Displeased by the service, the two students departed without leaving a tip and were confronted by their waiter and a manager.
"The manager verbally insulted [them] with demeaning remarks and racial slurs," states the police report. "As they were leaving the individual [the waiter] began swearing at them calling them 'you motherfuckers,' 'you sons of bitches,' and 'you black bitches."
"I was shocked and disappointed that something so blatantly racist could have occurred," said Sheika Luc '02, one of the students involved.
The students decided not to leave a tip after the waiter demanded that he be given one of the condiments from their table to give to another table.
"The waiter raised his voice and his body language was rude. His arms were flailing, causing the other patrons to stare at us" said Emilie Boone '02. "The waiter yelled that the spices were a privilege and not a right. I felt extremely insulted."
The waiter refused to comment on the incident, saying only that it dealt with the customer's refusal to pay the service charge. When they refused, the manager attempted to add additional charges to their bill.
The police report stated that the manager "seemed evasive in answering... [but] did acknowledge that there had been an incident and stated it was over the customers not paying a service charge."
"It is ironic that the waiter, who was Indian, would act so insensitively," added Luc. "He's a minority also, doesn't he know?"
"The manager informed them that they had not been charged for the water and must now pay for it," said the police report. "They told him that they had already paid the bill and were not paying for anything more. At this time they were kicked out of the restaurant and told to never return."
Both students are waiting to hear from the officer who filed the report and hope to take whatever action they can against the restaurant.
"The manner in which the waiter handled the situation was deplorable," said Marlon Cush '02, chair of the Black Students' Union. "With a community like Amherst, one isn't allowed to be overtly racist; however, given the right stimuli and a certain level of comfort, racism will rise to the top as it did in this case."
These two students, who are fairly frequent diners at the restaurant, said they have experienced mixed service in the past.
"We always tipped them before even though they had been rude to us compared to other people who came in," said Boone.
A week before the incident took place, the two students had gone to the restaurant at a time when it was empty of other patrons.
Choosing to sit at a table for four by the window, the waiter approached them and asked them to move to a two-person table, even though there were no other customers in the restaurant. However, the students also say they have had good experiences at the restaurant in the past.