A social media post involving an incident at a popular Sault Ste. Marie diner has served up a number of unsettling allegations of racial discrimination aimed at Indigenous patrons.
Tammy Waboose of Rankin Reserve says she recently posted on Facebook out of frustration over a recent experience at Westside Cafe last week, where she got into a heated exchange with a cook there after both she and her husband ordered the pickerel dinner.
“I can hear the cook back there saying, 'yeah, they both ordered pickerel — they’re both very, very picky,'” Waboose said.
“I was looking at him, and he was just glaring at me.
“I called him on it and said, ‘are you talking to us?’ He kept staring at me, so I went up to the counter and asked my waitress, ‘Is there something wrong with the cook back there?’
“I said he was being rude, and everybody can hear him inside the restaurant."
Waboose also told the waitress she felt the cook’s behaviour towards the couple was racially motivated before sitting back down at her table.
That’s when the cook left the kitchen and approached her.
“He says, 'are you calling me a racist?' And I said, ‘are we picky because we wanted a pickerel dinner?’ And then he walked away,” Waboose said.
The agitated customer says the cook was pointing towards the door during the exchange, presumably motioning for the couple to leave. But she and her husband opted to stay for the pickerel dinner instead.
“I felt really belittled when he came up to our table and tried to scare me or something,” Waboose said.
“I was kind of scared to eat my food after.”
Westside Cafe co-owner Shawn Wiles firmly denied the allegation of racism when SooToday connected with him by phone last week.
“She called him racist, and he just walked out of the kitchen because the prep cook said she upset him by saying that,” Wiles said.
“He went out there to talk to her about it, and he says there ain’t no racism here — I mean, if you’re basically going to keep saying that, then go somewhere else.
“There’s no racism here. I don’t know what to say.”
Waboose made a post on Facebook on the night of the incident, detailing her run-in with the cook.
“A lot of people were coming forward on my post and telling me what their issues were,” she said.
Joe Eshkibok was one of the people who shared his own experience in response to the post.
He tells SooToday that while he loves both the food and the service at Westside Cafe, a confrontation with a cook there about 10 months ago still bothers him today.
Eshkibok says it all started after ordering a Greek salad without olives.
“You can hear the guy in the back, kind of complaining a little bit — didn’t think much of it, until the salad came out,” he said.
“He minced up the olives, thinking I wouldn’t notice.
“So, I kind of complained about that.”
The cook told the waitress he did not put olives in the salad before leaving the kitchen, according to Eshkibok’s account.
“He came out and he’s like, 'hey, do you got a problem?' I was like, ‘yeah, there’s olives in my salad.’ I can’t remember what he said, but he told me he was going to take me out back and fix me,” he said.
“And I’m like, ‘hey what, excuse me?’ He’s like, 'yeah, you heard me — I’ll fix you out back.'”
Eshkibok claims the same cook “always has a comment” for his table when grabbing a meal at the diner, leaving him feeling “degraded” in the process.
He also says that he will sometimes hide in the back of the diner so the cook doesn’t see him.
“I want to give him the benefit of the doubt, but when you start matching things up . . . then you’re just like, oh man, I don’t know. I feel like if we go there to eat, he won’t say anything to any other customers,” said Eshkibok.
“His hatred is definitely selective.”
Joe Syrette, a member of Batchewana First Nation who lives in Mount Pleasant, Mich., claims he experienced an act of racism at Westside Cafe about three years ago that caused him and his family members to boycott the establishment altogether.
He recalls the cook coming up behind him while paying the bill at the cash register after having a meal with his wife and daughter.
“He started imitating like he was holding scissors, and I looked at him and said, ‘what are you doing?’ He mentioned something about needing a haircut,” Syrette said.
“I felt like he was implying that he was going to cut my hair off — and I was like, ‘I don’t think so.’
“I was pretty upset by this point. I ended up paying for my bill, and the waitress there was kind of embarrassed. She was apologetic for his behaviour.”
Syrette says there’s a “sacredness” that’s deeply entrenched in the act of Indigenous men wearing braids in their hair. The braid is weaved with three groups of hair, representing an Anishinaabe teaching of love, respect and kindness.
“When we have our hair long as men, that’s our way of paying respect to our ancestors and our own history of our people — so when I felt he was implying that he was cutting off my braid, in a way it was insulting. It was disrespectful,” he said.
“They lost our business. Even my whole family — my family never goes there.”
Wiles, who co-owns Westside Cafe along with his father, says the cook in question has “a very raw sense of humour,” that’s widely known by patrons who frequent the diner.
He also stresses that his establishment has a “solid” Indigenous customer base from both Garden River and Batchewana First Nations.
“There is no racism, and the Indigenous people who come in here know him very well and they like him,” Wiles said.
“So, what can I say?”
But Syrette isn’t buying those remarks.
“Honestly, I think it’s bull—,” he said in response to Wiles’ comment.
“I see it as he’s enabling his behaviour — he’s enabling that guy’s behaviour toward native people.
“So, what does that say about his character, and what he believes in?”
Syrette decided to share his experience with SooToday in hopes that “something good comes from this.”
“That kindness that I talk about — that respect — I don’t want to see anybody being mistreated,” he said.
“But also, I have to understand that if I don’t speak up, who will?
"How long is this behaviour going to go on towards native people?”
Waboose, for her part, believes the cook should be fired outright for his alleged mistreatment of Indigenous customers.
“If they could get him out of there, maybe they would get more business back,” she said.