Watch CBS News

Stapleton Famous Dave's Responds To Claims Of Racism From Church

DENVER (CBS4) - A Famous Dave's restaurant in Denver became the site of a rally against racial insensitivity on Sunday.

BBQ PROTEST RS RAW 01 concatenated 144002_frame_19252
(credit: CBS)

In June, New Nation Church placed an order with the restaurant to cater their Father's Day dinner. The group picked up their dishes and said two of the tin foil covers had the words "Corn Bread Black Negro" written on them.

famous daves bbq 1
(credit: New Nation Church)

On July 12, Rally organizers say the church's pastor tried to talk about the situation with the manager on duty at the restaurant in Stapleton, and was reportedly told "this is what we do."

BBQ PROTEST RS RAW 01 concatenated 144002_frame_20122
(credit: CBS)

The church says the restaurant manager was not apologetic, and the pastor reached out to their corporate office.

"We came up here and she was offended that we were offended. She told us that we're calling her a racist, that she's not a racist, she couldn't be a racist. We did not get any apology, we did not get any kind of sensitivity, because that's all we wanted to do," said Pastor Arthur Porter.

BBQ PROTEST RS RAW 01 concatenated 144002_frame_19252
(credit: CBS)

Famous Dave's then responded to the situation through a Facebook post on Saturday saying in part:

We've apologized for the misunderstanding and offered a full refund on several occasions. Now we are offering a public meeting to openly and transparently discuss everyone's concerns in an effort to come to an understanding.

Every catering order at Famous Dave's BBQ is assigned a random color to help the kitchen and delivery staff ensure each guest receives the correct food items that they ordered. In this case, the catering order for New Nation Church in Aurora was randomly assigned the color black. Every pan of food that is intended for that catering is then labeled with the color assigned to the catering.

Each pan then receives a colored sticker that correlates with the color assigned to the catering. On this particular day, the restaurant ran out of black stickers, so the word black was written on the pan of food that was intended for their catering. A Spanish speaking kitchen employee, then translated the English word black into the Spanish word negro, meaning black. The complaint which suggests this was intended something other than a regular internal process to ensure a properly executed order doesn't align with the facts.

Famous Dave's BBQ maintains they want to talk with church leaders, but no meeting has been set.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.