Restaurant Worker Fired After Allegedly Telling Chicago Cop to ‘Quit Your Job’

Ownership at the Wrigleyville location of pizza bar Happy Camper on Monday fired an employee and apologized after a worker allegedly wrote “quit your job” on a Chicago police officer’s copy of a to-go receipt, according to a rep and statement posted to social media. The incident first came to light in a since-deleted Facebook post from a friend of the officer. The post also included included a photo of the receipt.

“Quit your job” was handwritten in blue ink at the top the customer’s copy of the receipt, which goes on to list a 14-inch pepperoni pizza, a blackened chicken Caesar salad, jalapeno popper “homies,” and mozzarella breadsticks. With tax, the total came to $65.89. A tip for what appears to be $7 (or 10.6 percent) is left below.

The post describes the officer as “in full uniform and riot ready” to pick up his food. Upon seeing the note, the officer supposedly threw away his $66 meal for fear of tampering. “We sincerely and humbly apologize — the action of one does not accurately reflect who we are as a company,” Happy Camper’s statement reads. “We have zero tolerance for any behavior that doesn’t give our customers the full respect they deserve.” Ownership has also made efforts to personally apologize, offer a full refund, and furnish a gift card to the officer’s restaurant of choice.

Though relationships between police and restaurants have frayed this year as protesters across the country rally against the police killings of Black men and women, the rapport was already starting to disintegrate. A Starbucks employee in Oklahoma was fired in December 2019 after police received coffee cups with the label “pig,” and the company apologized to officers in Riverside, California that same month after two deputies say they were ignored by baristas for nearly five minutes. Some allegations of food tampering by police, however, have not stood up to scrutiny: a Kansas police chief apologized after a former officer’s contention that he received a cup that read “fucking pig” at a McDonald’s drive-thru that went viral on social media turned out to be fabricated. In June, two police unions tweeted claims that Shake Shack employees mixed bleach into milkshakes to “intentionally poison” three New York City officers. An investigation by the New York Police Department found no criminal wrongdoing by workers.

• To Protest and (Refuse to) Serve [Eater]
• Starbucks Fires Barista After Police Receive Coffee Cup Labeled ‘Pig’ [Eater]
• Ohio Taco Chain Employees Walked Out When Asked to Fill Mass Order for Law Enforcement [Eater]
• Cops and the Culture War [Intelligencer]

— The response to outdoor street dining in Fulton Market has been so positive, organizers have expanded the program to run during the week in addition to weekends, according to Block Club Chicago. West Fulton Market is now closed to traffic from 11 a.m. to 11 pm. daily from Halsted to Peoria streets and Sangamon and Morgan streets. Time Out Market Chicago food hall is also reaping the benefits, with expanded outdoor dining marked by barriers on Peoria and Sangamon.

Ashok Selvam/Eater Chicago

—Seasoned & Blessed, a database of Black-owned restaurants in Chicago, has revamped its website with a new look. Founder Aaron Oliver has been writing about the Black food scene for the last four years. This year, as a byproduct of the Black Lives Matter rallies. more people have shown interest in supporting Black-owned restaurants, and traffic on Oliver’s website increased. It was time for an upgrade. Oliver writes, via Instagram, that he’s updated the restaurant directory and made the site easier to surf. He’s also added a donation page as he has plans to expand the site’s scope in the future.

— The city has temporarily closed down five more Chicago restaurants, saying that they weren’t complying with COVID-19 rules. Over the weekend, city inspectors issued 14 citations to seven businesses after inspecting 93 venues. The announcement comes after a Tribune story about restaurant and bar owners afraid of facing $10,000 fines for violations.

Temporary closure orders mandate operations cease immediately that evening. Venues can legally operated the following day. These are the bars and restaurants which were closed: J.L. Lounge (3402 N Cicero): Two citations for failure to ensure social distancing, failure to require face coverings and operating after midnight; Grota Restaurant (3108-12 N Central Avenue): Two citations for failure to ensure social distancing, patrons not seated and failure to require face coverings; Family Den (8940-44 S. Stony Island Avenue): Two citations for operating over capacity indoors, failure to ensure social distancing, patrons not seated, and failure to require face coverings; Dirty Dozen Motorcycle Club (720-22 E. 67^th Street): Two citations for failure to ensure social distancing and failure to require face coverings; B’Z Sports Bar & Grill (12001-03 S. Halsted Street): Two citations for allowing patrons to consume alcohol indoors without a retail food license and failure to require face coverings.