Maker’s Mark Bourbon House Slammed, Sued for Racism

By Richard Thomas

Maker’s Mark Bourbon House is a fixture of both downtown Louisville’s renewed South 4th Street strip and of Louisville’s Urban Bourbon Trail, but unfortunately it is attracting attention for more than just its menu or its bourbon list. The whiskey-themed restaurant and bar is being sued for racial discrimination in refusing to host a party.

Louisville resident Andre Mulligan went to the Maker’s Mark-themed restaurant to inquire about placing a public event at the establishment, where he was allegedly asked by the management what the ratio of “black people to white people” attending the event would be. According to Mulligan, when he told them the event would be “100% African-American,” they told him to take his business elsewhere.

When Mulligan and his friends turned up at the Maker’s Mark Bourbon House on December 18th for their planned party anyway, the bouncers at Maker’s Mark Bourbon House refused to admit them, and ordered them off a public sidewalk with threats of siccing the police on them for “trespassing.” Mulligan also alleges that while this was taking place, the bouncers admitted white patrons into the restaurant.

As a native Kentuckian, and a lover of both whiskey and boxing, I can’t help but find it sadly ironic that the Maker’s Mark Bourbon House finds itself mired in a racism controversy, given that it is located only six blocks from the Muhammad Ali Center. Note that the Kentucky Civil Rights Act specifically prohibits this kind of “we retain the right to refuse service” behavior on racial grounds. Mulligan is suing the restaurant and its operating company, Cordish Operating Ventures, for violating this act.

The blame game for this ugly incident is in full swing. Maker’s Mark, which merely licenses its name to the restaurant and does not actually operate it, issued a statement disclaiming any responsibility for what happened and deploring the incident. Cordish Operating Ventures is distancing themselves from the incident as well, saying Louisville Bourbon LLC runs the Maker’s Mark Bourbon House, and not them.

This is not the first time Maker’s Mark Bourbon House has been at the center of allegations of racial discrimination. In October 2009, Kiersten Trover-Gillam, the restaurant’s one-time director of marketing sued the Bourbon House, claiming she was ordered to discriminate against African-Americans.

 

9 comments

  1. Protip: Bigotry and racism are bad. Intolerance of bigotry and racism is not. When you argue, “How dare you not tolerate my racism,” you have just lost the argument.

  2. As this website has a zero tolerance policy for both trolling and racism, 36 comments were deleted either for being hate speech or being a pretty inflammatory response to hate speech.

    For those concerned, 1/3 of the racist hate speech came from the same ISP. As is typical of the internet, a lot of it came from one person pretending to be a dozen different people.

    Because we cannot spend all day, every day policing comments, the website will go to comment approval mode for the indefinite future.

  3. I’d just like to point something out to the Klansmen, in case they continue to visit: go to the 4th paragraph and click on that link to the Kentucky Civil Rights Act. That’s a state law, and not some federal, black helicopter exercise in “tyranny.”

    Keep wearing tin foil hats, guys. And stay classy.

  4. Interesting story: most people know that Muhammad Ali tossed his gold medal into the Ohio River because he was upset over how he was treated after winning it and coming home to Louisville. The incident that sent him straight out to that bridge spanning the Ohio was just like this: some racist refused him service in a restaurant.

    So yeah. The Ali Center is six blocks away, things have changed, but they haven’t changed enough.

  5. C. L. Vallandingham

    The US Constitution guarantees the right to contract (or not). This right is already the possession of every human. Guess this does not work for some ‘folk.’

  6. To the Confederate who thinks he is so clever,

    Your interpretation of the Freedom to Contract couldn’t be more wrong, but that “my ignorance trumps all knowledge and fact” attitude is so typical of Neo-Confederates.

    In any case, it’s just plain dumb, because the contract is between Maker’s and the restaurant, and not between the restaurant and its customers. The latter cannot be construed to have agreed to any limitations of service for any reasons.

    What you guys need to realize is that while your crap sounds like opera before the chorus, it sounds like crap to the rest of us. Whenever you trot it out in public, you don’t come off very well.

    Legal Eagle

  7. If Maker’s Mark wishes to “distance” themselves from this incident they need to pull the licensing for the place to use their name, a statement saying they don’t approve is lip service.. prove it.

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