Turned Away For Gold Teeth: Couple Says Of Greenfield Restaurant

GREENFIELD, WI — A date night in the name of Sweetest Day turned sour when a couple was turned away from Fox's Pub in Greenfield because of dental work.

Heavenly Smith and her husband ventured out on Saturday to the restaurant for a date night in honor of the Valentines-like holiday, but Smith told Patch the bouncer turned the couple away because of her husband's gold teeth. The owner later called Heavenly to explain the situation as a misunderstanding, but Smith said the "damage is done."

"We were in shock, that situation has never happened for either one of us, we've never been in that situation," Smith said. "It kind of hit hard for me, he (Smith's husband) was real hurt. We just went home and stayed at home the whole weekend."

Fox's Pub and the owner did not immediately respond to Patch's request for comment. When Patch tried to contact the owner on a listed number, the person who answered hung up without identifying themselves.

"We've been to fancy restaurants like Flemings and Carson's downtown, even on Water Street, we never have any issues with his teeth, they actually compliment his teeth down there," Smith said.

Smith later posted about the incident on Facebook. She left a review for Fox's Pub detailing what happened and made a post in a Greenfield Facebook community group about the incident.

"As soon as we got there, we didn't even get to step foot inside the establishment," Smith said. "We ended our night horrible, we didn't even go anywhere we just came back home."

Smith added that as soon as her husband opened his mouth and greeted the bouncer, they were told they can't come in and that he needs to remove his gold teeth. The couple tried to explain to the bouncer that he couldn't just take his teeth out, and that the gold was permanent.

Smith said they asked if they could sit outside, but they were also turned away for that. Smith called the restaurant to figure it out. A woman who said she was a manager told Smith whatever rules the bouncer made at the time, those are the rules.

As the owner of the restaurant would later tell Smith, that isn't true. Moreover, the woman that told that to Smith was not actually a manager, the Fox's Pub owner told Smith.

According to Smith, the owner's explanation was that in the past, the restaurant has had issues with people losing grills, so a policy was made that disallows them.

In the case of Smith and her husband though, it was neither a grill nor a necklace. To simply remove the teeth would be an impossible request considering the fact they are permanent.

The owner told CBS 58 News the incident was a miscommunication and that the bouncer did not know the teeth were not removable. The owner added that he would have fired an employee immediately if he felt it was discrimination.

This isn't the first time a dress code for a Milwaukee area bar has come under fire. In 2018, Lucid Light Lounge turned people away for its dress code, sparking allegations of discrimination, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported in 2018.