A single drink may have cost Morningside’s most infamous bouncer her job.
Anna Washington, who was known for her strict door policy at The Heights, was fired last week after taking a shot when she was off the clock—which managers said is strictly against the restaurant’s policy.
“I was told that I was let go because of a drink,” Washington said. After working a full shift Feb. 6, she clocked out, put on her jacket, and asked for a shot at the bar before going home.
“There was a memo posted that due to the nature of certain things that had taken place, no employee should drink,” Washington said. “It was not worded in specific detail. I believed that it was OK for me to not be on the clock and drink.” The next day, she said, the owner called her and fired her for taking that drink.
It came a week after she accepted a bribe to return a student’s fake ID, for which she was reprimanded and asked not to come to work for a day. Washington had worked at The Heights, the bar on Broadway between 111th and 112th streets, for five years.
"It's the end of an era. It's true. Anna represents the Heights," Ludovica Pagni, BC '14, said.
The memo to which Washington referred is on the billboard next to the bar’s entrance. It reads, in a large font and all capital letters: “Absolutely no drinks for any staff member at any time. It will result in immediate termination.”
The bar’s owners, Feras Samad and Larry Good, said that the memo has been there for at least a month. Samad said that he had personally informed Washington of the policy on one occasion.
Samad and Good would not say what the reason for Washington’s dismissal was. They did take issue with Washington’s claim that the policy was unclear, however: “If you speak English, the sign is pretty clear,” Good said.
According to Samad, although the policy had always existed, it had not always been enforced. However, he said, he made it clear to all employees over a month ago that they would begin to enforce the policy again.
Washington said that she believes the drink she had was not the only reason for her firing—and that the owners were also reacting to a situation that had occurred the previous weekend when she accepted a bribe to return a confiscated fake ID.
A man tried to enter the bar with a fake ID, according to Washington. “Everyone knows I have zero tolerance for that,” she said. “I’m not knocking what anyone does, I know college life is stressful, but I didn’t see the urgency for an underager to drink.”
After she refused to admit the man, he grew confrontational, arguing that his identification was real and insisting that he be allowed into the bar.
“I know by law that I can confiscate these IDs,” Washington said. “But I know what they go through, what have you, so I gave the ID back to the young man.” After he refused to leave the establishment, however, she finally did confiscate his ID.
The man, Washington said, pleaded with her to get it back and offered to pay. “Finally I just gave it back to him and accepted the 40 dollars,” she said.
According to Washington, the bar’s management called Washington into a meeting after the allegedly underage patron’s father called the bar. “They said I was wrong for accepting the bribe," she said. "I heard the story become a little racist, like, ‘How can this black girl extort my son and she can’t even afford to go to Columbia?’”
Washington said she was told that the money would have to be donated to a charity, and that she would be required to present a receipt to the bar’s management and the father of the patron whose ID she had confiscated.
“I didn’t have anything to say about that. I was like, ‘Go figure,” Washington said. She was reprimanded and not allowed to work the next day.
Samad and Good said they would not explicitly confirm or deny this incident, but they did deny that racism was ever involved in any of their decisions to fire Washington. “Her firing had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that she was a black woman,” Good said.
Washington says she’s done with the bar scene. She has a grandmother with Alzheimer’s and a young daughter to attend to, so she plans to spend more time with her family.
In September, she hopes to go back to school to become a social worker. “Everyone goes off into their profession," she said, "but always keep in mind: Do not back down or stand back and allow what you stand for to be overlooked.”
For their part, the bar’s owners aren’t looking back. “It’s unfortunate,” Good said, “but rules are rules.”
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