Gay Couple at D.C. Restaurant Told Sharing a Sundae Is Wrong 'Ambiance'

A waiter at a Washington, D.C., restaurant insisted that a gay couple wishing to share a dessert from the same dish was inappropriate for the establishment, telling them he would give them separate dishes because "it wouldn't look right with two gentlemen eating out of the same sundae. It doesn't go with the ambiance of the restaurant," The Washington Post reports.

The couple, Ron Gage, 55, and Henry McKinnon, 58, were dining at D.C.'s business casual steakhouse the Prime Rib when they asked for two spoons and one ice cream sundae but were met with what appeared to be the waiter's intolerance for the couple sharing.

Gage and McKinnon finished their meal having little interaction with the waiter, tipped him 15 percent although they are 20-percent tippers, and left without saying a word about the upsetting incident, they told the Post.

"I'm kind of embarrassed to say we didn't say anything," McKinnon said. "It just took us back to such a shameful place, in a way."

The couple, angry about the way they'd been treated, later posted about the encounter on Facebook and Yelp, which put the incident on the collective radar.

Prime Rib manager James MacLeod told the Post he was looking into the situation and that he planned to reach out to Gage and McKinney but then suggested that his server's rudeness could be attributed to the fact that English is not his first language.

"The waiter in question is Bulgarian, and he does speak four different languages," MacLeod said. "I am not sure if he got confused as to what he was saying, or how he was saying it."