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Asked to leave Sweetwater Tavern in Centreville VA

21K views 107 replies 70 participants last post by  DrinaLynn 
#1 ·
My wife wrote this letter to the CEO of the parent company and cced the President and the Operations Manager.

Dear Mr. Norton,

I hope this email finds you well.

This past Sunday night my husband and I dined, with 7 of our friends, at Sweetwater Tavern in Centreville VA.

We had all remarked that, while the service staff were all extremely cheerful and friendly, the service was extremely slow. However, this is not the reason I write you today. During our meal, my husband and I took a seat at your bar area to have a cigarette. This is where our evening turned sour and when we decided that we will no longer be bringing our business to Sweetwater Tavern.

My husband, is an American citizen who exercises his constitutional right to bear arms. He holds a Virginia Conceal Carry Permit and is a responsible gun owner. As it is his right to do so, my husband carries his gun with him at all times. According to Virginia state law, despite the fact that he is authorized to carry a concealed hand gun, he is required to open-carry in places where alcohol is sold. Sunday evening, in accordance with Virginia state law, he was openly carrying his gun in a holster at Sweetwater Tavern. After a few members of the kitchen staff took notice of the gun on his hip, word spread among the staff quickly. Within minutes, we were approached by the manager and asked to leave.

Before the manager asked us to leave, he asked my husband if he was a law enforcement officer. My husband is a Marine Sergeant with experience working with the Department of State, Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense. His training and experience with weapons and security is obviously extensive, vast and varied. There are many reasons my husband could have listed which would have, in the mind of your manager, justified his carrying openly. However my husband did not outline any of his vocational experience or training as it is irrelevant. My husband was openly
carrying in your restaurant because he is a law abiding citizen and is
completely within his right to do so. That reasoning was not enough for your manager. So we left immediately without protest.

While we certainly appreciate your right to turn away patrons at your own discretion, we're extremely disappointed in your policy and annoyed that you have not proudly posted your policy outside the establishment. Had you done so, we and well over 150,000 carriers would skip dining at "Great American Restaurants'" establishments and be saved the embarrassment and inconvenience of being
asked to leave.

It is worth pointing out the great irony in having a collection of restaurants with predominant themes of Americana and Wild West curio (guns mounted on the walls etc.) while being a brazen malefactor of the Second Amendment of the US Constitution.

I would like to suggest that you make your policy on guns more explicit. Notify customers of your policy before they choose to offer their patronage not after.

Kind Regards,

~


* We left without paying. They have a "no-guns" policy and we have a "we don't pay if we're told to leave" policy :)

** The 150,000+ carriers I'm referring to is only the number of CCW holders in the state of VA as of 2 months ago.
 
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#86 · (Edited)
I think you were right to not pay for the meal. When I eat at a restuarant, I don't consider that the food is the only thing being purchased. Equally important are the service, convenience, atmosphere, etc. -- the whole experience. If this were not true then a restaurant would be nothing more than a drive through window. How many times have you eaten in a restaurant even when you know you could make a cheaper, better meal at home?

If they had attempted to make you pay the bill after asking you to leave then they would be cheating you out of half of what you are actually paying for. I hope that sometime in the near future you will be able to carry concealed in restaurants.
 
#89 ·
"In order to provide a safe and comfortable dining experience for all of our customers, (not YOU) we don't want your kind of filth coming in here and peacefully spending money. You may leave your firearm in your car where it can get stolen, we have no liability for theft, or assault of our disarmed customers, and you'd better not complain about it, either."

Am I close?

--Travis--
 
#91 ·
That's an insane law....required to OPEN CARRY in a BAR? What possible purpose does that serve? It only makes antis more spooked and shows the bad guys exactly who is carrying. Wow.
 
#93 ·
Makes no difference at all, IMO. For the most part, the restaurants in Northern Virginia are accustomed to having armed patrons dining in their facility (open carrying, of course) because of the stupid veto pen of the governor. After VCDL meetings, it is not uncommon for over twenty people to visit a restaurant open carrying at one time, and with no issues or problems whatsoever. The safest restaurant in the country!!

As for bad guys picking out the armed, it is so uncommon that it would be statistically insignificant. I bet you'd have a hard-time finding any shootings at all that occurred in the past that were due to someone OCing. Even if you did, it would be very few..

Criminals avoid potential victims that are armed and the :sheep: tend to not notice nearly as often as you'd think..
 
#92 ·
My wife wrote this letter to the CEO of the parent company and cced the President and the Operations Manager.
Well, if it makes you feel any better, I ate at Wildfire in Tysons Galleria Sunday evening and had no problems. I was there for a good 2-3 hours so I suspect if anyone had problems I would have found out in that time. We finished up our meal and were out sans any difficulties(except for this never-ending rain:rolleyes:).
 
#97 ·
Man this sucks...

I usually go to the Sweetwater in Sterling...and...awwww ::drool:: the Half Roasted Chicken with the Brown Butter Sauce...ahhhhhh...yummy!

