Earlier this afternoon (Thursday, Oct. 22) Katy Tillotson with Redfield’s Tavern contacted Dallas Voice via Facebook messenger — the same way we contacted the restaurant on Wednesday, Oct. 21, seeking comment regarding allegations of anti-LGBTQ statements by two of the restaurants owners — to explain that the Redfield’s Facebook page was taken offline Wednesday after allegations began blowing up on social media “because every minute it was up we were getting another awful comment or review,” she said.
Tillotson then provided Dallas Voice with a prepared statement in response to the situation and with the text of an email sent to employees on Oct. 10 following a staff meeting in which the now-former general manager, a woman named Lindsay, recorded comments by owners Joe Tillotson and Scott Cecil in which they men appeared to tell her they were getting complaints from customers because there were too many gay men on staff and that she was not allowed to hire any more gay men.
(Dallas Voice on Wednesday obtained and publicly posted an audio recording of that conversation. We have since sent the audio file to a sound engineer who has “cleaned up” the recording to eliminate background noise and make the voices easier to hear. We will be posting the cleaned up audio clip soon.)
We are reprinting statement released today and the Oct. 10 email in their entirety here:
STATEMENT OF REDFIELD’S TAVERN
October 22, 2020
Redfield’s strongly denies the notion that it doesn’t want members of the LGBTQ community as its patrons. That is simply not true. Redfield’s proudly welcomes all members of LGBTQ community as customers and is thrilled that gay (and straight) patrons enjoy visiting its premises. Every member of the gay community is welcome at Redfield’s and always has been.
Redfield’s didn’t start off as any particular type of bar, gay or straight. It was started with the simple expectation that it would be a safe and fun place for people to gather, drink responsibly and enjoy a good time. Redfield’s could not be happier that members of the gay community have become loyal customers and cannot thank all of them enough for their business.
We cannot say the following any more strongly: All members of the gay community are welcome at Redfield’s.
Recent comments to the contrary have been taken out of context, blown up on social media and exaggerated for effect. To those offended, hurt or discouraged by any of those comments, we sincerely apologize. It was never our intent to hurt anyone, minimize any customer or cast any dispersion on the gay community. We deeply regret any such impression to the contrary.
To our friends in the gay community, we say come visit Redfield’s and let us show you our hospitality. You’re more than welcome; you’re invited. And we sincerely meant that.
The email:
From Joe Tillotson
Date: Octover 10, 2020 at 10:14:41 am CDT
To: Lindsay Schmidt
Subject: Yesterday meeting
All,
I wanted to send this immediately after our meeting yesterday but it seemed like everyone was a little exhausted. I really want to clarify something because it continues to disturb me that the conversation about our staff despite what we say sometimes is mis-labeled or mis-understood. Nobody including Scott or myself or any partner or anyone on our staff cares about anyone else on our staff’s sexual orientation. It is a non issues. This is not to be a subject of our conversation at all regarding them because it doesn’t matter. I know I have said many times that it is not a factor in the hiring process or the evaluation of their job. WE DON’T CARE. In fact I would ask that this thought be totally removed from anyone’s thoughts or conversation because that doesn’t matter AT ALL and is a distraction from what it is want to do with our staff and our business.
We do have certain things we want to and need to ask our staff as standards regarding dress, appearance and work place attitude, customers service and more. We also want a diverse staff that includes an equal representation of men and women. I know we have been delinquent on a staff handbook and certainly that would help. We will work on that this week along with standards for hiring so hopefully we continue to grow and develop the staff we have. We know there is always turnover and the staff is never constant and there is pretty much always a need to be taking applications. I hope this helps and like We said yesterday we want to help and we just need communication to help Provide the best resources for our management!
Joe
I am sorry but as somebody who has worked in the industry, no this just does not pass muster coming from such a uber successful bar operator!! who startted some of the biggest establishments in all of TX, hello KT icehouse! Like he has never done a handbook before???? No labor hiring rules. No. He got caught, tryna be taffer and the mos effed up his formula. He isnt sorry for what he said or did, nothing is changed in his heart, he has learned nothing from this . He Justbwants this to go away like he is entitled to. GOOD LUCK!!!
