#Black mom sues Baltimore restaurant for being denied service over dress code

A black woman who was refused service at a Baltimore restaurant due to her 9-year-old son’s outfit is suing for at least $150,000 in damages, alleging they were denied solely due to their race.

A clip posted to Twitter last month shows Marcia Grant, of Baltimore, being told by a white manager at Ouzo Bay on June 21 that the restaurant couldn’t accommodate her and her son Dallas due to the boy’s athletic shorts, which violated its dress code.

But the footage also showed a nearby white child wearing an “outfit almost identical” to Grant’s son who was allowed to eat at the Greek seafood spot, according to the woman’s discrimination lawsuit and attorney Donte Mills.

“The effects of this will last for the rest of his life,” Mills told The Post Thursday of the potential impact on Grant’s son. “Imagine now, a 9-year-old child has been told he wasn’t good enough because of the color of his skin. In the future, when he walks into rooms, will he feel inadequate?”

Hours after the visit, Atlas Restaurant Group said it was “sickened” by the incident and put the manager on indefinite leave. He and a second manager were later fired, the Baltimore Sun reports.

“This is something that he’s going to have to live with for the rest of his life,” Grant told the newspaper last month of the incident’s potential impact on her son. “It doesn’t heal like a wound would.”

But in a statement issued ahead of Grant’s lawsuit filed July 2, the Atlas Restaurant Group said its dress code was “applied equally” to her son and the white child while calling on Grant to release the full 10-minute video she took during her visit.

Grant’s suit, meanwhile, claims there was “no apparent distinction” between her son’s outfit and that of the white child who was permitted to eat at the restaurant, WJZ-TV reports.

An attorney for Atlas, Scott Marder, claims all customers must adhere to its dress code “regardless of their race” and has accused Grant of going on an “orchestrated media tour” — an apparent reference to her appearance on “Good Morning America,” the Baltimore Sun reports.

Anchor Michael Strahan invited Grant’s son to dinner during the appearance, the newspaper reports.

“I can only imagine it was based on the fact that Dallas was black,” Grant told the former NFL star of why she thought her son was denied.

Since the incident, Atlas Restaurant Group has retrained staff and is forming a corporate social responsibility board, a spokesman told the Sun.

“We will continue to reinforce our commitment to equity, fairness and inclusion for everyone,” spokesman Joe Sweeney said in a statement.

Dallas, meanwhile, has been left shaken by the incident, Mills said.

“He wants people not to be racist,” the attorney said of his discussions with the boy. “Because when you’re racist, you can hurt people’s feelings. It’s harmful, it’s hurtful, and that’s the effect he took from it. You feel like you’re not enough — and to make a 9-year-old feel that way, that’s unimaginable.”