Olive Garden: Manager no longer working at company after alleged racial incident

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WFIE) - The managers at Olive Garden say they’re investigating an alleged racial incident at the restaurant.

Olive Garden officials say they’re aware of an accusation involving patrons and a server at the restaurant.

There has been a social media post circulating, saying that a couple sitting down to dine requested a different server who wasn’t black.

The post goes on to say the manager told the couple that they won’t receive service from a person of color.

We reached out to the local managers at Olive Garden, they say there is no tolerance for an incident like this and they’re looking into it.

In a statement from Olive Garden, they say, “We have zero tolerance for discrimination of any kind, and the manager involved no longer works for our company.”

We’ve also reached out to Darden Restaurants, the corporation that owns Olive Garden.

Officials with Darden say they are looking into the incident as well.

We’ve also been speaking with Reverend Gerald Arnold with the NAACP. He says they’ve also launched an investigation into the alleged incident.

“We need to determine a distinction whether this is a cultural thing, or is this just an incident of an individual making a very bad choice, okay?" Reverend Arnold said. "So, that’s what we have to do first. So, if its culture, then we have to deal with it, and I don’t believe that this is systemic.”

Reverend Arnold says, depending on which way their investigation goes, he says they have procedures in place.