Police Chief Furious After Hearing What Restaurant Cook Reportedly Told One of His Officers

A Virginia restaurant has fired two of its employees and offered an apology after an incident allegedly involving a cook who refused to serve a uniformed police officer.

It happened at Noodles and Company in Alexandria, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C., Monday. WTTG-TV reported that after seeing the officer who was in line for his food, a female cook came out front and told the cashier, "You better pull me off the line, because I'm not serving that," motioning toward the officer.

"Well, your first response as a police officer is anger," Alexandria Police Chief Earl Cook said after visiting the restaurant to speak with managers a day later. "These are very difficult times right now with our relations with everyone, and to have one of my officers treated in that manner unnecessarily — your first response is anger, then you calm down a bit."

Cook said restaurant managers apologized and the company later issued this statement:

Noodles & Company expects the highest ethical and personal behavior from its team members. We value each of our guests and are committed to treating every one with dignity and respect. We do not tolerate any form of discrimination.

We are working with the appropriate authorities and local police association representatives to get to the bottom of, and resolve this matter as quickly as possible. We have made efforts to reach out to the police officer involved, but have not yet spoken with her. We will continue to look into the situation and will take the appropriate actions at the conclusion of this review.

The incident occurred just days after a Taco Bell employee in Alabama was let go after refusing to serve two sheriff's deputies and not long after a couple refused to sit next to a group of police officers at a restaurant in Pennsylvania.

—

Follow the author of this story on Twitter and Facebook:

Follow @jonstreet