Seattle’s Chocolati fires employee after refusing to serve police officers

SEATTLE — After an incident in late April when an employee of Chocolati in Wallingford refused to serve a pair of Seattle police officers, the company announced in a Facebook post that the company is parting ways with the employee.

The scenario started on April 27 when Mike Solan, president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, said that an officer and trainee went to the Wallingford location and was refused service.

Solan said, “They were met with a bit of hostility.”

Initially the employee ignored the pair, then said, according to Solan, “No, I won’t serve you.”

After the incident went to social media, Chocolati released a statement April 28 on Facebook, saying, “Although we do respect this team member’s freedom of speech, the actions in this instance do not represent our views as a company.”

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Public pressure grew and two days later Chocolati owner Christian Wong released a second statement, stating the female employee had parted ways with the company.

The second statement said, “After fully understanding the facts of this incident, we came to the mutual conclusion that it was in the best interest of both parties to part ways with the team member involved in this incident. We also continue to communicate with our employees about our values and how we serve our customers to ensure an incident like this does not happen again. We will do better.”

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