Woman calls restaurant hypocritical after being kicked out for wearing a crop top

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB/Gray News) – A Baton Rouge woman is calling out an area steakhouse after she was kicked out of the restaurant this week because of what she was wearing.

What was supposed to be a nice lunch at Stab’s Prime Steakhouse and Seafood turned into a humiliating moment for Y’Mine McClanahan, who said she was kicked out for violating the dress code.

“I left feeling kind of mortified, violated, ashamed, and really humiliated because I had never had something happen like this to me as a working professional,” McClanahan said. “You feel alienated and it’s like, ‘Well what’s wrong with me? What’s the problem with me?’”

A video posted on social media went viral, showing McClanahan’s outfit: a floral two-piece outfit with a crop top and a long, high-waisted skirt.

Part of the video shows what happened when the restaurant’s co-owner confronted McClanahan before kicking her out of the steakhouse for her wardrobe.

“I just wanted to get it on camera. Why can’t I come in here?” McClanahan can be heard saying to the co-owner in the video.

“It’s just too revealing up here,” the co-owner answered, gesturing to her chest.

The dress code policy on the restaurant’s website calls for business-casual attire and specifically bans gym wear, sweatpants, and revealing clothing.

The policy also calls for no tank tops, but the co-owner seen in the video appears to be violating the policy herself by wearing a red tank top.

McClanahan said it’s like the pot calling the kettle black.

McClanahan said she believes the policy should be more specific and not left up to someone’s interpretation.

“… their policy says no tank tops, but there she was telling me that I had to leave [while] standing there in a tank top,” McClanahan said. “I just have no words for it.”

What baffles McClanahan most is that she has worn the exact same outfit in the restaurant before with no problems.

She even has photo proof, sharing a picture of herself taken about two weeks ago at the restaurant, wearing the same two-piece floral outfit.

She’s unsure why she was denied service this time.

“It’s just very disheartening that there’s no accountability and there’s no remorse for what’s been done to me,” McClanahan said.

Furthermore, McClanahan pointed out that servers at the restaurant are allowed to wear shorts and crop tops. She said it is hypocritical to allow servers to wear such outfits yet kick out guests for the same clothing.

Another video shows a server at the restaurant wearing shorts, fishnet tights, and a crop top that exposes part of her stomach.

“If you’re holding me to a certain standard for the atmosphere that you’re trying to create, then why are your staff members not held to the same standard?” McClanahan asked.

WAFB reached out to the restaurant owner who sent the following statement:

“We have a dress code policy that we ask our customers to observe. A few times a month we speak with our guests about their attire including asking them to remove baseball hats in our restaurant. Contrary to reports our attire policy is not new, it has been in effect for over three years now. We spoke with a guest yesterday about her attire and she pointed out that we have waitstaff dressed in a manner that might not meet the standard of our attire policy. For the last several weeks we have actually been working on a different uniform so that we are not asking a different standard for our customers than we are requiring of our staff.”

However, McClanahan questions the timing of the changes the owners claim they are making to their staff’s uniforms. She believes it was just an excuse after she called them out for being hypocritical.

“I find it very convenient, because if that were the case [changing the uniforms], then it should have already been put in motion,” McClanahan said. “It doesn’t take that long to fix a uniform.”

McClanahan is an officer with the local chapter of the NAACP. The group released the following letter to management at Stab’s requesting to meet with them soon: