Black Man Says Chick-fil-A Employee Printed ‘Monkeys’ on His Receipt

A Maryland man is sharing an alleged incident of racism at his local Chick-fil-A after an employee labeled his to-go order for “Monkeys” instead of his name, “Marquise.”

Marquise Vanzego tells TODAY.com he went to pick up dinner after work on Aug. 23 and placed his order with a person working the drive-thru.

Vanzego, who is a Black man living in La Plata, Maryland, tells TODAY.com that when he first heard an employee calling out the name of the animal, he thought there was no way it could be his. But when the employee confirmed it was one order of chicken strips, fries and an iced tea / lemonade drink for someone in a white van, his heart sank.

Describing how he felt when he realized the order was meant for him, Vanzego says the physical feeling wasn’t so different from when you’re grieving or going through a breakup: “Your heart has that little sting in it,” he says, “that’s what it felt like.”

“You start to think about all the other incidents that may have occurred that you heard about on the news with racial profiling,” Vanzego continues.

He says he immediately spoke with an on-duty manager, who apologized and offered to refund the order, and later to a store manager named Kevin who wasn’t present at the time of the incident.

TODAY.com spoke with Kevin, who declined to comment and declined our request to be connected with the store owner, John Flatley.

Vanzego recorded his conversation with the on-duty manager as well as what happened when he decided to walk into the restaurant rather than wait in his car for the manager to come back out.

I posted the videos — along with a letter he wrote and mailed to Chick-fil-A — on both Instagram and Facebook, where they got plenty of attention from the public.

While some commenters were supportive of him, others questioned whether it was the fault of the employee or a shoddy drive-thru intercom system. Vanzego tells TODAY.com that although he ordered through the drive-thru, there was no intercom system involved; he placed his order directly with a “young while male” who was standing outside greeting diners.

Vanzego says, in the days following the Aug. 23 incident, he spoke with Flatley, who apologized but said he would not be terminating the employee as they are allegedly under the age of 18. Vanzego says he was told the employee simply wrote down the name they heard. (When a similar incident occurred at a Maryland Starbucks in 2022, the employee was suspended.)

The marketing director for the La Plata location — which is franchised and operates separately from corporate-owned Chick-fil-A restaurants — declined TODAY.com’s request for comment and directed us to corporate advertising managers. The corporate office says it cannot speak on behalf of franchised locations but provided the following statement:

“This Chick-fil-A is independently franchised and operated. The franchisee of this restaurant has apologized to the guest. However, this experience does not meet our expectations and is unacceptable.”

Vanzego says he has not yet heard from corporate.

On the night of the incident, Vanzego says he requested to speak directly with the employee who took his order and that his request was declined, but he hopes they are “socially aware” of the impact their actions had on him.

“I believe that he should be held accountable for what he’s done,” Vanzego tells TODAY.com.

He says commenters on social media have been asking him to have compassion for the employee.

“I understand, he’s a young man, he’s 17, he’s still learning,” Vanzego adds, “but he also needs to know that there are consequences when you do things like that.” Speaking about his own children, who are now adults, he says, “when they did things, they had to deal with the consequences.”