Real Story On Virginia Restaurant That Tossed Sarah Sanders

LEXINGTON, VA — The fallout from the ouster of White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders from a Virginia restaurant because she works for President Trump continued all weekend and into Monday. The owner of the Red Hen in Lexington, Virginia, asked Sanders to leave Friday night because of her staff's concerns, and the press secretary and her party complied. But that set off a raucous debate on talk shows and the Twitterverse over which political faction is less tolerant, and had irate Trump supporters threatening at least two other restaurants bearing the name Red Hen, although neither has any affiliation to the Virginia eatery.

Then the commander-in-chief tweeted Monday morning, blasting the restaurant for its dirty atmosphere. "The Red Hen Restaurant should focus more on cleaning its filthy canopies, doors and windows (badly needs a paint job) rather than refusing to serve a fine person like Sarah Huckabee Sanders. I always had a rule, if a restaurant is dirty on the outside, it is dirty on the inside!" President Trump wrote on Twitter.

But the most recent inspection of the Red Hen restaurant, done in February, noted no infractions and praised the facility in staff. The restaurant inspector noted, in part, "OBSERVED GOOD FOOD/UNIT TEMPERATURES. * STAFF HAD CLEAN UNIFORMS/APRONS AND LINE COOK HAD HAIR RESTRAINED. * EXCELLENT JOB ON CODE-DATING."

NBC News reported that it was unclear whether Trump had ever been to the restaurant, which is 50 miles northeast of Roanoke, or how he would have decided it violated health codes. An Associated Press photo of crowds taking selfies outside the Red Hen shows that it's in an older building but with a fresh-looking coat of paint; the awnings over the windows show some wear.

Jaike Foley-Schultz, who says he works at the restaurant, wrote on Facebook that he served Sanders for a total of two minutes before the owner told her and seven of her family members to leave the restaurant on Friday night. Foley-Schultz later deleted that Facebook post and wrote that the owner asked her to leave and Sanders complied.

"Her family left on their own accord, we didn't actually refuse service or "kick her out"," he wrote.

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• NJ Restaurant Threatened; Place W/Same Name Booted Sarah Sanders

A New Jersey restaurant also named the Red Hen keeps telling people that it wasn't the same place that booted Sanders from its premises last week. But that hasn't stopped people from calling and threatening them anyway. "The calls haven't stopped," Elizabeth Pope, the operating manager, told Patch.com on Sunday when asked about the harassing complaints the Red Hen Restaurant in Swedesboro has been getting. "I've lost count of the hate mail."

At one point, there were 100 calls within about six hours Saturday afternoon, she said. "One person called and threatened to burn us down," Pope told Patch.

Then The Red Hen restaurant in Washington, D.C., on Saturday tweeted that it was in no way affiliated with, or owned by, or a franchise of, the Virginia restaurant that asked Sanders to leave. But Twitter users didn't seem to understand, or believe the tweet. You can follow the long conversation on this thread.

What Led Up To Request That Sanders Leave

Sanders said in a tweet that she "politely left" the Red Hen in Lexington, Virginia. "Her actions say far more about her than about me," Sanders wrote. "I always do my best to treat people, including those I disagree with, respectfully and will continue to do so."

The Red Hen did not immediately respond to Patch's request for comment.

Stephanie Wilkinson, who co-owns the restaurant, explained what happened to The Washington Post. She told the paper she was at home when the chef called to say Sanders was dining there and the staff was concerned.

Wilkinson said Sanders was there with her husband and about six other guests. She told the Post she consulted with her staff and asked them what they wanted her to do.

"Tell me what you want me to do. I can ask her to leave," she told her staff, according to the Post. "They said yes."

Wilkinson said she had a word with Sanders on the patio and said "I'd like to ask you to leave." Sanders responded, "That's fine. I'll go." The others who were dining with her were not asked to leave but they left as well, she recounted to the Post. They offered to pay for the food they had already eaten but Wilkinson said it was on the house.

She told the Post she believed Sanders worked in the service of an "inhumane and unethical" administration and she would absolutely do the same again. Wilkinson told the paper it was important to her that the staff had not outright refused to serve Sanders and she also said it was important that Sanders was a public official and not just a customer with whom she disagreed.

The restaurant is Lexington's first farm-t0-table restaurant. A 2010 article in Virginia Living said the restaurant "exudes storybook charm." On its Yelp page, the restaurant has three dollar signs signifying price. Several Yelp reviews posted June 23 appeared to be intentionally giving the restaurant a one-star rating because of the incident involving Sanders. And some users appeared to intentionally be giving the restaurant five stars for the same incident.

It was the second time last week that a member of the Trump administration was booted from a restaurant. DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was shouted out of a Mexican restaurant in Washington D.C. on Tuesday night. And last Sunday, White House adviser Stephen Miller was accosted at a Mexican restaurant and called a fascist, The New York Post reported.

All this comes as the Trump administration has come under intense criticism for its "zero-tolerance" for illegal immigration. More than 2,300 children have been separated from their parents after crossing the southwestern border because of the policy as the parents are held for prosecution. President Trump signed an executive order last week designed to stop families from being separated though it remains unclear how those already separated from their parents will be reunited.

Photo of the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Virginia, via Google maps