Therapy Café and Six Figure Entertainment used to have a working relationship.
But those days are over and allegations of racism are floating around the Internet after Kirk Brown, CEO of Six Figure Entertainment, a local promotions company, sent out an e-mail blast accusing the martini bar of racial insensitivity. According to the e-mail:
We’ve … become aware of an undertone of racial insensitivity to the patrons of SFE as noted by many of you via the automatic addition of 20% gratuity to your bills. For your information, this occurred based upon the comments and attitudes of the management staff that “African-American People Don’t Tip.” If this were simply the attitude of the employees, our relationship could possibly be sustained through diversity training etc.; however since this is the attitude of management it is best that we part company now. We do not condone and WILL NOT tolerate anyone disrespecting the brand of SFE and its patrons.
The owners of Therapy, located at 401 N. Tryon St., are firing back and are seeking legal advice on how to proceed.
Here’s what isn’t in dispute: Six Figure Entertainment and Therapy Café entered into a partnership, which would allow the promoters to host events at the restaurant on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Owner Jason Stone said he and his partner knew Brown and knew his ability to get people in the door.
Brown said that Therapy was supposed to make some upgrades before Six Figure began holding their events at the café. He said some of those things weren’t taken care of (Stone said the restaurant upgraded its sound system and purchased new glasses as well as lowered the price on menu items.) but they went in anyway.
“We were trying to help them out,” Brown said. “So that they could generate some of the money so that they could get some of those things. Meeting with one of the owners, he let me know that they didn’t have the capital to invest in [upgrades]. And I said, ‘Why didn’t you tell me that in the beginning? We could’ve made a decision to move forward or not to move forward.'”
But Brown said he decided to work with Therapy anyway.
Stone said Therapy, which is eight years old, is always looking for new ways to drive people into their business and added that the cafe is a destination spot because they don’t get a lot of walk in traffic like clubs and restaurants closer to the city’s center.
“We have always had a very diverse crowd and very diverse employee base,” Stone said. “We have always been very open to that and have always loved that about Charlotte. We love the diversity that Therapy brings and we have never, ever had a problem like this.”
Brown said his allegations stem from the fact that a manager at the cafe told him one Saturday night that Therapy was adding a 20-percent gratuity to patrons’ tickets because black people don’t tip.
“Last week was our customer appreciation event, and this is where everything blew up. This was our third week with Therapy. The night of the appreciation, we had already talked about the 20-percent gratuity. And the night of the event, the manager came to me and said we’re going to add 20-percent to everyone’s bill because the waiters aren’t getting tipped,” he said. “I said, ‘People tip on service and if your service is not right, you’re going to get tipped on that.'”
Adam Rees, Therapy’s general manager, said the confrontation between Brown and the manager was very loud and unprofessional. But Brown’s partner (who Brown chose not to name) had wanted to renegotiate with Therapy about doing future events that Brown wouldn’t be a part of.
Stone said after two meetings with Brown where he’d stormed out and said he wasn’t going to work with Therapy anymore, they decided to go in another direction.
“Within an hour of that conversation, we’d been labeled as racist. It is a sickening feeling to read this,” Stone said. “It makes me physically ill to see that someone is calling my business racist. That is the last thing in the world I would ever tolerate in my business. If there was even a whisper that someone acted this way, they would be immediately terminated.”
But Brown said when he asked to see if the 20-percent rule was being applied to black and white customers, he was never shown evidence that was the case. “If you’re going to do a percentage, that should be done across the board, Caucasian, Indian, black, whatever the case night be,” he said.
But Stone said Brown’s allegations are false and stem from his anger at the partnership ending. “We are not taking this lightly. We are not racist,” said Stone. “Our doors are open to anybody.”
This article appears in Jul 27 – Aug 2, 2010.
I believe Kirk. Therapy never marketed a SFE event…It wasn’t even on the event calender for Therapy’s website nor was it listed on Therapy’s facebook page….
As a resturant and business owner(not affilated w/ Therpy)I have to bring in people even if they don’t typically tip as they should, even when they have received great service. The risk is losing great staff. Servers get 2.14 an hour. Not tipping is unexceptable. Racist? Ask a black server if they would rather serve a black table or another and then call them racist.
Carlos, you should not jump to such conclusions. You are missing the point. There was no issue with marketing of the “Six Figure Entertainment” nights (essentially every night at Therapy for the last month).
SFE was the promoter, by definition, “promoting” their “events” is THEIR job.
