Restaurant Owner Adopts "Speak English" Policy

Patrick Walters, Associated Press
June 8, 2006, 8:15 PM PDT

... Of course, it's not as if native Philadelphians speak the King's English either. A Philadelphian might order a cheesesteak by saying something like, "Yo, gimme a cheesesteak wit, will youse?" ("Wit," or "with," means with fried onions.) To which the counterman might reply: "Youse want fries widdat?" ...

But the policy has "really upset a lot of a people," said Brad Baldia of Day Without An Immigrant, a coalition of immigrant groups. "For some people, I think we're just going to say, `Le gusta Pat's."' ...

Tony Luke's issued a statement saying it welcomes all customers "whether or not they speak a `wit' of English."

And a manager at Pat's, Kathy Smith, said of ...'s English-only policy: "That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard in my life. I'd rather listen to the Spanish than the foul language of the college students."

http://ktla.trb.com/news/ktla-englishonlyrestaurant,0,2504427.story?coll=ktla-news-1

you can have English speaking customers, or you can have Spanish speaking customers.

The ones that matter are the ones that buy.

I go to a small Italian restaurant. The owner says he's going to require "Italian only".

But I only speak two languages, Southern english and Gullah.

Onus - Southern definition:

"We just work for him, he don't onus".

Seems like a nice publicity stunt to me.

And as the owner of a business, is he really legally required to offer multilingual menus and staff?

there when I visited Philly. I didn't order my sammich using the proper lingo and was denied service. The guy just said "get out of here if you can't order right. Next!" I went somewhere else. I wasn't going to waste my time and give my money to a business that refuses service to someone who doesn't know their secret ordering lingo.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.