Denney's - America's Favorite Pincushion

Another group has sued a Denney's restaurant claiming discrimination. This time is was a group of Arab Americans:

The seven men say they went to Fernandez's restaurant in Florida City, on the southern tip of the Florida peninsula, about 2 a.m. Jan. 11, 2004. They say they were seated, given menus and received their drink orders. But an hour later, their food hadn't arrived. One of the men — Ehab Albaradi — approached Ascano and inquired about the group's order, the lawsuit says.

Ascano allegedly said: "Bin Laden is the manager of the kitchen" and "Bin Laden is in charge."

Albaradi and a second man, Usama El-A-Baidy, decided to speak to Ascano again about their order.

Angered, Ascano told the short order cooks in the kitchen to cancel the group's order, the suit claims.

El-A-Baidy then asked Ascano why he had used the name bin Laden.

"We don't serve bin Ladens here! You guys, out!" Ascano allegedly said.

A group of officers from the Miami-Dade County and Homestead police departments eating at the Denny's also told the seven men to leave and threatened to arrest them if they didn't, the lawsuit said. The officers have not been identified, Kauffman said.

Miami-Dade police spokeswoman Cathy Webb said Thursday that the department could find no record of a complaint being filed by the men and because so many months have passed, it will be difficult to determine who the officers were. Homestead Capt. Ed Bowe said no complaints were filed with the department and its records show no on-duty officers were at the restaurant at the time.

I don't know what really happened, but I can tell you from years of experience that if you go into a Denney's at 2am, your expectations of quality service had better be pretty darn low. Many times over the years I've headed to a Denney's at 11 pm or later following a concert, not because I'm particularly fond of their food, but because they're the only thing open at that time of night. You'd better plan to be there for awhile because...well let's just say the "A" team is not on duty at that hour.

Whether the men were really treated as badly as they suggest is hard to tell. However, Denney's has become an easy target for such complaints due to problems in the past. Maybe being open 24 hours is not such a good idea after all.

And the lady that sued Wendy's for the famous finger in the chili? If she's only been smart enough to try that at a Denney's she's probably be a millionaire today.