The company’s lawyer, Philip Brinson, "said the policy is not a ban on ink, but the restaurant would just prefer not to serve clients with neck or face tattoos," CBS reports.
Once news got out of Little Woodrow's policy, Dallasites on social media started voicing their disdain in droves. Admittedly, that's a valid point — if the policy is firmly anti-face and neck tattoos, does that apply to women who have eyebrow and eyeliner tattoos? Tattooed individuals are not considered a protected class, so the bar is well within its legal rights to turn away inked patrons, as bizarre a policy as it may seem in 2016, an era when around 40 percent of millennials have admitted to having at least one tattoo. As many internet commenters have pointed out, face and neck tattoos don't necessarily mean what they used to — ink in highly visible places isn't uncommon anymore, and there are plenty of law-abiding professionals who sport such tattoos.
So far Little Woodrow's has been pretty mum on the growing outrage. A manager at the Dallas Little Woodrow's was unable to comment but says the company plans to respond to media inquiries today or tomorrow. On Facebook, some employees of Little Woodrow's are claiming that reports of the ban are untrue, but that doesn't appear to be the case based on what the bar's legal team has already stated to media outlets.
We'll update this post once we hear back from Little Woodrow's, but in the meantime, we can't help but think that it's a good thing this bar didn't open in Deep Ellum.
Update:
We're still waiting to hear back from Little Woodrow's legal counsel, but an employee at the franchise reached out to say there is no tattoo policy at the Dallas location. "I can tell you that we do not have any dress code in Dallas regarding tattoos," the employee says. "This was an issue at another location, not here."
Update:
This afternoon, the restaurant posted the following statement to their website:
Little Woodrow’s does not have an issue with tattoos as evidenced by the fact that we had no restrictions on tattoos of any kind except at two of our sixteen locations. At those locations, we implemented a policy where we requested that neck and/or facial tattoos not be openly displayed. After further review, we have rescinded this policy. We continue to focus on providing a safe and comfortable environment for all our guests. The company regularly reviews and modifies its policies when it is deemed reasonable to do so.
