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Several workers resigned from a restaurant in Durham, North Carolina after the owner repeatedly used the n-word.
According to INDY Week, Lisa Callaghan, owner of Plum Southern Kitchen & Bar, used the racial slur in May after staff members played Kendrick Lamar's Euphoria while prepping for a dinner service.
“I am so sick of hearing n—r this, n—r that, n—r, n—r, n—r,” Callaghan reportedly said in front of several employees.
A Black bartender confronted Callaghan over her use of the slur. Callaghan allegedly asked the bartender why it was “only OK if one of you says it?’”
“When you say ‘one of you,’ do you mean n—rs?’” the bartender said. “And she said, ‘Well, yes, I guess so.’”
“At that point, I was just like, ‘Listen, I think that it is a good idea for you to not speak to me at all right now.’”
The bartender discussed the incident with the restaurant's executive chef, Trent Shank, who also heard the slur, to figure out how to move forward. Callaghan took a few weeks off before coming back to work and allegedly singling out Black employees.
In June, Plum's pastry chef, Emma Shank, said she resigned from the restaurant because she “no longer felt comfortable as an employee in that building and working for [Callaghan].”
Callaghan also fired the Black bartender, allegedly citing that she was “part of a chapter she needed to close.” Former employees said Callaghan then fired Trent Shank for not defending her after the incident.
In an email, Callaghan informed staffers of Shank's departure, referencing her "mistake."
“This has been a very difficult period for all of us at Plum,” Callaghan wrote in the email. “My mistake, using a word that deeply offended, has grown tentacles that have stolen the camaraderie that we always had. I deeply regret my mistake.”
After the email was sent, the chef de cuisine, the sous chef, the pastry chef, and more than a dozen servers, bartenders, hosts, line cooks, and dishwashers quit.
The restaurant shared on social media that it would be temporarily closed from July 2 to July 10. It remained closed to customers as of last week.
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