Waiters at a Delco country club restaurant refused to serve Black customers, including Eagles veteran Brandon Graham, lawsuit says
Amanda Tucker, the former Tavola Restaurant + Bar employee who filed the lawsuit, also alleges that restaurant staff and supervisors frequently made racist jokes and comments.
A restaurant in a Delaware County country club fostered a “racially discriminatory environment” that affected workers and customers, with employees allegedly making racist jokes and refusing to serve Black diners, according to a federal lawsuit filed last week by a former employee.
One employee at Tavola Restaurant & Bar at the Springfield Country Club allegedly walked out of a shift because he refused to wait on a table of Black customers, according to the suit. The same employee, the suit alleges, insisted that another waiter serve Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham when he visited the restaurant.
Amanda Tucker, who worked as a server at Tavola between 2021 and 2023, filed the lawsuit in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against her former employer and three supervisors. Tucker and her sister, the restaurant’s only Black servers at the time, were forced by white servers to wait on all tables with Black customers, the complaint said.
Tavola said in a statement that it looks forward to responding to the allegations in court.
“We are deeply committed to fostering a safe, inclusive, and respectful environment for both our employees and guests,” the statement said. “Any suggestion otherwise is upsetting to us and does not reflect our values or how we operate.”
The Springfield Country Club is not a party in the lawsuit.
In the suit, Tucker provides alleged examples of racist comments and behavior by restaurant staff. For example, the lawsuit says, one time when a group of Black customers was seated at a table, a white server asked Tucker and her sister, “Hey, are those your cousins?” On another occasion, one of Tucker’s supervisors told her that her braids “looked ghetto,” according to the suit.
The complaint says that when Tucker reported racist behavior, the alleged offender was not reprimanded, but Tucker was chastised.
In one instance, one of Tucker’s supervisors said in front of her to two other restaurant workers, ”Don’t say anything in here; you’ll end up in H.R. There’s snitches and rats around,” according to the suit.
“Defendants not only failed to acknowledge any of the ongoing discrimination or harassment but also made it clear that they had no intention of addressing Plaintiff’s legitimate complaints,” the complaint says.
Tucker also says supervisors made demands of her that white servers were not subjected to, such as covering the bill of a party that left without paying.
In July 2023, the lawsuit says, after reporting multiple incidents and having a formal conversation with human resources about “the pervasive racial prejudices she had endured” at the restaurant, Tucker was fired.
Nathaniel Peckham, an attorney at Freundlich & Littman who represents Tucker, said that his client “looks forward to further advocating for her rights.”