Last month, a restaurant in Sonoma was named by a former employee because she refused to abide by a mask policy that required her not to wear a "black man's life" mask, and as she described it, "forced her to leave. ". Always dress to work. Now the restaurant said it was temporarily closed after the owner received death threats and plans to hold a protest outside the restaurant on Valentine's Day.

SFGate reported on Tuesday a month-long Instagram post published by Kimi Stout, the former server of The Girl & the Fig. In the video post, Stout is wearing a Girl & the Fig T-shirt. She takes off the T-shirt, throws it in the trash can, and then flips the bird in that direction with both hands. The message at the bottom of the video: "The life of a black man is also a life."

A post shared by Kimi Stout (@stoutkimi)

Stout quit her job at The Girl & the Fig in September last year, but did not make the matter public until last month. As she explained on her Instagram post and SFGate, she wore a Black Lives Matter mask to work in August, which obviously disturbed a client-she later heard about it from her manager.

"He said,'No matter what, you are not in trouble,'" Stott told SFGate. "'But we just want you to know that some of us have complained about your mask and they are very aggressive about it.'" He asked Stout to wear another mask, but she refused. Then, John Toulze, the president of the company that owns the restaurant, told her at the end of her shift that he fully supported her choosing to wear a mask.

But in the next few weeks, the situation changed. The company decided to formulate a mask policy consistent with its unified policy, requiring all employees to wear the new Girl & the Fig brand masks at work. Stout refused. After the new mask policy was enacted, she still wore a BLM mask during shifts.

"This policy has been added to our formal dress code, which details the dress or uniform required by all employees," Toulz said in a subsequent statement. “For example, under standard business conditions, we require waiters and runners to wear pure blue jeans and long-sleeved, buttoned and white shirts with collars, and wear the iconic green apron provided by the company.”

After refusing to change her mask during the shift on September 3, she was called to Toulz's office.

"The company president told me that if I don't change the mask, I will not be allowed to work and BLM is'too politicized'," Stott said in her Instagram post. She said that someone told her that if she came in again with a mask, she would be fired the next day, and she said she would choose to quit on the spot.

SFGate contacted The Girl & the Fig, and they obtained an official statement through a public relations agency that the company still adheres to its policies. Whole Foods also faced criticism after stories about employees were told to take off Black Lives Matter T-shirts. Amazon/Whole Foods also insists that its policy is that workers cannot wear "visible slogans, messages, signs or advertisements" at work.

The part of the company statement is as follows:

On Wednesday, as the Chronicle reported, the restaurant decided to close in the "foreseeable future" and plans to reopen after the enthusiasm for the event subsides. The planned protest this weekend sounds like a major determinant.

"There is not much money in the world that is worth letting my employees go through all this and my customers going through it all," Toulz told the Chronicle.

The Girl & the Fig has been open at Sonoma Hotel in Sonoma Square since 1997. It was opened by Sondra Bernstein, with Toulze as the head chef, and the two subsequently opened Glen Ellen’s sister restaurant The Fig Cafe and Wine Bar, a catering company. Recently, Bernstein (Bernstein) opened a noodle and ramen restaurant Noodlespring & pictured next door to Girl.

Toulz still insists that since Stout initiated the protest, the mask policy has been in development, and the restaurant has been waiting for the branded masks it has ordered to arrive for implementation. He cited another example of a server. He wears a neon orange mask at work, which the company believes is not suitable for its brand.

But many people believe that Black Lives Matter information is not political information and should not be seen as a cause or division issue, but merely a statement of facts.

Toulz told the Chronicle that he never mentioned politics when discussing the mask policy with Stott, and he still agreed with Stott’s view that "the life of black people is also a matter of civil rights, not politics." problem.

*This post has been updated with the news that the restaurant is closed.

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Jay C. Barmann is a novelist and web editor who has lived in San Francisco for 19 years.

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