AKRON, Ohio — Ken Stewart’s Grille in Akron is under scrutiny after a post on social media regarding the restaurant’s dress code went viral.
The restaurant, located at 1970 W. Market St. in Akron, posted last week on Facebook a statement that said due to patrons’ requests, proper attire is required for dinner service. It said the attire that is prohibited is beachwear, gym attire including sweatpants, sweatshirts or hoodies, athletic apparel, hats, oversized or baggy clothing and no excessively revealing clothing or offensive odors is allowed on the property.
The post received 1,300 reactions, nearly 2,000 comments and 500 shares.
Some patrons agreed with the need to clarify the dress code, with comments like "This is excellent, take pride in how you look," "Dress and behave," "‘I highly support this," and "Agree wholeheartedly if you don’t want to follow the dress code, go somewhere else."
But other comments like "Just say whites only," "Well, you just lost my support," and "Will this be enforced across the board to all patrons? If so, then I support it. If not, then he deserves all the criticism he gets"’ called the restaurant out for being discriminatory.
Ken Stewart, the owner of Ken Stewart’s Grille, and his daughter Carley Stewart, the restaurant’s director of operations, said they were shocked by the response.
“This is about clothing and appearance, and it really has nothing to do with race; we want people to come in look nice and have a great experience,” said Ken Stewart. “It was about clothing and nothing else. Everyone is welcome; just we ask you not to come in in gymnasium clothes or beachwear.”
Stewart said that he opened the restaurant 33 years ago, and the dress code was always implied but never said outright.
“I opened the restaurant so we could have an upscale restaurant with fabulous food and great service,” he said. “I think dressing up and looking nice adds to the experience and makes it special.
He said post-pandemic is when things started to change as far as dress code.
“People got so casual that nothing is upscale,” he added.
And when asked why the need to add in odor to the post? Stewart said, "The only herb we’d like you to smell like is tarragon."
Carley said that they decided to post a reminder of what the restaurant's dress code is on Facebook so that people wouldn’t be surprised when they came to the restaurant.
“We definitely were surprised. It was never our intent for anything negative to come from it. We really thought we were getting ahead of something and eliminating any potential awkwardness or uncomfortability for the guests and their dining experience,” she said.
The restaurant posted a follow-up post on its Facebook page Monday to address concerns received from the initial post:
Xaviera Patrick is the owner of Charm Your Way, an etiquette consulting company, and she said there are pros and cons of businesses explicitly stating and enforcing dress codes.
“I think restaurants have the right to have branding. So if that's the branding that they want for their restaurant, for it to come across to their patrons as upscale and they impose an upscale attire, I think that's okay,” she said. “You're setting the expectations; you're letting your patrons know.”
But she said it runs the risk of alienating people.
“Now that you’ve enforced a strict dress code, now people are going to be watching to see if you enforce it, and so you can't partially enforce it or enforce it to one group and not to another group.”
Stewart reiterated that everyone is welcome so long as they follow the code.
“We are just restoring the feeling and atmosphere we’ve had here for years,” he said. “There’s nothing else there. Just look nice when you come in. It’s common sense. We will try to look nice, and we will serve you the best food you’ve ever had and the best service.”
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