The owner of a Mexican restaurant has been forced to post a strong response after a customer wrote a racist message on a receipt instead of leaving a tip.
Vanessa Martinez, owner of Charrito’s Bar & Grill in Huntsville, Alabama, took to Facebook to reply strongly to the aggressor, who had suddenly turned nasty after what had been a normal restaurant visit up until the end of it.
According to local news sources, the man had been completely normal up until he was approached by waitstaff toward the end of his meal. When asked if he was paying by cash or by card, the man reportedly replied: "Do white people ever use cash?"
Only after the man left did staff think to pay attention to his receipt, where instead of a tip, the customer left a racist and threatening message.
"Brown c***s," said the horrible message written on the receipt, before he added: "Trump [referring to US President Donald Trump] will f*** you all."
In response, Martinez, posting to Facebook using the restaurant's account, swiftly rebuked the message on the receipt, underlining Charrito's commitment to acceptance and tolerance in the process. "Now this!!! We are a local family owned and operated business," she began.
"Our employees and most of our customers are like family. They have been with us in the good and in the bad times. We don't care about your political background, your race or what gender you prefer, ALL ARE WELCOME!!! We treat each customer with respect and we welcome everyone with open arms and a smile."
Addressing the rude customer in question, Martinez explained that another customer had clued the restaurant staff in to what was going on, before offering a clear and assertive response.
"Last night it was brought to our attention, from another customer, that a customer out of nowhere left this rude and awful message to staff and customers that were sitting in the bar area. We would like to let everyone know that this behavior is not tolerated in our restaurant. Our staff and any customers in our facility require respect."
Martinez made it clear that were this customer, or any other customer with similar views, to return to Charrito's any time soon, they would not be welcome at the restaurant.
"If you do not agree with this please save us the time and hassle and don't come in. YOU ARE NOT WELCOMED!! To everyone else we cannot thank you enough for all the love, support and appreciation that you all give us and we have for all of you. May God bless you all!!! Muchas Gracias!"
Martinez's response was extremely popular, with nearly 1,000 people reacting to her post, while many commented on the photo. "Let's not make this about Trump and agree that it is not tolerable to spread hatred," said one commenter - a sentiment echoed throughout the Facebook post.
The note was posted on Facebook four days ago, back on February 10.
