Name: True Kitchen + Kocktails owner stands by viral statement against ‘twerking’ in his Dallas restaurant
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True Kitchen + Kocktails owner stands by viral statement against ‘twerking’ in his Dallas restaurant

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4:07 PM on Nov 30, 2020 CSTAn incident captured Sunday night at a downtown Dallas restaurant has gone viral on multiple social media platforms and filled up comments sections.In a 52-second video shot about 7:45 p.m. Sunday at True Kitchen + Kocktails, which , owner Kevin Kelley is seen addressing the guests in his dining room.“I invested a lot of money into buying this building and developing this concept so Black people can have somewhere nice to go to,” Kelley said, standing in the middle of his restaurant surrounded by customers. He then tells the DJ to stop the music. “But all this twerking and [expletive], take it to Pryme, take it to Pink [two Dallas clubs], because we’re a restaurant.”Then Kelley, who is Black, shared a message for anyone who wants to twerk in his establishment: “Get the [expletive] out of my restaurant.” And for anyone who doesn’t like this message? “Get out because I don’t need your money.”The that first put millions of views on the video in less than a day refers to the incident as “Restaurant suicide on camera.” Many seem to agree, but reactions online overall seem mixed.Monday morning, Wes Williams, who owns BurgerIM in the West End, expressed support for Kelley in a . Many in the comments section on that post seem to echo his sentiment.On Monday afternoon, Kelley, in a , discussed the incident. He apologized to those who were offended by his “poor choice of wording.” He described the incident as he saw it, saying the guests at three tables that night were standing on “furniture,” leaning on glass, and twerking. In the statement, Kelley stands by his decision as an “indictment of the very few who don’t respect our restaurant.”Customer Trice Jones and her sister had been in the restaurant for about an hour at the time of the incident, she said. She believes the music played a part and notes that Lil Ronny’s song, “Throw Dat A-- in a Circle,” was playing around the time of the incident. (The Dallas rapper this himself.)“They were playing club music,” Jones says. She says the music was loud and many people were dancing, so she thought it was encouraged. Jones describes Kelley’s speech as “dramatic,” and her first thought when everyone started recording was that someone was being proposed to.Me at “ True kitchen and Kocktails”minding my own business 😭🤣 — 🧡 (@_tootieraww)“The fact that we have music at our restaurant doesn’t mean that you can stand on our seats, lean on glass, and twerk,” Kelley said when reached by phone Monday afternoon. He said his first concern was the liability the situation created for the restaurant, and added that he politely asked the group to stop a few times before he addressed the larger dining room. “This is a restaurant, we don’t have a dance floor, and these were the only ladies who ever acted that way. This is a less than 1% situation,” he said.After he addressed the customers, Kelley made five or six of his patrons leave the restaurant. “They didn’t have any respect for us or the other customers, so it was necessary,” he said.In hindsight, Kelley said he regrets using profanity. “But if that’s the only thing people are caught up on, they should consider the behavior of the guests in the first place,” he said. “We’ve created a restaurant that’s here to serve the community. We created 70-plus jobs during a pandemic. Ninety-nine percent of our guests are fantastic, and we love them. We are not going to have their experience ruined because we have a few guests who want to stand on furniture and twerk. We’re not the restaurant for that.”Kelley also offered some thoughts on reactions to the video. “We understand that we can’t be the restaurant for everyone,” he said. “But there are now thousands of people across the country who understand the importance of the Black community having a good concept that they can go eat at. Those who are upset about the actions that we took should look in the mirror and ask themselves if they would want guests to act like that in their restaurant.”Subscribe to our foodie newsletter to get stories about restaurant openings, closings and where to eat next.By signing up you agree to our

4:07 PM on Nov 30, 2020 CSTAn incident captured Sunday night at a downtown Dallas restaurant has gone viral on multiple social media platforms and filled up comments sections.In a 52-second video shot about 7:45 p.m. Sunday at True Kitchen + Kocktails, which , owner Kevin Kelley is seen addressing the guests in his dining room.“I invested a lot of money into buying this building and developing this concept so Black people can have somewhere nice to go to,” Kelley said, standing in the middle of his restaurant surrounded by customers. He then tells the DJ to stop the music. “But all this...

True Kitchen + Kocktails owner stands by viral statement against ‘twerking’ in his Dallas restaurant

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