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Women Claim Restaurant Made Them Give Up Their Seats At Bar Because They're Black

GROSSE POINTE FARMS (WWJ) -- The owner of the Blufin Sushi Restaurant in Grosse Pointe Farms is vowing to investigate after a viral Facebook live video showed a black patron and her friends claiming they were discriminated against.

Tanisha Prater began filming after she said she and her friends were asked to leave the bar at the restaurant on Saturday night. In the Facebook video, Prater claims that she and her friends were the only black people in the restaurant and no one else had been asked to leave to make room for someone else at the bar.

Owner Joel Radu spoke with WWJ Newsradio 950 about the incident.

"I definitely apologize, I don't like to hear anyone have a bad experience and I'd love the chance to talk and learn from what had happened," Radu said. "We couldn't have grown our business the way it's grown and expanded if these were our practices. I think we have a very diverse staff and a very diverse community that has supported us for several years."

Prater said later in the video that the general manager tried to say the women were asked to leave because they were drunk.

"I guess from the reaction of the guests that were there, they had made a scene to make the manager, I guess, uncomfortable and so she felt the need to call the police -- is what I'm hearing," Radu said.

Prater filmed as police were called and spoke with the women about the incident.

"[The manager said] she was trying to make space and she thought you ladies had already cashed out," one of the officers can be heard saying in the video. "She was under the impression you had [cashed out] that's why she asked you to move."

Radu said he has reached out to Prater as part of his investigation into what happened.

"Any time I hear a customer having a bad experience it upsets me," Radu said. "I'm just really saddened by [anyone having] any kind of bad experience at our restaurant."

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