A white Alabama restaurant co-owner is facing intense backlash online and in his community after a white customer accused him of calling his Black friends the N-word, a now-viral video shows.
The video captures the confrontation between a white customer and Jack Moltz, the co-owner of Nick’s Original Filet House, also known as Nick’s in the Sticks, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
The customer, Hunter Sartain, is seen loudly chastising Moltz over some racist comments Moltz allegedly said when a group of Black customers gathered at the restaurant for a birthday celebration.
The video starts with Moltz and a female employee of Nick’s threatening to call the police as Sartain launches into his allegations.
Sartain, a friend of the Black group, said he brought the party to the restaurant to eat there for the very first time and was disappointed with Moltz for the bigoted remarks he tried to covertly pass off to Sartain.
In the video, Sartain said that when he sat down with the group, Moltz approached him and furtively asked if he was going to sit with those N-words.
“Cause this is their first time experiencing, they’re friends of mine here, and then you wanna make me feel bad because I sat down at the table? And then you asked me, you asked me, if I’m gonna consult with these n*****s,” Sartain said.
“Naw naw. Bull****,” Moltz answers back.
“Yeah, that’s exactly what you said. Every one of them heard it,” Sartain said while he pointed to his friends.
“No they did not, ’cause they was all inside,” Moltz retorted.
‘So you condone this?’ That’s what you asked me, ‘You condone this?’ You condone the Blacks? Ain’t no condonin’ about it. They’re my friends. They’re just like us. You just didn’t want ’em in there. And I’m not for that,” Sartain snapped back.
A few of the Black patrons can be heard in the background challenging Moltz’s conduct and telling him he should be ashamed.
“And they wanted to come back, until you showed your a** out here, and had a problem with race,” Sartain said.
Sartain is heard apologizing to his friends for the incident in the video while Moltz stands silently behind him.
Many people who viewed the video online praised Sartain for defending his friends.
“Beautiful to see this man stand up for his friends like this. Courage,” one TikTok user said.
“That’s real hospitality, making sure your friends and guests are cared for, love it,” another commenter wrote.
Nick’s in the Sticks first opened in Knoxville, Alabama, in 1939, then relocated to Tuscaloosa in the 1950s where it became an institutional establishment in the city, according to AL.com. The original owner, Nick Delgado, sold the steakhouse to a former Nick’s employee Lloyd Hegenbarth. Hegenbarth died in 2014 and left the ownership to his widow who has been running the place ever since alongside her husband, Moltz.
The video of the confrontation led to protests and calls for an indefinite boycott from local leaders and members of the Tuscaloosa County Branch NAACP. Many people also left negative reviews and comments on Nick’s social accounts and Yelp page.
“There’s a long history of violence and racism behind that word, and so when you hear it, it’s a trigger word,” local NAACP Branch President Lisa Young told WVUA23. “That’s why we’re here today. We’re asking people to not patronize Nick’s in the Sticks if they don’t respect us, they don’t need our Black dollars.”
“The whole community is outraged by what they saw and heard in the TikTok video,” District 1 Tuscaloosa City Council Member Matthew Wilson said. “In 2024, you should be able to go to any restaurant, sit down, eat, and be comfortable. We want to spend our money where we are respected.”
The city council president, Kip Tyner, posted an apology on Facebook to the affected customers for the “pure ignorance” shown at Nick’s and offered to treat the Black family seen in the video to a proper birthday celebration.
