‘Stop Them Before They Come In’: Black Women Denied Service at Denny’s While White Customers Serenely Enjoyed Their Omelets, Lawsuit Says
Five Black women who say they were refused service at a Denny's in Pennsylvania last year due to electrical issues in the restaurant are suing the company and the franchisee for racial discrimination, alleging that when they went inside to use the restroom, they saw customers receiving polite and orderly service and no lights flickering. All of the customers in the restaurant were white. The five women, who had traveled from New York, were planning to have lunch on Jan. 14, 2024 when, as they entered the Denny’s in Bloomsburg, a white hostess cut them off them in the vestibule and denied them entry and service, telling them that the lights in the restaurant were “flickering,” according to their lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Pennsylvania on Nov. 5, and obtained by Atlanta Black Star. Aminique Kirnon (right) recorded a video after she and four Black women friends were allegedly denied service at a Denny's restaurant in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, in January 2024. (Photos: Somewhere In Pennsylvania Facebook Page, Aminique Kirnon TikTok Profile) A few minutes later, when the women entered the restaurant to use the restroom, they passed table after table of white customers enjoying their meals, an efficiently bustling staff, and a “perfectly normal” ambience, the complaint says. Looking around and seeing no lights flickering anywhere, they determined that they were being discriminated against based on their race and began to record video inside the restaurant. ‘Egregious’: Judge Scolds Pennsylvania Cop Who Locked Up Black Teen for Nearly a Month and Hid Evidence That Proved His Innocence One of the videos of the incident posted to TikTok, which shows the women walking through the restaurant and expressing skepticism at the proffered reason for denying them service, received more than 41,000 views. https://www.tiktok.com/@aimeemichelle_mimi/video/7324056045817564458 The plaintiffs — Daniella Bonhomme, a family therapist; Tatiana Poulard, a medical technician; Aminique Kirnon, an elementary school teacher; Selina Sacasa, a New York subway station supervisor; and Quantavia Grant, a crisis paraprofessional and educator — allege that they were embarrassed and humiliated by the unequal and discriminatory treatment they received “simply because of the color of their skin.” Further insult was added when the Denny’s corporate office tapped a “token” Black employee, Chioke Elmore, Vice President of Denny’s Inc., to call Kirnon and try to “to placate and persuade” her that Denny’s Bloomsburg’s refusal to serve the women was not discriminatory. “I look like you and I wouldn’t want to work here if they didn’t want people like us to eat here,” Elmore allegedly told Kirnon, and then offered her a free meal at Denny’s. The complaint calls Elmore’s comments “gaslighting” and an awkward attempt to “clean up” the blatant racial discrimination the plaintiffs suffered, “as if a Grand Slam could wipe away the emotional distress” of having their civil rights violated. It also argues that by getting a corporate officer involved in trying to resolve the public controversy surrounding the customers’ complaints with the local franchisee, the company “bound itself” to the unlawful conduct of the Denny’s Bloomburg staff. The lawsuit claims the episode is just another in a series of discriminatory incidents at Denny’s franchisees around the country, and lists ten other occasions since 1991 when Denny’s employees delayed or denied service to Black, minority and LGBT patrons. In 1994, the chain paid $54 million to thousands of Black customers who had been refused service, waited longer than white customers, or were charged more than light-skinned customers, The Daily Mail reported. More recently, in July 2025, two Black cross-country truck drivers filed a federal lawsuit alleging they were denied service and harassed at a Denny’s restaurant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Each man is seeking damages of $4 million. The plaintiffs seek a jury trial to determine compensatory and punitive damages for their humiliation, mental anguish, and emotional distress and a judgment that declares the defendants violated federal and state civil and human rights laws.“This is something that was incredibly blatant and obvious to anyone who could have seen it,” New York attorney Kyle Platt, one of three attorneys representing the women, told The Daily Mail. “They entered the restaurant and were immediately basically ushered away, while all the white patrons were able to eat without issue.” “They’re not just demanding a free meal,” co-counsel Jacqueline Carranza said of her clients. “They’re demanding justice.” The defendants — Denny’s, Inc. and Gills Bloomsburg Inc, the Denny’s franchise owner — have 21 days, or until Nov. 26, to file a response to the complaint. Their attorneys did not immediately return a request for comment about the lawsuit from Atlanta Black Star. But in their response to a complaint made by the five women to the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission in July 2024, employees at Denny’s Bloomsburg testified that it was a windy day when the women came to the restaurant, which had been experiencing power issues, including problems with register computers and flickering lights all day. Two Denny’s employees denied that the women were refused seating, and said they were told instead that the electrical issues would cause service delays, and that they could stay, but the women “were angry and left.” Denny’s staff also denied that the Black women were “closely monitored,” as the plaintiffs allege, when they were welcomed to use the restroom. In its findings of fact and law, the human relations commission noted that Denny’s hostess Paige Wright stated that the restaurant manager told her “to stop them before they come in,” which is “inconsistent with version that they only told complainants there would be a delay, as there would be no reason to stop them before they entered the restaurant, and could have relayed the information when they approached the hostess for seating.” Video footage shows that red neon block lettered lights above the kitchen appear to be flickering, the commission noted, but it also shows food on the back counter that appears to have just been prepared and ready to take to customers, indicating the kitchen was operable. The five women, “the only African American customers in the restaurant,” were “not given the option to sit down and not asked if they had cash and were not told it would be a delay,” the commission observed, concluding that probable cause existed to believe the Denny’s franchisee discriminated against the women. The commission found insufficient evidence that Denny’s, Inc. had discriminated, noting that the company, as a franchisor, “has no authority or control over the employees or the daily operations of franchisee.”
