Dallas restaurant turned away WWII vets and POW...not wearing "business casual"

[rainbow4321]

That huge lit up, rotating ball that you see in the Dallas skyline..THAT is where this restaurant is located

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/101510dnmetbooted.285a300.html


Jay Coberly has faced many indignities in his 93 years.

He bounced off the roof of a barn and landed in a pig pen after his plane was shot down over Schweinfurt, Germany, in 1943. He lost 30 pounds during two years as a POW at Stalag Luft III, the camp depicted in the movie The Great Escape. He's dug through trash for food, eaten barley soup with his hands and slept in ankle-deep cow manure.

So Coberly couldn't help but laugh this week when a hostess at Wolfgang Puck's Five Sixty restaurant told him and five other war veterans they didn't look good enough to visit the high-end downtown Dallas eatery – a rotating dining room atop Reunion Tower, 560 feet above the city.

She said the men's unit baseball caps, POW T-shirts and shorts did not meet the restaurant's "business casual" dress code.



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Ahem

P: [phone]
F: [phone]

[SidDithers]

1. What does his war record have to do with his choice of wardrobe?...nt

Sid

[rainbow4321]

7. The group of them were visiting Dallas for their annual get together

They pick a different city each year and meet up there...this year they picked Dallas. None of them knew there was a restaurant dress code so they were dressed as tourists just picking a spot they wanted to visit, etc...

[left coaster]

15. I really have to ask the same thing..

..with all due respect to vets everywhere.. following the dress code of a privately owned business doesn't seem like such an imposition or insult to these men.. I've seen people get turned away from various places before, for not wearing the appropriate attire, and I've never seen anyone of those people make a big fuss.. good lord, my husband is a vet, and guess what? We try to check ahead so we know what to expect, and we adhere to the dress code of the establishment we wish to patronize.. that's what grown-ups do.. and if, on some occasion, we haven't been dressed right and were caught by surprise, we go elsewhere. BFD.

Trust some media fools to try and make this story a big deal.. you know what's truly disrespectful to vets? The way their benefits have been eroded on every front, by our very own gubmint, over the past fifteen years or so.. stand and fight where it really matters, fellas.

[MineralMan]

2. Uff da! There's a hostess who's going to be looking for work.

You just don't diss those folks that way. My father, who is 86 and a WWII B-17 pilot, would get my full support, and so will these guys. You just can't do that.

[Violet_Crumble]

19. Expecting them to follow the same rules as everyone else isn't dissing them...

Just because someone's a war veteran doesn't mean they should be able to ignore all the rules everyone else have to follow.

[LanternWaste]

3. Had some of my most romantic evenings begin there...

Had some of my most romantic evenings begin there.

On the other hand, I do make a point to gets answers about menu pricing, dress code, parking, etc. when I go out to eat to avoid inconveniences. But I imagine some people are prevented from doing that.

[w8liftinglady]

8. lol..I had a couple of good evenings there,too...but I also know the clientele-

A lot of folks don't realize that restaurants have dress codes that include "business casual",or feel their veteran apparel is welcome.bad choice on the waitress's part,or who ever made that decision.give me a freaking break.

[w8liftinglady]

4. that doesn't surprise me.Texans are well-known for their "veteran support"

and,as a member of VFP,I can get away with saying that.I'm sure some yuppie was offended and complained.

For what it's worth,the restaurant isn't that great,anyway.

[Liberal_in_LA]

5. OMG. Fancy places use to keep jackets to loan to men.

[jobycom]

6. No need to call, the restaurant already says the hostess was wrong.

Calling will just punish honest employees for a mistake that's already been corrected. The restaurant manager, the corporate manager, and the mayor of Dallas all apologized. The men got bottles of Scotch over it. Mistakes happen, but in this case it's already been acknowledged as a mistake and handled well enough. It was just some young hostess trained more on policy than common sense trying to do what she thought was her job.

[w8liftinglady]

9. that's cool.End of discussion,imho

[lpbk2713]

13. I have to wonder if they would not have been so quick to blame an "inexperienced employee" ...

if this story hadn't hit the media and if the Mayor had not gotten involved?

I can't believe the Mayor always intercedes in dress code violations.

[jobycom]

16. You do? I don't.

:rofl:

Of course the media's involvement made it all happen. I doubt the manager or the mayor would have heard about it otherwise. It's like the scene in "Blaze," where Governor Long asks his girlfriend "Would you love me if I wasn't the governor?" and she she answers "Would you love me if I was an overweight fish wife?"

But they did the right thing. What more can they do?

[indepat]

10. Well pucky fucky poo on you Wolfgang and your whole fucky pucky enterprise

:grr: :mad:

[Ian David]

11. Wolfgang Puck was a navy SEAL who became a cook on the U.S. Navy battleship Missouri ...

... and single-handedly repelled a gang of armed hijackers who sneaked on-board disguised as a band.

Oh, wait.

I was thinking of Steven Seagal.

[11 Bravo]

14. OK, that made me laugh.

:toast:

[woodsprite]

12. Puck ought to give them a lunch or dinner on the house. n/t

[Arkansas Granny]

17. This seems like a big non-story to me. The hostess was following the

dress policy that had been decided by restaurant management. It's unfortunate that anyone was offended by her doing her the job that she was hired to do. Being an old vet doesn't make you exempt from rules.

[johnnie]

18. I agree

If she would have been fired for not doing her job and letting them eat there then people would be complaining that she should have her job back.

[WolverineDG]

20. There's plenty of better places to eat in DT Dallas than that place

& much cheaper too.

dg