Aretha Franklin Got Screamed At By Johnny Rockets’ Server For Sitting At Table After Ordering Take Out

Aretha Franklin found herself on the receiving end of some unpleasantness from a server at a Johnny Rockets restaurant in Niagara Falls, Ontario, recently.

The unfortunate incident took place after Franklin, 72, ordered a hamburger and Cherry Coke to go and then decided to sit down at one of the restaurant’s many empty tables while she waited for her order.

Having performed at a concert in nearby Lewiston, N.Y., Aretha Franklin told the New York Daily News that she couldn’t wait to eat her burger from Johnny Rockets, a burger she favors a lot when on the road.

She said that out of nowhere a server in her mid-30s walked up to her and said, “You can’t sit there,” to which Franklin responded, “Excuse me, what do you mean I can’t sit here?”

The server then apparently told Franklin, who was at the eatery with her nephew, that the table she was sitting in was only for people who are eating in. With that, Aretha Franklin said to the server, “Ok, I’ll have it here.”

But what the server said back to her Franklin didn’t expect, “You can’t have it here because we’ve already rang you up as a takeout customer,” and with that the server informed her that she had to get up and stand outside the perimeter of the restaurant.

But Franklin decided that was the last straw as she recalled, “I got up and walked out. I said, ‘You should eat it yourself and you pay for it,'” to the worker.

Apparently Franklin’s nephew mentioned to the server who his aunt was. “My nephew mentioned to her who I was, and she said she didn’t care who I was,” the server was just “so rude and nasty,” Franklin said.

A spokeswoman from Johnny Rockets told the AP that the owner of that particular franchise is very sorry about the actions of “a new and very young employee.”

For her part Aretha Franklin is happy that the worker only got a talking to and not fired as she didn’t want that and she also confirmed she will be visiting a Johnny Rockets soon. “I like Johnny Rockets and I’ll go on liking Johnny Rockets, but not that one,” she said.