A few weeks ago, at 12pm on Tue, June 21, 2022, the day after the Juneteenth holiday, I had THE worst customer service experience I have ever had in my life at Nancy's. The experience can be described in one word: DISPARATE What I had anticipated to be a wonderful lunch at Nancy's with my mother, sister, & friends (who were visiting Martha's Vineyard for the 1st time), was degrading, humiliating, & laced with bias. This, my 1st full day on vacation in Martha's Vineyard, my mother, sister, & I planned to have lunch at Nancy's. We had enjoyed lunch at Nancy's during our visit to the island in June 2021 at the suggestion of my best friend. She touted that the Obamas dined at Nancy's & that Sasha Obama had worked there as well, so we were excited to once again return to this Oak Bluffs' staple. The only Black patrons at Nancy's at the time, (7 Black women), we experienced this:

1. When my 4 friends were seated at their table next to our table, they were told by Cierra that every person had to order a meal. My friends had already said they were there for lunch when checking.  It was rude, presumptuous, & insulting to target my friends.
2. I overheard this & asked if there was a problem. Cierra, said there was no problem & smugly stated that if they were going sit at a table,  that each person had to order a meal.
3. When i asked Cierra about this, she said it was to ensure servers got paid since tips were main pay.
4. Cierra & staff were gawking & talking about me & family/friends. I asked to speak to the manager. The staff directed me to Cierra.
5. I asked Cierra about how she was treating my friends. She said it was policy that re sat at a table had to order a meal & they were training the hosts. This was the 1st time we had heard of such a policy. I asked if this policy was in writing & Cierra stated that it was. I asked to see the policy & Cierra left to get it.
6. Cierra never returned with the policy, however, a man came to our table. I asked who he was & he said he was the manager of the restaurant, which was a surprise to me as Cierra stated she was the manager. This man said his name was Steve Ansara.
7. My sister & I both expressed our concern about how my friends were being treated and asked about their so-called policy. Mr. Ansara contradicted Cierra's claim that there was a policy and said that the restaurant could change the rules when they saw fit to do so. Mr. Ansara also stated that this was customary at other restaurants, though I have never heard of such. We expressed that it would have been helpful to have that publicly displayed and that we didn’t see anything about a policy stating that everyone at the table had to order a meal posted anywhere.
8. Mr. Ansara attempted to justify the restaurant's actions, but ultimately could not. He even tried saying that when the restaurant is busy, they need to ensure that people seated at tables all order meals,  which did not make any sense as the majority of tables around us were empty, and the restaurant was not busy at all on this Tuesday afternoon in June.  There was no excuse, other than the fact that Cierra had a preconceived notion about my friends based on the color of our skin.
9. This became even more evident when my 75 year old mother, who grew up in the segregated South, offered her perspective of the disparate treatment and brought the color of our skin, relative to the other patrons in the restaurant to Mr. Ansara's attention. At which point Mr. Ansara was very disrespectful to and dismissive of my mother, saying that he would not entertain such and walked away from my mother mid-sentence with a nasty attitude.
10. Mr. Ansara returned to the table, stating that our bill had been taken care of, which we received as, him no longing wanting to deal with us and to just leave.

We will not be returning to Nancy's in the future, and will ensure to share this experience with everyone we know in hopes that proper customer service training, with a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion will be conducted with the restaurant's staff.