As I’m a queer employee of Barley House (and we were mentioned yesterday in the audio) I listened to the whole thing. I don’t know Scott but I do know Joe has not been an owner of Barley for many years.
To my ears, Lindsey was setting them up and baiting them to say certain things while she knew she was recording them for the intention of suing/personal gain. I’m not saying they sound like great men, but her angle was obvious and I see her regretting this in the future. Any attorney or judge will see it. She has actually caused much unnecessary pain and hurt for a lot of people. She’s no hero, a disgruntled employee maybe but no hero.
I am sure you are sharing what you believe to be true, but I would direct you to publicly available evidence that indicates otherwise.
1) DCAD.org, where you will see Tillotson still owns the Barley House property
2) TABC liquor license database, where you will find the Barley House license is held by the same corporation as the property
3) TX sec of state corporation database which shows that Tillotson remains an owner of aforementioned corporation
I’m sorry your employers apparently lied to you, but its not uncommon for unscupulous operators to assume their staff are none the wiser.
@ UNCLE_TRUTH NICELY DONE.
She is no hero and has many of her own issues. Maybe if she could get her drinking and drug addictions under control she would have understood the conversation. These are good people and business owners. They have been positive for the Dallas service industry for over 20 years. Don’t make judgements based on a negative persons vendetta.
Damage control. We all heard what was said on that recording. Nice try though. I’m not sure how you can take that out of context. RIP Deadfield’s!
Oh my Goddess, Katy. I know you will not see this comment, but I cannot believe that you, a woman like you, a person who is in service to EVERYONE, always, no matter what, no matter when, has to defend and deal with something as bizarre and off base as this. If we didn’t live in such a sad, angry world, you being called homophobic would be comical.
So, as someone who knows you, who knows ALL of you, my heart breaks.
And for all of you who want to jump on the bandwagon of hate and destruction, please maybe take a few deep breaths, realize you don’t truly know the situation, the big picture, all the players potentially having their lives and livelihoods destroyed over this (a lot more than just the two men in the recording that’s for sure) and possibly extend some kindness that you have deserved, but sadly not received in the past.
All is never exactly what it seems. Emotions are running at an all time high on this planet.
Love to you all.
Apparently she was advised by people very close to her not to do this setup but she was convinced there was personal gain involved. It probably won’t turn out the way she hoped (money for nothin💰)but there will be an abundance of lessons for sure.
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Damage control. We all heard what was said on that recording. Nice try though. I’m not sure how you can take that out of context. RIP Deadfield’s!
An apology after you have clearly said terrible, damaging things about the gay community, hiring LGBT employees and even clientele ON TAPE, all to protect your pretty little investors means nothing at this point. You do not get to say these things and not experience serious repercussions. I heard your entire staff walked OUT last night and you deserve it. Your damage control is laughable at this point, so sit back and watch the chips fall where they may. You have messed with the wrong crowd on this one. Start selling off assets and try to get out of your lease at this point.
It was definitely an attempt to damage control you may not lose all of your gay business but you’ll lose a very large part of it and gay people don’t forget just ask Coors beer
For this man to blow this off as misrepresentation is bogus! It’s very clear they were grilling her about the “Gays” that works there, The gays that were running other clients off..
“We (39 owners)never discussed having a gay bar… Why did that even come up unless your Homophobic? $$$ Never once did he apologize for his remarks, He said “ the intention was misconstrued”, misunderstood! Not being able to take responsibility for your mistakes or remarks is a big NO! I wouldn’t step foot into a place that even questioned anything about gay. Nice try maybe next time take responsibility for what you said, Learn from it, make amends, and try to MoveOn! Poor Apology! And for those of you who think that he was set up … who cares what her intentions were, there the ones that spoke on the audio!
Backpedal all you want. What was said was said. Now you’re experiencing homophobic parasite pest control. Empty seats rotting food dusty registers. You reap what you sow!
Statement only talks about patrons. Short hand: we want your money.
Absence of talking about staff: We’re homophobic about staff just as the recording depicts.
Email sent: We’re going to pretend we didn’t say what we did and hide it under “hiring diversity.”
Let this place close.