Buffalo Wild Wings Manager: Black employees scare our white customers

A former Buffalo Wild Wings employee said she was fired for complaining about racial discrimination.

"I just felt like they started discriminating," Yolonda Jeter-King said.

Jeter-King worked at the Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant inside the D Gates at Hartsfield-Jackson Inteational Airport. Jeter-King said Phasenext Hospitality, the Texas-based company that runs the restaurant, is using discriminatory hiring practices.

"We have never had any problems of any race discrimination until I felt the new management came in," Jeter-King said.

Jeter-King said an employee at the airport location, whose name she would not divulge for fear of retaliation, recorded a conversation with a store manager.

Worker: Alright I need some applications as well.

Store manager: For?

Worker: Servers.

Store manager: For in here?

Worker: Yea, working here.

Store manager: Are they black?

Worker: Huh?

Store manager: Are they black?

Worker: Yea. One of them is black. One of them is white.

Store manager: We have our quota of blacks here. Do you have anybody else here white or Mexican? Anything else, I'm all for it.

Worker: Why can't we hire any black people? What is going on?

Store manager: We have our quota. We have met that quota of blacks at Buffalo Wild Wings. They kind of scare our guests you know? Because they are all white businessmen.

"When I heard that, I was blown away. I was blown away and I was shocked," Jeter-King said. "They said it was scaring away the white businessmen. That was funny to me because most of us have been there for 15-plus years and we know the business men who go in there. The Atlanta airport was rated number one for customer service."

"There is no truth to what is being said," said Roz Mallet, president and CEO of Phasenext Hospitality.

She says her company doesn't discriminate.

"We would never say that sort of thing and (the person on the phone) doesn't speak for me or my business," Mallet said.

Mallet said 70 percent of the employees at the restaurant are African-American.

"For an ongoing hiring perspective, we are continuing to hire people and just recently hired another African-American manager and at all levels we are hiring the best talent," Mallet said.

Mallet said she was unaware of the allegations until she spoke to CBS 46 Wednesday afteoon. She also said there will be a full investigation into the situation.

CBS46 News