Houston women go to bar at Four Seasons. Then the manager makes a rude comment, tries to get them fired from their jobs: ‘She sounds like a haterrrrr’
A woman and her friend went to the Toro Toro restaurant at Houston’s Four Seasons Hotel. Then, they had an awkward and difficult confrontation with staff members there.
It started when TikToker Ken (@kennyken1) decided to get sushi. She, alongside a friend, picked the “first place that appeared” on their maps. But they didn’t realize that the selection at Toro Toro was limited.
Wanting to leave, the pair tried to get parking validation, which resulted in a long, tense exchange with multiple staff members. The experience made Ken and her friend feel discriminated against, as even though they bought items to validate their parking, they were shamed for not spending more, and according to Ken, shamed for their race in the process.
What happened at the Four Seasons?
Ken and her friend, Leilani, decided they wanted sushi after a workout at Lifetime on Greenway. So, they decided to go to the closest sushi spot next to their location. They parked their car at the restaurant and went inside.
When they got there, they politely requested a table and sat down to look at the menu. The pair quickly realized they didn’t like the selection offered, so they opted to leave and go somewhere else. That’s when trouble began.
When they tried to validate their cars for 15 percent off parking, a parking attendant let them know that they had to purchase something inside the restaurant. Ken expressed frustration at this, letting them know that they had only been inside for two minutes. She spoke with a manager and a host and could not get validation, even when she told them it was an “emergency.” So the pair purchased two shots to justify getting parking validation and a discount on their total.
“ Mind you, throughout the situation, we’re not being combative,” Ken said. “ We respected [their] returns [and] respected their policy.”
When they returned to the manager to get parking validation, she asked them, “ I thought you guys had an emergency?” The pair told her that they still did have an emergency and were trying to validate their parking, but she asked how they had time to “take two shots” if they truly needed to go.
Ken and Leilani talk with the manager
At this point, Ken and Leilani clearly felt uncomfortable, but the manager continued and brought up their mutual workplace.
“She looks at me, she says, ‘I’ve seen you at a restaurant before.’” Ken told her that she and Leilani work at The Kennedy, a piano bar in Houston. The manager then said to “tell your boss I said hello,” in a way that seemed passive-aggressive, condescending, and hard to navigate. Leilani told the woman that she wouldn’t tell her boss “hello” on behalf of Toro Toro, while Ken said they would.
“ We’re still trying to like kind like grin it off, like smile it off, like not come off like the angry black woman in the restaurant,” Ken said. They let her manager know that it was fine to contact their boss and then walked away to de-escalate. That’s when Ken and Leilani heard the manager call them “cheap [expletive].”
Ken and Leilani felt incredibly angry with the comment. So, they went downstairs and decided to speak to another manager about the incident.
Ken and Leilani speak to another employee at Toro Toro
When they got to another manager at the restaurant, they let him know exactly what happened. “Everything I just told you guys, we tell him everything.”
But, while they were telling the manager about his associate’s behavior, the previous manager who called them “cheap [expletive]” was calling The Kennedy.
The manager they were speaking to downstairs was incredibly professional. He offered Ken and Leilani two glasses of wine and tried to smooth things over. She apparently told their boss at The Kennedy that the two were “provocative like prostitutes” and that “ we were abusing the staff, abusing her, and abusing the employees.”
Leilani and Ken filmed their TikTok response to the situation only hours afterward, so they showed the outfit they were wearing at the time. Ken and Leilani were both wearing nice athleisure wear.
Speaking on the situation, Ken added, “ This is how we came from the gym. I have a sports bra on, sweatpants on… We just wanted sushi. We didn’t come here to be prostitutes.” After that point, the two left and went to The Kennedy.
Commenters add their thoughts on the situation
Ken said that overall, the situation made her and Leilani feel discriminated against. The manager had apparently called and said there were “two black girls” at Toro Toro in her phone call to The Kennedy, something that tipped the situation toward racial profiling.
Some commenters didn’t understand why Ken and Leilani lied to leave the table, but others explained it eloquently: “For the people who don’t get it,” one viewer said. “Not everyone reacts the same when they’re caught off guard by something that is, you know, deeply unsettling or just shocking for them especially. They couldn’t think of a reason to leave the table, maybe because they’re in service and they felt bad. Maybe they shouldn’t have lied but the justification isn’t there! Call people like this out because they need to feel uncomfortable [about] how they intended for you to feel.”
Others stated they would call the restaurant to issue formal complaints. “I’m calling to complain, what’s her name?” One viewer asked. Then, Ken identified the woman, which apparently led to viewers leaving the restaurant one-star reviews online. Interestingly, though, Toro Toro has no new negative reviews on Yelp or Google. Ken clarified that, “They have been deleting a lot of reviews,” so there are few public, accessible accounts of Ken and Leilani’s experience.
@kennykennn1 Guys this happened to us @Four Seasons Hotels in Houston, TX. The manager Devyani was so rude and racially profiled us from the jump. The restaurant is called Toro Toro. Everyone else in the establishment was super professional and nice, but we were so shocked with our encounter from the manager at Toro toro. #fyp #houston #fourseasonshotel #torotorohouston #devyani @Leilani barnett ♬ original sound – Ken
The Mary Sue reached out to Ken via TikTok direct message. We’ve also sent an email to the Four Season Hotel’s press team.
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