the movement when most of your kitchen staff is Black. I felt like ignoring this would be disrespectful to my friends and everyone who is part of the movement. I just had to leave.
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