I visited Charlie Brown s on a busy Friday after t...

I visited Charlie Brown s on a busy Friday after the 4th of July, and it was during what I guess is their well sought after free pig roast night. I recently moved to Capitol Hill from Breckenridge to work for a non-profit organization and do graduate research in the field of sustainability and I had gotten word of the classic old haunt known as Charlie Brown s. With it being walking distance from my new home, I was excited to try it out and toast to my new job. I checked out the menu ahead of time, settled on dinner plans, and set out for my walk to the restaurant.

I am African American, and as soon as I arrived in the door, I was treated by what I think were two waitresses, like I was homeless and had just wondered in off the streets from the park adjacent. Even though I was dressed cleanly, spoke eloquently, and had my hair nicely arranged, I was treated like I should not have come and could not afford to pay.

I came alone and just asked to sit at the bar since it was so busy with it being a Friday and a holiday weekend. Like I mentioned previously, I came for dinner off of the menu, not for the gaudily banner advertised, free pig , that was being passed around like it was the last supper. I sat down at the bar and the brunette waitress behind the bar with glasses and hair in a bun or pulled back did not even offer me a menu or any of the coveted free pig . Everyone around me of course was offered plate after plate of the stuff; but they also were not African American.

When I sat down, I ordered a drink from the brunette waitress and immediately pulled out my wallet, ready to provide an ID or a card to start a tab if needed. I thought me pulling out my wallet signified I willing and able to pay, but I was treated otherwise by the female bar tender.

Luckily, there also was a dark-haired gentleman behind the bar and he offered me some of the free pig . After I finished the pig , the brunette took my plate without asking if I wanted more pig, or anything else for that matter, but it was a buffet for others. I actually did not want more pig because I wanted to order off of the menu, but it would have been to have been asked since everyone else was. I was treated like I could not afford the menu and was rushed out like I came for the free pig. I ended up eating dinner elsewhere, and I m sure the restaurant did not miss the measly $50 I would have spent on dinner, but it was a sad experience for me and turned me off from patronizing the place even though I live right down the street.

I find it funny though that the waitresses who work in a restaurant attached to a hostel full of low-income housing where they refer to their popular dish as the charmingly trailer-trash colloquial pig instead of pork would have the nerve to turn a nose up at someone coming in to patronize the place. In fact, the staff looks like they themselves commuted here to Capitol Hill from some far-off rural trailer park, and brought their closed mindedness with them. Places like this are what keep holding this country back.

I will give the staff the benefit of the doubt and say perhaps they treated me like I was homeless is because I arrived wearing track suit and workout shoes since I walked there. My mistake, but I did not think a restaurant that advertised, free pig roast . while it lasts on a huge, colorful banner out front of their restaurant had much of a dress code. Plus, the hippie Caucasian people sitting next to me with the piercings, tattoos, and colorful hair, were dressed similarly, (actually they looked homeless), but they were not treated the way I was. The dark-haired guy behind the bar was cool though, thank you!