Virginia Restaurant Owner Tells Sarah Sanders To Leave Her Joint

LEXINGTON, VA — White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders says the owner of a Virginia restaurant told her to leave the establishment Friday night because she works for President Trump.

Sanders said in a tweet that she "politely left" the Red Hen in Lexington, Virginia. "Her actions say far more about her than about me," Sanders wrote. "I always do my best to treat people, including those I disagree with, respectfully and will continue to do so"

Jaike Foley-Schultz, who says he works at the restaurant, wrote on Facebook that he served Sanders for a total of two minutes before the owner told her and seven of her family members to leave the restaurant. Foley-Schultz later deleted that Facebook post and wrote that the owner asked her to leave and Sanders complied.

"Her family left on their own accord, we didn't actually refuse service or "kick her out"," he wrote.

The Red Hen did not immediately respond to Patch's request for comment.

Stephanie Wilkinson, who co-owns the restaurant, explained what happened to The Washington Post. She told the paper she was at home when the chef called to say Sanders was dining there and the staff was concerned.

Wilkinson said Sanders was there with her husband and about six other guests. She told the Post she consulted with her staff and asked them what they wanted her to do.

“Tell me what you want me to do. I can ask her to leave,” she told her staff, according to the Post. "They said yes."

Wilkinson said she had a word with Sanders on the patio and said "I'd like to ask you to leave." Sanders responded, "That's fine. I'll go." The others who were dining with her were not asked to leave but they left as well, she recounted to the Post. They offered to pay for the food they had already eaten but Wilkinson said it was on the house.

She told the Post she believed Sanders worked in the service of an "inhumane and unethical" administration and she would absolutely do the same again. Wilkinson told the paper it was important to her that the staff had not outright refused to serve Sanders and she also said it was important that Sanders was a public official and not just a customer with whom she disagreed.

The restaurant is Lexington's first farm-t0-table restaurant. A 2010 article in Virginia Living said the restaurant "exudes storybook charm." On its Yelp page, the restaurant has three dollar signs signifying price. Several Yelp reviews posted June 23 appeared to be intentionally giving the restaurant a one-star rating because of the incident involving Sanders. And some users appeared to intentionally be giving the restaurant five stars for the same incident.

It's the second time this week that a member of the Trump administration was booted from a restaurant. DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was shouted out of a Mexican restaurant in Washington D.C. on Tuesday night. And last Sunday, White House adviser Stephen Miller was accosted at a Mexican restaurant and called a fascist, The New York Post reported.

All this comes as the Trump administration has come under intense criticism for its "zero-tolerance" for illegal immigration. More than 2,300 children have been separated from their parents after crossing the southwestern border because of the policy as the parents are held for prosecution. President Trump signed an executive order this week designed to stop families from being separated though it remains unclear how those already separated from their parents will be reunited.

Patch will update this report.

Photo via US Embassy in Ukraine