A Mississippi eatery that appeared on Guy Fieri’s âDiners, Drive-ins and, Divesâ is facing backlash after its owners posted a video offering âsomething freeâ to only straight couples that stopped by to eat at the Cajun joint on Tuesday.
Controversy quickly engulfed Darwellâs Happiness Café in Long Beach when Darwell Yeager and his wife Nettie Mechelle made the anti-LGBTQ pitch to customers on their social media page. Â
âIf you come in and youâre a couple ⦠husband, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, guy, girl couple, the real kind of couple,â Darwell Yeager said before his spouse cut in and said, âBecause we donât do the trans or the lesbian or gays, Iâm sorry.â
âWhen you come in for the next hour and a half and you are a couple, can-produce-a-child couple, weâll give you something free,â Darwell Yeager concluded in the since-deleted video that has spread online.
The restaurant special was torched â including by fellow local food establishments.
âI have very recently watched a disgusting video put out by Darwell about his Tuesday ‘couples’ special. I am almost speechless. Almost,â Trax Bar and Grill, which is less than two miles from Darwellâs, wrote on Facebook this week.
âHis weird antics were tolerable at best until this video but not anymore.â
A corporate executive chef for a local restaurant group that runs seven restaurants also spoke out, according to NOLA.com.
“I wasnât going to say anything, but all in all, you reap what you sow,â Lauren Joffrion, of Secret Coast Restaurant Group, said on Facebook. âHate gets you nowhere.”
Gulf Coast Equality, an LGBT non-profit, called the social media post âdishearteningâ and suggested a boycott of Darwell’s.
âIf Darwellâs wonât welcome us, we wonât support them,â the board wrote in a statement. âWeâll make the impact felt where it counts. We call on our community to come togetherânot just in outrage, but in action.â
A woman who picked up the phone at a number listed for Nettie Yeager declined comment when reached by The Post.
The couple later apologized on Facebook, according to NOLA.com and the Clarion Ledger.
“I would like to apologize to all my friends. If I wrote or said something that offended you… I’m not perfect… I say thing (sic) people don’t understand, misread, misunderstood, jokes maybe I shouldn’t say, get upset and say something I should have thought twice before saying.. I’m not perfect and I get my feelings hurt too,â Nettie Yeager wrote, according to the Ledger.
Most of the social media posts tied to the coupleâs accounts were made private Thursday night so itâs unclear if the apology remained up.
Darwell Yeager also posted before the reported mea culpa that he was tired of being bullied by the left and is restaurant wouldn’t fail, NOLA.com reported.
The café has appeared in Guy Fieriâs âDiners, Drive-Ins, and Divesâ at least twice since it’s been in business.
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