What was supposed to be a celebratory birthday dinner turned sour for a group of friends after they say a drunken woman sat down in their reserved seating and refused to leave. They were the ones booted from the restaurant, however.
Video of the incident made its rounds on social media over the weekend, going viral.
Kodili Okechukwu detailed the bizarre encounter in a Facebook post late Friday night. She said she and her friends were enjoying a birthday dinner at Overdrive Lounge inside Solis Two Porsche Drive hotel in Atlanta when a random lady came and sat at their table. After kindly explaining their table was reserved, Okechukwu said the woman refused to leave.
The unnamed woman refused to leave, saying she didn’t see a “reserved” sign on the table. (Kodili Okechukwu / Facebook video screenshot)
“We told her it was a private table and she proceeded to ask us where was the reserved sign,” she recalled. “After continuously asking her to leave our table, she told all of us to ‘shut the f*ck up’ and that she wasn’t gonna leave.”
Video of the incident shows the woman in question comfortably seated in their section with a wine glass in hand, despite repeated objections from the group.
“So you’re not gonna leave our reserved table,” Okechukwu asks. “You’re not going to leave?”
“Why would I leave?” the woman replies smugly, smiling at the camera.
“Because it’s not your table, and you look crazy right now!” Okechukwu says, growing frustrated. “You look so disrespectful … You’re drunk ma’am and you look crazy.”
A man, seemingly a friend of the woman, then plops down beside her and tries to get her to leave — but it doesn’t work. Moments later, a manager walks over and informs the woman that the area is reserved. The friends grew frustrated, however, after the manager continued questioning the woman at their table instead of taking it elsewhere and letting them enjoy the rest of their night.
That’s when things took a turn for the worst.
” … An argument ensued after she continued to curse at us, and then my friend (who is a 6’3 Black man) literally TAPPED the manager on the shoulder to speak to him and he (manager) turned around terrified and yelled ‘If you touch me again, I will call security on you!!'” Okechukwu wrote on Facebook. “After that MY ENTIRE PARTY, was escorted out of the place, and that woman was left in the same seat smiling and very happy and content.”
Video of the incident posted to Facebook and Twitter, sparked immediate outrage. It wasn’t long before users flocked to the restaurant’s Yelp! page and spammed it with negative reviews.
“Racist establishment … spend your money elsewhere,” one woman wrote.
“Horrible management,” another person chimed in. “They will not protect you or remove ‘drunk’ strangers from your reserved table you paid for … They kicked the customers who rightfully paid for their reserved table and let this deranged lunatic of a woman lounge in that very space afterwards. Seems like they side with a certain demographic. Yikes!”
Another person described the way the Black guests were treated as “outrageous.”
Overdrive Lounge didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Watch more in the video below.
Posted by Kodili Okechukwu on Thursday, August 9, 2018
