Red Maple Restaurant & Lounge

Was there last night (Fri. Aug. 7) and we were a party of 9. No complaints about the food (except one salad came out without dressing), BUT it was brought out a different times, some of us were finished with one course before others even got theirs. ... more

Was there last night (Fri. Aug. 7) and we were a party of 9. No complaints about the food (except one salad came out without dressing), BUT it was brought out a different times, some of us were finished with one course before others even got theirs. They wouldn't separate the checks...so waitress, Jennifer, who was great, separated it on a piece of paper. However, total didn't come out correctly after we all put in our money. 3 times it was refigured at the register and 3 times we got a different total. The time it took to get this resolved was far longer than giving separate checks. Next time we will go and all get at separate tables. This is very inconvenient and ended up being inconvenient for management. less

It appears to me the Red Maple is still practicing Jim Crowe racism. May 20, 2008 was the saddest day of my life. It was the day I realized that racism still exist in the world. I guess on some level we still know that racism exist but it's a har ... more

It appears to me the Red Maple is still practicing Jim Crowe racism. May 20, 2008 was the saddest day of my life. It was the day I realized that racism still exist in the world. I guess on some level we still know that racism exist but it's a harder realization when you experience racism personally. For me, it became a reality at the Red Maple Restaurant (1036 Lafayette Street, Gretna, LA 70053). A reservation was made prior to the arrival at the restaurant. We arrived around 8:20 pm and we were seated in a room away from all the other patrons. Not realizing we were being discriminated against we were not even offered the complimentary amenity of bread and butter while waiting to be serviced. One of our party guest asked the waitress about this and was told she forgot to offer this amenity to us. She apologized and did get the bread. At this point, still not realizing we were being discriminated against, Our orders were taken and we received our appetizers around 9:00 pm. As 10:00 approached the children that were in the party has fallen asleep, and the adults were getting restless. The head of the party asked the waitress how much longer we were going to have to wait for our food. The waitress said not long. Ten minutes had passed and still no food had arrived. Finally we could no longer wait and we asked for the bill.. We asked to pay for the appetizers we ate and the drinks we drank. We told the rest of the party they could wait for us outside. We were given a bill for $275.00 and told to pay cash only. The Red Maple does except all credit cards but we were told by the owner that he would not take credit cards from our kind of people. The owner had then called the police and immediately two cars arrived at the restaurant. All four police officers were white males. The police got out of their cars and began to speak to the owner. One of the police officers then approached a member in the party, put his hand in her face and said for her to pay cash or go to jail. The member of the party told this police officer that no food had arrived and that we should not have to pay for food we did not receive. The police officer said he did not want to hear what we had to say and to either pay or go to jail. So, we had no choice and $275.00 was paid in cash. The owner then told us to never come back, that we were in Jefferson Parish and not Orleans Parish, and for us to tell our friends not to come there. The police were called out to protect and serve the owner. Our rights were violated and we were discriminated against because of the color of our skin. We did not serve a threat to anybody. We did not have a problem paying for what we consumed, but we should not have been forced to pay for food we did not receive. Our voices were not raised and when the police came our voices had no sound. It is 2008, when will this nonsense end. Businesses like this should not be in existence. It is time for us to stop being passive about this kind of treatment and take a stand. less