Let me point out some things here. 1st, the managers pull at least $80K to over $100K+ I am personal friends with a few of the bartenders there and I have seen other people in the restaurant OC and never seen anyone asked to leave. You obliviously dealt with a moron manager.

Thank you for informing us. I am going to be writing a letter as well. Do you by chance have the email address that I can send my letter to?
 
#98 ·
I sent a letter!

Ok...found the email addresses on the website sent the following email to the following folks: randy.norton@gar-sc.com; mike.ranney@gar-sc.com; peter.damelio@gar-sc.com; jim.farley@gar-sc.com; craig.yoon@gar-sc.com; david.morgan@gar-sc.com


To whom it may concern,

First and foremost, as of last night; I was Sweetwater’s and Coastal Flats’ biggest fan. My wife and I, my family, her family and all of our friends regularly dine at your restaurants (primarily Sweetwater in Sterling), we are responsible for thousands of dollars of income to your establishment and to your servers.

I have to be honest; it pains me to have to write this letter. I am personal friends with a few of the bartenders and servers as well. Your food and micro brewed beer is hands down, no questions asked the best in Northern Virginia. I have NEVER had a bad meal or poor service at any of your locations. On average the wife and I eat at one of your establishments about…once every 10 days.

All that being said, I am EXTREMELY disappointed in your store management and corporate policy. I am referring to an incident that I read about last night on a pro-gun web forum that I am a member of. From what I read, one of the members of this forum and his wife, dined at the Sweetwater in Centerville, ate with their friends, went to have a smoke at the bar and was asked to leave by management immediately. The explanation given was that Great American Restaurants corporate policy is that they do not allow guns into their restaurants as they are a “family restaurant.” Which is a laughable policy because if you really wanted to embrace the “family” atmosphere alcohol would not be served, but I digress…

There are over 150,000+ people in the state of Virginia that have their concealed carry permit (and growing rapidly). Unfortunately, state law dictates that if you have a gun and choose to carry it into establishment that serves alcohol, you must open carry it. Furthermore, it is up to the individual property owner (in this case a corporation) to dictate if guns are allowed on their personal property or not. I fully support Great American Restaurant’s CHOICE to create a policy that does not allow weapons on their premises. It sure would be nice though if Great American Restaurants was a bit clearer from the beginning on their policy of guns in their restaurants (i.e. a sign on the door???)…but again, I digress…

I am not writing you to discuss the finer points of gun control and gun laws. I am writing you to tell you that my wife and I, my family, my wife’s family and many of our friends will simply NEVER be dining at ANY of your restaurants until your policy is changed.

It disgusts me that your company appears to openly embrace all that is great about America and its past yet it has a policy against personal protection, a basic American right! There are paintings and sculptures of cowboys and the Wild West, showing deep history and a proud stance that America rocks! But your corporate policy shows a much more sinister side; disarming your guests and not giving them the CHOICE to defend themselves and others in the event they need to.

Certainly I can understand the desire and need to kick out an unruly guest who is drunk (I used to be a bartender, I know how people get), disorderly or even waving a gun in the air! But the guest that I am referring to in this letter was not doing any of those things. He was there to enjoy an evening with his wife and friends, something my wife and I have done many, many times.

This letter will be posted on the pro-gun forum that I referenced earlier in hopes that others will be writing you similar messages expressing their distaste in Great American Restaurants corporate policies.

I would love to hear back from someone on the reason this policy exists. Until then, I will be going to Wildfire in the Tyson’s Corner mall which apparently does not have a problem with their guests open carrying.

Thank you,
 
#99 ·
i liked your letter,no drama just facts.
what a strange law VA. has concerning open carry where alcohol is served.
i don't really understand what they were thinking when they came up w/a law like that.
 
#100 ·
First and Foremost...great letter and Semper Fi!
In Texas it is illegal to carry anywhere that make 51% of there profits selling alcohol. If I owned a bar in any state, I would not allow the carry of firearms.... It effects good judgement Alcohol effects good people in bad ways, myself included and partaking and carrying do not mix....
A resteraunt is different. I would welcome CCW and feel like I had the safest bar in town if everyone was enjoying a fine meal with a 45 under there shirt!
 
#103 ·
This is a restaurant that has a bar, it's not a bar all on it's own. Virginia doesn't have bars..

In many states, it's already illegal to drink while carrying, including mine. I don't see why restricting your customers' right to protect their lives is doing anybody any good unless you would be willing to provide armed security in your facility. To say that "guns and alcohol don't mix" is the exact excuse the Governor of Virginia used when vetoing the bill that would have allowed citizens to carry concealed, rather than having to open carry it at restaurants in the first place.
 
#101 ·
Great letter. Management appeared not to see a difference between a responsible citizen sitting there and a rowdy shooting up the place like Dodge City. No distinction drawn, Both must make their exit. The American Revolution was fought with firearms, not sticks and stones. But a liberal will just say Oh that was way back then......
 
#104 ·
Either they don't care, or they are receiving more feedback from this than they anticipated and don't know how to respond?

IIRC, there was some feedback to the first letter?
 
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