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Today in Anti-Semitism: A $25 Minimum

A Brooklyn restaurant accused of anti-Semitism

by
Adam Chandler
October 22, 2012

The River Café in the DUMBO neighborhood in Brooklyn–that’s Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass if you haven’t come to know the comical jargon of south Brooklyn real estate–has come under fire for allegedly setting a $25 per-person minimum specifically for its Jewish patrons.

Unnamed current and former employees of Brooklyn’s River Café claim the restaurant actively discriminates against “Jews wearing yarmulkes or any sort of religious hat” by telling them there is a per-person minimum that does not in fact apply to other diners.

It gets worse. The employees assert that there were hand-written notes written in the restaurant’s reservation book instructing employees to do so. (There are photos of the supposed scribbling too.) What’s particularly shocking about this story is that this reportedly took place in a massively visible, chic Brooklyn spot.

Acting on the tip, the Post tested them out:

On Thursday evening, The Post sent a Jewish couple to the bar. The husband, wearing a yarmulke, and the wife, dressed in a simple long skirt, were told the bar was full.



They were told they could sit on the empty terrace and pay a $25-per- person minimum.



Five minutes later, two Post reporters, wearing no religious garb, were seated on the terrace and were not required to pay a minimum. The bill for a coffee and a gin-and-tonic totaled $18.51.

Adam Chandler was previously a staff writer at Tablet. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, Slate, Esquire, New York, and elsewhere. He tweets @allmychandler.