An East Dallas restaurant is getting attention from the Dallas Morning News and other media, even in other cities and in High Times, for its refusal to serve people who smell like weed.
A couple weekends ago, a patron posted a snapshot of a sign on the door to E-bar Tex Mex that read, “If you have the smell of marijuana on you we will not serve you,” and people had opinions.
“That’s rude!” one of 135 and counting comments read. “What a weird thing to care about,” read another. One lonely (in this thread) soul mentioned she wouldn’t want the aroma of smokers near her tacos, thus appreciated the rule.
To be clear, the sign doesn’t say customers have to be stone cold sober. They just can’t reek of the ganja. As one person implied in the comments, just don’t smell stronger than the fajitas.
But most of the people piling on probably don’t care about nuances like that.
Ernie Quilantan, an owner at the North Haskell Avenue restaurant, told the News’ Imelda Garcia that this isn’t the first time he’s posted the sign and that it was not prompted by a singular incident. He’s just trying to protect diners from this particular pungent pong.
Quilantan told the paper that he had no opinion on imbibing in the jolly green, per se. “They can smoke whatever they want as long as they don’t come with marijuana aroma,” he told them.
The News also clarified, via employment and business attorney Rogge Dunn, that businesses have the legal right to refuse service for any reason that is not discriminatory toward a minority group.
One person, on the Observer‘s post, noted that it is questionable to refuse service based on the way a person smells, which is something to consider.
Quilantan told the News social media pressure would not convince him to remove the sign. He thinks he’s doing the right thing.
I’ve no strong opinion on the rule, however it’s a good business practice to remember that Facebook comments, considering the echo chamber effect, do not necessarily reflect majority opinion.
In fact, if you look at the comments on News 4 San Antonio (yes, they too ran a story about this), people are far more positive. “I love E-bar! It’s pretty much our fav for tex-mex in Dallas. This won’t change any habits for us …,” noted a fan. “E-bar will be fine, trust me. Popular place, wonderful food.”
After stories started coming out about the sign refusing service to people who reek of marijuana, trolls started trolling — the restaurant’s Instagram and Facebook pages are being hit with hateful comments, which is just a not-friendly reminder that social media can be great for business, and it can also be savage and make you disappointed about humanity.
