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The Cheesecake Factory Kicks Out Tacoma Enforcement Officers, Says Sorry Amid Boycott Buzz

By Paula Mooney
Published on: 07:55 PST, Dec 22, 2016

Fans of The Cheesecake Factory know how yummy the eatery’s variety of cheesecakes can be — from coconut cream with chocolate cheesecakes to more traditional cheesecake flavors, The Cheesecake Factory generally has a flavor for every kind of cheesecake lover. Perhaps that’s why Miriam Nichols?, a corrections officer, visited The Cheesecake Factory in Tacoma, Washington. However, as Nichols wrote to The Cheesecake Factory in a viral Facebook post on December 20, at 5:17 p.m., that outing to The Cheesecake Factory did not go as planned.

“I am local law enforcement and 5 coworkers and I were told to leave by the general manager, Will, of your Tacoma Mall location, because 3 of us were wearing our badge, gun and were visibly identifiable as on duty law enforcement. We were told the guns are not allowed whether you are law enforcement or not, they are not welcome. Everyone in our party were extremely upset at the lack of support we received at this location. One of our group members informed her husband who immediately contacted the establishment and was eventually routed to Will who told him that corporate has a strict no gun policy and that no person carrying a firearm, to include on duty law enforcement, we’re not welcome to eat there. When we walked in, no one in our group saw any sign that said no firearms allowed.”

As reported by Snopes, the officers should not have been turned away and asked to leave The Cheesecake Factory, because The Cheesecake Factory does not have a policy that states officers can’t carry their firearms into the eatery.

According to KOMO News, the incident that happened on Tuesday has caused The Cheesecake Factory to issue a mea culpa to Nichols and those officers that accompanied her as the group tried to have lunch at the eatery and exchange Christmas gifts. Nichols had explained that just as they were about to be led to their table at The Cheesecake Factory, two managers in suits began speaking with her coworkers, telling them that because they were carrying guns, they had to leave the premises.

Because of what Nichols experienced — although she reportedly said The Cheesecake Factory managers were polite in their dealings with her group — backlash against The Cheesecake Factory is being expressed online. A search for “The Cheesecake Factory boycott” on Facebook reveals certain people and Facebook groups claiming they will boycott the eatery and never eat at another The Cheesecake Factory location again in their lives. Others are joking that the location would have been safer if they had let the officers remain in The Cheesecake Factory for lunch since they had guns that could’ve protected other patrons while they were there if something were to happen.

As a result, jokes about robbers potentially coming to rob The Cheesecake Factory in question are running rampant on social media. Meanwhile, the corporate offices of The Cheesecake Factory apologized on Wednesday, stating that uniformed officers can indeed carry their weapons inside their eateries. Nichols noted that she had never experienced that type of reaction before from any other The Cheesecake Factory or establishment, so she chalked it up to the fact that the managers made a mistake.

Meanwhile, Nichols Facebook post has received nearly 500 comments, and has been shared across Facebook close to 800 times. As of this writing, it also has nearly 800 reactions on Facebook.

The top photo above of The Cheesecake Factory location bathed in golden light is not the Tacoma Mall location where the melee occurred. It is Michigan’s first The Cheesecake Factory that was scheduled to open in late 2013 at Twelve Oaks Mall.

[Featured Image by PRNewsFoto/Taubman Centers, Inc./AP Images]

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