Over the holiday weekend, popular Houston restaurant the Turkey Leg Hut stirred a social media controversy after announcing a decidedly restrictive new dress code, and now a Midtown brunch destination is following suit.
In a post to the Instagram account for Taste Bar and Kitchen, the restaurant expressed its support for the Turkey Leg Hut amid the controversy, and announced plans to enforce an identical dress code. “We not only support the new Turkey Leg Hut dress code, we will also be enforcing it here at Taste Bar + Kitchen,” the post reads. “We appreciate your cooperation and support!”
As at the Turkey Leg Hut, patrons will no longer be allowed to dine at Taste Bar and Kitchen if they show up wearing white tank tops (for men, anyway), pants that are “excessively baggy,” or “overly distressed” clothing. House shoes, hair bonnets, and slide sandals are also off-limits.
Like the response to the Turkey Leg Hut, the announcement was met with mixed feedback from Taste Bar and Kitchen’s Instagram following. Some commenters were in full support of the policy, arguing that a restaurant owner asking patrons to not wear house shoes or swimwear isn’t an unreasonable ask. Others viewed the dress code as exclusionary. “ Y’all pretty much told the hood they not welcome if they can’t afford nice clothing,” wrote one commenter.
For those who missed out on the social media melee, the Turkey Leg Hut announced last Friday that it would no longer allow diners to wear “excessively baggy or sagging pants,” overly distressed clothing, or white tank tops. In response, critics of the policy decried it as “anti-Black.” The Turkey Leg Hut’s owners have remained steadfast in their position, posting memes poking fun at the situation on Instagram and sharing photos of the packed-out restaurant over the weekend as proof that the restaurant hasn’t seen any real impact from the online controversy.