On the evening of Sept 26th, my friends and I went to Manee Thai for dinner, upon entering the restaurant we asked the server/host(who was the manager/owner) if they took credit cards. The answer was yes and we were seated and dinned. At the end of the dinner when the check came, it was to be paid part cash and part card. The server/host(who was the manager/owner) said he needed to see identification. The was no sign that said they took cards or you needed id to pay. It seemed very peculiar(in our experience restaurants never ask for Id)While we were dinning there was a group of six there also that finished before us paid by card an no ID was asked of them.(the restaurant is small we were seated next to each other you could hear everything) We then inquired the reason. We were first told that they need it for their machine. I inquired if it was a debit machine so that, I can use my pin code. He said, "no" and explained that his bank needed the Id for the receipt. We produced the id and paid. We asked to speak to a manager, one of the waiters screamed out from the back, "he is the manager, just pay your money". When he came back with the receipts for signature, we inquired where on the receipt is the ID numbers where is it used,(he could not answer) We inquired if they were photo copying the Id or taking the numbers? He replied, "some people we have to check...how do we know that you use your card and not some one else card". We then asked, "what is some people?" His reply, "you know some people". At this point we then asked, "Do you mean people who look like us? Because in this neighborhood you lots of people who look like us". He then answered, "yes, people like you." We explained to him that he may need to review his policy, it was basically racial profiling and racist. For a new business it is not a way to start off.

Dana Rubenstein missed the real story here. There are three Thai restaurants on Myrtle and they're all terrible. Tamboril is beautifully designed but the food is appallingly bad. Torchio is the best of the bunch. Myrtle has a long way to go before it's a competitor to Dekalb. Where is Myrtle's answer to Bonita, Ici, Rice?

That last comment was code for I'd rather have yuppies than black businesses and there's ENOUGH restaurants and places to eat on Myrtle now.