Texas Roadhouse says the accusation circulating this weekend that its white servers are deliberately contaminating food ordered by Black customers is completely unfounded, and that the company is investigating.
The statement went up about an hour ago. The company said it is aware of the video being shared with an accusation made toward its restaurants, that it believes the accusation to be completely unfounded, that it takes every accusation toward the brand seriously, and that it is investigating what it called alleged abhorrent behavior.
That was the second statement of the day. Roughly eight hours earlier, the company posted a more general message saying it does not tolerate discrimination, harassment or mistreatment of any kind and expects its staff to treat every guest with dignity. That version never mentioned what it was responding to. It also opened with a note that the company had lost its verification badge, so its replies in comment sections were not being seen, which is why it was posting statements as standalone images.
What set all of this off is a screenshot of a Facebook post, attributed to an account posting in a group with a white pride name. The post claims the writer belongs to a private Facebook group of white servers with more than 400,000 members who have organized to contaminate food ordered by Black diners, and specifically names Texas Roadhouse and Logan’s Roadhouse. It claims cooks are involved too.
What is not in question is why it spread the way it did. In 2023 a Black server at a Texas Roadhouse in the Cincinnati area described being called boy and hearing slurs from a party of diners in Confederate gear who ignored him all night. In 2016 the chain fired an employee in Colorado over a violent racist post about Mexican customers. In July of this year, a Black family said a manager at one of its locations questioned whether they should be served alcohol, and the company never publicly addressed it. Those are three incidents at one chain. Every Black person reading this can add their own.
So when a post shows up claiming the hostility has gone from rude service to something in the food, it does not land on a blank slate. It lands on decades of accumulated evidence that the room is not always safe.
Texas Roadhouse says it is investigating. No employee, location or specific incident has been publicly identified.
I worked in restaurants most of my life. This is some truth and that is that ANY restaurant and every server is capable and I have seen some disgusting things (difference for me is I told the diners) But one time I was with my family at El Torito our fav place to eat a once a week trip and we knew many who worked there except for this one day when they gave me shredded seasoned chicken as the grilled chicken tortilla and when I showed the waitress asked for it to be taken off the bill but 4 chefs and a couple more wanted to serve me something else and all kept looking at me. HELL NAW I will pass. Peace out