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White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders speaks at a press briefing at the White House on Monday.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders speaks at a press briefing at the White House on Monday.
Photo: Washington Post Photo by Jabin BotsfordLEXINGTON, Va. – Stephanie Wilkinson was home Friday night – nearly 200 miles from the White House – when the choice was presented.
His phone rang around 8 pm It was the chef of Red Hen, the tiny farmhouse restaurant at the table she owned right next to Main Street in this small western city of the state.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders had just come in and sat down, the leader informed her.
"He said the staff was a little worried, what should we do?" Wilkinson told the Washington Post. "I said I would be downstairs to see if that's true."
It seemed unlikely that President Donald Trump's press secretary would dine at a 26-seat restaurant in rural Virginia. But then, it was unlikely that all her staff would have misidentified Sanders, who had arrived last at a table of eight booked under her husband's name.
As she made the short drive to the red hen, Wilkinson only knew this:
She knew that Lexington, 7,000 people, voted overwhelmingly against Trump in a county that voted overwhelmingly for him. She knew that the community was deeply divided on issues such as Confederate flags. She knew, she said, that her restaurant and her half-dozen waiters and cooks had managed to stay in business for 10 years by dismissing the menu policy.
And she knew – she believed – that Sarah Huckabee Sanders was working in the service of an "inhumane and unethical" administration. That she publicly defended the most cruel policies of the president, and that it could not last.
"I'm not a big fan of confrontation," Wilkinson said. "I have a business and I want the business to prosper, which is the time in our democracy where people have to take uncomfortable steps and make decisions to defend their morals.
When she entered the restaurant, Wilkinson saw that there had been no mistake. The red hen is not bigger than some apartments, and the group table was impossible to miss: Sanders in a black dress, her husband, three or four men and women of similar ages, and an older couple.
"They had cheese boards in front of them," said Wilkinson. Like any other family. The kitchen was already preparing the main course of the party. Wilkinson interrupted to snuggle with his workers.
Many Red Hen employees are gay, she said. They knew that Sanders had defended Trump's desire to prohibit access to transgender people to the military. This month, they all watched him evade questions and defend a Trump policy that separated migrant children from their parents.
"Tell me what you want me to do, I can ask him to leave," Wilkinson told his team. "They said" yes "."
It was important to Wilkinson, she says, that Sanders had already been served – that his staff had not simply refused him on sight. And it was important to her that Sanders be an official, not just a client with whom she did not agree, many of whom were part of her usual clientele.
All the same, she was tense as she approached the press secretary's chair.
"I said," I'm the owner, "she recalls," I'd like you to come into the yard with me for a word. "
They went out, in another small enclosure, but at least outside the crowded restaurant.
"I babbled a bit, but I had my point of view in a polite and direct manner," Wilkinson said. "I explained that the restaurant has certain standards that I think it must respect, such as honesty, compassion and cooperation.
"I said," I would like to ask you to leave. ""
Wilkinson did not know how Sanders would react, or if Trump's chief spokesman had already been called to a restaurant – as the president's secretary of Homeland Security had been a few days earlier.
Sanders' response was immediate, Wilkinson said, "It's good, I'll go." "
Sanders returned to the table, picked up his things, and went out. The others at his table were welcome, Wilkinson said. But they did not do it, so the waiters cleaned the plates and the glasses.
"They offered to pay," said Wilkinson. "I said," No, it's on the house. ""
At the end of the shift, said Mr. Wilkinson, the staff members left the usual night note in the kitchen for the morning manager: a problem with the credit card machine. Restock vodka and tequila.
If you've ever heard the term "to 86 someone", this comes from the restaurant industry – code to deny service, or to remove an item from the menu.
"86 – Sara Huckabee Sanders", read the note, below the reminder to buy more Pellegrino.
One of the waiters photographed the whiteboard before returning home Friday. He had posted it on his public Facebook wall at the time Wilkinson woke up Saturday. Wilkinson said everything had been done with decorum. She had been polite; Sanders had been polite. The press secretary's family had been polite while they were following her at the door.
It's not so much the rest of the world who discovers Jale Foley-Schultz's Facebook post, Red Hen's waiter: "I just served Sarah Sanders Huckabee for a total of 2 minutes before my owner asked her to leave . "
An alternately celebrating and indignant comment fountain springs from Foley-Schultz's Facebook wall in Red Hen's social media accounts, then from his Yelp reviews page.
Five Stars: "Thank you for refusing to serve a person who lies to the American people to make a living."
A star: "They made a sarcastic remark about a" spit blast "for the Florida Nazi." "
Between the fury and the bitterness of 2,000 people who had almost certainly not eaten at the restaurant, the Yelp reviews of Red Hen almost instantly reached the average of two and a half stars. Another red hen from the District of Columbia strove to say that she had no affiliation with Wilkinson.
And that was before Sanders confirmed the story in a Saturday morning tweet, including the restaurant's name and location.
"I always do my best to treat people, including those with whom I do not agree, with respect and I will continue to do so," the spokesman wrote. "Her actions tell a lot more about her than about me."
Wilkinson had no regrets about his decision.
"I would have done the same thing again," she said. "We just felt that there are times when people need to live out their beliefs.
While she was heading to the weekend of a Main Street festival that she had helped organize, she seemed optimistic that the red hen could open as usual Saturday night. Yes, she had seen calls for #MAGA protests on Facebook. "But it's a pretty small town, and we're known," she said optimistically. "It's not going to be a giant surprise for everyone."
The day brought his own surprises.
On Saturday afternoon, journalists and photographers were hanging out outside the restaurant, as were people walking around the restaurant.
"Boo, red hen!" and "Yay, Trump!" were shouted, alternately, windows of passing cars. A resident of Lexington brought by a bunch of flowers and a hand-lettered sign that said, "Democracy requires a principled government, thanks Red Hen!
Meanwhile, Stephen Russek of Natural Bridge, Virginia, told a reporter, "I'm not crazy about everything Donald Trump does, but what they did to this woman in this restaurant is outrageous . "
Chris Roessler, potential customer, stood outside in confusion. He and his wife had booked a reservation at night, and just received an email canceling it.
"We would like to avoid exposing our customers to any potential inconvenience on the part of external entities," Red Hen's management wrote – at a time when President Trump's fans were doing their best to mislead the company. telephone line of the restaurant.
Ignoring Sanders' incident, said Roessler, he went to the restaurant to ask for answers, but no one opened the door.
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