Allegations Of Racially Segregated Seating Roil Chic LA Cafe

LOS ANGELES — A restaurant in the Los Angeles area is accused of segregating its customers by race after a video taken by a diner went viral on social media.

On Sept. 29, an Instagram user identified by the Los Angeles Times as Cassidy Cho posted footage from a trip to Great White’s West Hollywood location, in which she showed Asian customers being seated in the same area.

“They put all Asians in one corner,” Cho said in the video, which had over 500,000 views as of Wednesday. “Like, everybody’s white on the main seating area.”

Cho remarked later in the video that “maybe they’re embarrassed of us.”

Social media influencer Ed Choi responded to her video on Oct. 3 on Instagram, highlighting several reviews in which diners shared similar experiences. Choi’s response video had 1.3 million views as of Wednesday.

Sam Cooper and Sam Trude, who operate Great White’s four locations, refuted the accusations in an email to the Times.

“Any notion that we have mistreated customers or employees or seated people based on their ethnicity is absolutely outrageous and completely false,” they told the newspaper. “Everyone is welcome here.”

Sarah Rose Brier, who worked at Gran Blanco, a restaurant previously run by Trude and Cooper, told the Times that doormen and hosts were instructed to refuse customers based on ethnicity and weight, among other things, and that disc jockeys were told not to play rap and hip-hop to avoid attracting specific clientele.

Gran Blanco posted a statement Oct. 9 on Instagram clarifying that the restaurant is under new ownership and “committed to creating a welcoming space for everyone in the community.”

Sage Wiley, who was working as a server at Great White the night Cho filmed her video, told the Times that multiple people Cho recorded selected their own seats, and characterized the online discussion of the restaurant as “ridiculous.”

Some staff have been called racist for defending Great White online and fear coming to work, the Times reported, while Cooper and Trude’s families have received harassing messages, including photos of the school Trude’s children attend.