‘The Audacity’: Black Couple Sues Buffalo Wild Wings for $5 Million After Ordering Takeout, Then Finding Racial Slur on Their Receipt
A Black disabled veteran filed a $5 million lawsuit against Buffalo Wild Wings, alleging that he ordered takeout from their chain restaurants near Washington, D.C., only to find a racial slur printed on his receipt. According to the civil rights complaint obtained by The Independent, Marc Loman stated that he and his wife visited a Buffalo Wild Wings in Woodbridge, Virginia, in November 2024. The complaint states that the couple placed an order with the manager on duty, ate at the restaurant, and then had their leftover potato wedges boxed up. Natasha Loman took to TikTok after an employee at a Virginia Buffalo Wild Wings wrote a racial slur on her food order. (Photos: Getty Images, TikTok/mrsbonafide) It wasn't until they got home that they saw the word “n*gs,” an abbreviated form of the “N-word,” printed on their receipt and the box their food was in. Loman's wife, Natasha, immediately went to Yelp to leave a one-star review: “It's 2024 and a manager at Buffalo Wild Wings store #280 Woodbridge VA did not ask for a name for take out order but has the audacity put ‘@n*gs’ for our names.” ‘Y’all Like to Fight’: Black Diners Denied Service and Kicked Out of Virginia Restaurant Because Two Other Black Women Got Into a Brawl, Sue Natasha Loman also took to TikTok to publicize what happened. In her video, she said that she and her husband arrived at the restaurant at around 1:30 a.m. on Nov. 2, 2024. Many Buffalo Wild Wings locations stay open until 1 a.m. on weekdays and 2 a.m. on the weekends. When the couple placed their order, the manager on duty didn't take down their names. After their leftover food was boxed up and placed in a bag, they went home. Later that morning, they wanted to reheat their potato wedges and saw the racial slur on the receipt. https://www.tiktok.com/@mrsbonafide/video/7432702894178077995 The couple called BWW corporate and complained about the "clear racial slur and hate speech." They received a call the next day from the corporation vice president, who said the kitchen manager at the Woodbridge restaurant “had intentionally placed the racial slur on their order,” according to the complaint. The company fired the employee. The complaint asserts that the worker who typed the slur “knew, or should have known, that referring to the Lomans by a shortened version of a well-known racial slur was likely to result in emotional distress." The term was "especially painful" for 37-year-old Marc Loman, who “has been subjected to racial animus and harassment in the past," the suit states. The complaint goes on to say that the experience reopened "deep emotional wounds" that were tied to the "pervasive, brutalizing, and degrading racism that traumatized Mr. Loman while growing up in the Deep South." Loman reportedly “missed work and sought counseling” after the incident. He and his wife are seeking a $5 million judgment and $350,000 in punitive damages from Buffalo Wild Wings and the restaurant's parent entity, Blazin’ Wings, Inc., for intentional infliction of emotional distress.