To their credit, since SFE began promoting, huge crowds came in on Friday and Saturday nights and the “Old School Saturdays” DJ was actually pretty good, and a nice guy. Kirk and his partner seemed like nice enough guys as well. I believe that Kirk had his ego bruised a bit and he reacted in mello-dramatic fashion, stoping to playing the dreaded race card.
The deal is that after 3 weeks of waitresses being stiffed on tips, ever since SFE began promoting and bringing their crowd, the manager decided to use the often instituted automatic gratuity for all patrons after 10pm.
This practice of automatic gratuity is always done when a person or group “rents the room”. This is quite commonplace in the industry.
Said manager personally went around to tables throughout the night and made sure that customers were happy the night that this change was implemented, a change necessary for the wait staff to earn a living, which unfortunately was becoming exceedingly difficult, despite huge crowds brought by SFE.
The only one upset was the promoter and the method of venting this frustration is unfortunate and unprofessional.
Therapy Cafe will continue to serve and employ a very diverse group of folks and “Six Figure Entertainment” will look for another place to make the supposed six figures.
^my apologies for the various typos
*stooping
*method chosen
frank griffin, i totally agreed with you up until your statement that “blacks really do no like to tip”. that is a very blanketed and generalized statement, and one that embodies the prejudice sentiment that started this whole fiasco.
more appropriately, “customers who receive bad service do not like to tip well”, and they shouldn’t.
it’s a shame that a business who was able to boost its patronage as a result of its partnership with a black-owned company would jeopardize that relationship by implementing what is perceived to be a racist “condition” on that patronage.
now we are all back where we started, one less place in uptown where african-americans do not feel welcome.
“can’t we all just get along” and enjoy ourselves together? smh.
*not
*welcomed
Bryan Bryan Bryan!
Your comment: “The deal is that after 3 weeks of waitresses being stiffed on tips, ever since SFE began promoting and bringing their crowd, the manager decided to use the often instituted automatic gratuity for all patrons after 10pm.”
Let me state the facts:
Once SFE brought in the large African-American crowd to Therapy the 20% gratuity was added to checks auto-mati-cally. Not three weeks after but the first night there was a large crowd. (The 20% had been in discussion for weeks with management) There were no statistics or graphs provided to show that the patrons did not tip but this was merely an assumption. Provide a Chart and you will have a reason for me to believe that the “waitresses were being stiffed on tips.” As far as the wait staff, several of them have contacted Six Figure Entertainment after the partnership was dissolved to beg for them to come back. If they were not getting tipped….Why would they want them back? And to speak of Kirk Brown of Six Figure Entertainment and his efforts to improve Therapy’s business and customer service. He and his partners/team were often seen playing the roles of waiter/waitresses by busing tables, delivering foods, seating guests, etc to keep patrons from complaining about the service offered at the restaurant. Not only did his company market the venue….but they were also full-time employees.
And Bryan if you were aware of the contract….It stated that the partnership and marketing was a JOINT effort. Didn’t remember you being a part of management that signed it….which would explain why you made the following comment: SFE was the promoter, by definition, “promoting” their “events” is THEIR job.
Last thing you stated was “The only one upset was the promoter and the method of venting this frustration is unfortunate and unprofessional.” Why would Kirk be upset about the partnership ending…..He ended it! It’s not his business that was doing badly prior to the partnership beginning, remember it was Therapy’s.
What ultimately “Broke the Camel’s Back” was the statement made by management that “African-American people don’t tip. Re-read the article above again….I promise you will not find a statement from the management team at Therapy disputing that this comment was made.
Get the Facts Straight!
I’m not sure about management but I know I walked in one day to meet two of female friends. I sat with them when they were close to finishing their meal. The waitor came over two or three times and never even looked at me, much less say a word or ask if I wanted anything. He literally acted as though I wasn’t there. I asked the girls if that was weird but they was like maybe he’ll ask you next time. He never did. But did ask the ladies if they needed anything else. I really didn’t know what was going on. So I was thinking maybe he was having some kind of personal issues and went to the bar and ordered. After taking a while, I finally went back up to check on my food and come to find out it got lost or sent to another table. They put a rush order on (whatever that is) and I finally got my food. The bartender took care of me and I gave her my normal good tip. After reading this I guess this is what the white waitor was afraid of…..Not getting tipped so why serve the black guy that came in late when he was already gonna get stiffed by the black women. I was quite offended being a young black professional but I let it go and chalked it up to bad customer service, now I think that it may have been a combination of both.