A couple says they were out to dinner with their 4-day-old baby when they were inexplicably booted from the restaurant. Aaron and Ruby Meeden later learned that the owner of Greek Islands Restaurant in Anacortes, Washington, was reportedly upset when he saw Ruby breastfeeding and told the couple to “never come back.”
Aaron, Ruby, Aaron’s 6-year-old niece, and their newborn son, Rhett, planned to meet up with family members September 13 at Greek Islands.
They got to their table, sat down, and Ruby continued to nurse Rhett while they were waiting.
“I made sure to get a good latch before we went in[to the restaurant] and then I covered and everything and we sat facing the wall,” Ruby told KOMO News.
But the couple was left waiting.
For 45 minutes, Aaron and Ruby waited while they say the restaurant’s owner did everything but serve them — until he finally came up to their table and told them to leave.
“We were asking him, ‘What's wrong? is everything ok?’” Aaron told KOMO News. “And at that point he said, ‘Never come back.’"
Aaron was so upset, he wrote a review of his experience on Google.
He shared it afterward in a post on Facebook.
“We left a review on Google. One star,” he wrote in his post from September 13. In his review he simply wrote, “terrible service now a days."
Unfortunately, the restaurant owner saw the review and responded.
In a message translated from Spanish, the owner wrote, “Thank you, never bring your brats to breastfeed here again.”
He continued, writing, “My restaurant, my rules, be like decent people not animals, there are places for everything and this place is not to breastfeed your children, sorry.”
After seeing the owner’s response, Ruby felt “horrible and ashamed.”
The dad vowed to never return to Greek Islands and added that he was sharing his story to “make a difference.”
A mortified Ruby was still feeling the sting when she spoke recently to People.
"My choice to breastfeed my child in that restaurant was the reason my entire family was thrown out,” she said.
According to Legal Voice, breastfeeding is legal in public in Washington.
It is not considered indecent exposure and “state law protects anyone who breastfeeds in public places against discrimination.”
“You have the right to breastfeed your child in any place of ‘public resort, assemblage or amusement,’” the website continued. “This means you should not be discriminated against while breastfeeding in restaurants, stores, parks, shopping malls, libraries, or other public places.”
On September 14, a group of angry mothers protested outside Greek Islands after Ruby’s story went public.
The group planned on confronting the owner who discriminated against the Meedens, but instead the restaurant switched to take-out only and then closed early for the day, KOMO News reported.
“He's going to have to answer for it one way or another because it's illegal to kick a woman out for breastfeeding," Megan Stevens told KOMO News.
As of this reporting, both the Greek Islands Facebook page and its Instagram account had been taken down.
