Video of Dallas Restaurant Owner’s Anti-Twerking Rant Goes Viral

Over the weekend, Dallas newcomer True Kitchen and Kocktails was at the center of a social media firestorm after video of the restaurant’s owner ranting about the ills of twerking went viral on social media.

The video, posted to Twitter by user @DJGreenVillain, depicts a person who looks a whole lot like True Kitchen owner Kevin Kelley throwing a massive fit over a group of women who were reportedly twerking to the music played by the restaurant’s DJ. According to one source, the song that spurred the incident was Dallas rapper Lil Ronny MothaF’s “Circle (Throw Dat Ass In A Circle).”

“All this twerking shit, don’t bring it here because we’re a restaurant,” the person says in part. “If you wanna do it, get the fuck out my restaurant. Don’t do it again. I don’t want to hear it if you don’t like it, get out because I don’t need your money.”

Scope out video of the incident here:

Since being uploaded to Twitter, the video has racked up tens of thousands of likes, shares, and comments, most of which are critical of the restaurant’s handling of the incident. One user referred to Kelley as the “twerk tyrant,” while others pointed out that the bar does sometimes advertise itself as a nightclub, as in the ticketing page for its upcoming New Year’s Eve event, which is selling $10,000 tickets to sit and drink in its “nightclub” section.

Mostly, though, people were just shocked that a restaurant owner would start yelling at an entire dining room full of people. A comment floating around on social media attributed to Kelley’s Facebook page claims that the women were dancing on the restaurant’s furniture, and were asked multiple times to stop before the rant ensued. “No song played is an excuse to stand on our furniture and do what this lady did,” Kelley wrote. “As for my delivery, I can assure you I was a gentleman earlier but my nice words weren’t respected.”

This isn’t the first time True Kitchen and Kocktails has been embroiled in drama. Kelley, who also owns a similar restaurant called Taste Bar and Kitchen in Houston, is currently being sued by his former business partner and chef Don Bowie, who claims that Kelley stole the recipes for True Kitchen and Kocktails from Taste. Back in August, Bowie asked a Houston judge to issue an injunction to stop the restaurant from opening, but that ultimately did not happen.

Because social media loves relentlessly dunking on people in situations like these, there is now an increasingly popular hashtag — #TrueKitchenMenu — making jokes about the hypothetical dishes that the restaurant might serve.

• The Legal Drama Surrounding Midtown’s Taste Bar and Kitchen Just Keeps Getting Juicier [EHOU]