San Antonio Restaurant Owner Troubled by Racist Note on Receipt
The owner of a San Antonio Italian restaurant received a troubling note on a receipt saying the customer wouldn't return because the owner is Mexican, followed with "America First".
Fernando Franco, the owner of Di Frabo Ristorante Italiano, was having lunch with his wife at the restaurant when the manager came up and showed him a receipt that was allegedly left by another patron that said,
The food was tasty and the service was attentive. However, the owner is ‘Mexican,’ we will not return. ‘America first.’
Franco and his staff do not know who left the note or how they would have known Franco was the owner. According to KENS5, Franco said that no one in the restaurant inquired if he was the owner, but did note that he had been giving instructions to staff in Spanish at the time the note was possibly left. Franco, who also owns restaurants in Mexico, believes there's the possibility that the note was a joke, but still feels unwelcome for the first time in the four years he's been in the country,
I don’t know but… it’s a feeling that you hear this every day in the news and you see what’s going on. So at the end you start feeling that it’s affecting the people.
Franco and the staff were not able to track the bill to any patron as it was paid in cash, but Franco said that the person who wrote the note is welcome back at Di Frabo any time. As for the note, Franco plans to frame it and display it in the restaurant as a reminder of the changing attitudes in the country.