Stephanie Wilkinson was at home Friday evening — nearly 200 miles from the White House — when the choice presented itself.

Her phone rang about 8 p.m. It was the chef at the Red Hen, the tiny farm-to-table restaurant that she co-owned just off Main Street in this small city in the western part of the state.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders had just walked in and sat down, the chef informed her.

"He said the staff is a little concerned. What should we do?" Wilkinson told the Washington Post. "I said I'd be down to see if it's true."

It seemed unlikely to her that President Trump's press secretary should be dining at a 26-seat restaurant in rural Virginia. But then, it was unlikely that her entire staff would have misidentified Sanders, who had arrived last to a table of eight booked under her husband's name.

As she made the short drive to the Red Hen, Wilkinson knew only this:

She knew Lexington, population 7,000, had voted overwhelmingly against Trump in a county that voted overwhelmingly for him. She knew the community was deeply divided over such issues as Confederate flags. She knew, she said, that her restaurant and its half-dozen servers and cooks had managed to stay in business for 10 years by keeping politics off the menu.

And she knew — she believed — that Sanders worked in the service of an "inhumane and unethical" administration, that she publicly defended the president's cruelest policies, and that that could not stand.

"I'm not a huge fan of confrontation," Wilkinson said. "I have a business, and I want the business to thrive. This feels like the moment in our democracy when people have to make uncomfortable actions and decisions to uphold their morals."

When she walked into the restaurant, Wilkinson saw that there had been no mistake. The Red Hen is no bigger than some apartments, and the group table was impossible to miss: Sanders in a black dress, her husband, three or four men and women of roughly similar ages, and an older couple.

"They had cheese boards in front of them," Wilkinson said. Like any other family. The kitchen was already preparing the party's main course. Wilkinson interrupted to huddle with her workers.

Several Red Hen employees are gay, she said. They knew Sanders had defended Trump's desire to bar transgender people from the military. This month, they had all watched her evade questions and defend a Trump policy that caused migrant children to be separated from their parents.

"Tell me what you want me to do. I can ask her to leave," Wilkinson told her staff, she said. "They said 'yes.' "

It was important to Wilkinson, she said, that Sanders had already been served — that her staff had not simply refused her on sight. And it was important to her that Sanders was a public official, not just a customer with whom she disagreed, many of whom were included in her regular clientele.

All the same, she was tense as she walked up to the press secretary's chair.

"I said, 'I'm the owner,' " she recalled, " 'I'd like you to come out to the patio with me for a word.' "

They stepped outside, into another small enclosure, but at least out of the crowded restaurant.

"I was babbling a little, but I got my point across in a polite and direct fashion," Wilkinson said. "I explained that the restaurant has certain standards that I feel it has to uphold, such as honesty, and compassion, and cooperation.

"I said, 'I'd like to ask you to leave.' "

Wilkinson didn't know how Sanders would react, or whether Trump's chief spokeswoman had been called out in a restaurant before — as the president's homeland security secretary had been days earlier.

Sanders' response was immediate, Wilkinson said: " 'That's fine. I'll go.' "

Sanders went back to the table, picked up her things and walked out. The others at her table had been welcome to stay, Wilkinson said. But they didn't, so the servers cleared away the cheese plates and glasses.

"They offered to pay," Wilkinson said. "I said, 'No. It's on the house.' "

At the end of the shift, Wilkinson said, staff members left the usual overnight note in the kitchen for the morning manager: a problem with the credit card machine. Restock vodka and tequila.

If you've ever heard the term "to 86 someone," it comes from the restaurant industry — code to refuse service, or alternatively to take an item off the menu.

"86 - Sara Huckabee Sanders," read the note, below the reminder to buy more Pellegrino.

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-sanders-restaurant-owner-20180623-story.html

Nonsense. Reminds me of the guy kicked out of a bar for a stupid MAGA hat. These incidents do nothing to convince fake independent voters to vote for a democrat. The only thing this does is appeal to the mentally ill. It gets them riled up and go heck ya stand up against evil fascist trump and his minions. Does nothing. It’s a yawn.

Again I say, being gay is not a choice. Being an asshole is.

Again I say, being gay is not a choice. Being an asshole is.

Getting gay married is a choice. I think it’s repulsive to not serve someone just because they’re gay, but someone should not be forced to acknowledge a marriage they don’t believe in.

Getting gay married is a choice. I think it’s repulsive to not serve someone just because they’re gay, but someone should not be forced to acknowledge a marriage they don’t believe in.

How do you know that being an asshole is a choice? Whar about mentally ill people or druf addicts or drunks?

Getting gay married is a choice. I think it’s repulsive to not serve someone just because they’re gay, but someone should not be forced to acknowledge a marriage they don’t believe in.

What if they're against interracial marriage?

You realise that they're not refusing someone service because of their decision to marry, right? It's the fact that it's gay that's the problem, which is straight up prejudice.

The big difference between the whole wedding cake incident and this, is that the former was prejudice where the decision to refuse service wasn't made based on what they had done. Sanders was refused service based on what she has said and/or done, that's judgement and a whole different thing entirely.

It's like if a guy walks into a bar: if he's denied service for being gay, it's prejudice and unacceptable, but if he starts spewing racist/hateful bullshit or causing a scene (or is known to have done so previously), passing judgement on that and refusing them service is perfectly acceptable.

Note that the baker in the gay wedding incident, was otherwise willing to serve gay customers. He didn't want to make a gay cake which would have forced him to express a message in his art that he's against. It's like forcing a Muslim to bake a cake with an image of Mohammed on it. Or another example, if a liberal baker refused to make a cake saying ban gay marriage on it, would it be a controversy?

I cerThinly would not have baked a cake for Mario and Belles wedding if they’d stayed together.

Jesus.

Seriously, what would Jesus say about what you just posted? I thought you were religious?

I haven't really known the full extend of the case in detail I think.

So what is "a gay cake".

Say you had a cake where the insides were pride rainbow colored, had a few miniatures men on the top and said congrats (two male names)

I’d serve anyone if I owned a restaurant.

I cerThinly would not have baked a cake for Mario and Belle