A local restaurant in the Pittsburgh area is admitting a mistake and is thanking the community for correcting them after the name of one of its specials was deemed “hurtful”.
Joe's Rusty Nail Restaurant posted on social media that the “plantation chicken”, a breaded chicken dish with pulled pork and cheese, will no longer carry that name.
"We apologize for the hurt this has caused and are committed to doing better in the future," Joe's Rusty Nail said. "We hope you will continue to hold us accountable when we make mistakes."
The word plantation is associated with the enslavement of Black people in the southern United States from the 1600s through the Civil War.
With the negative connotation to enslavement, the word plantation has received criticism over the past several years with some property and companies changing their names.
In 2024, Planation Rum became Planteray Rum.
The late Dolly Parton dropped the word “Dixie” from her popular dining experience locations in 2018, because of its connotations to the Confederacy.
Several people responded positively to the Rusty Nail’s post with one person saying “Haven't been to Joe's Rusty Nail in years but this post is inspiring me to make a trip back. No defensiveness. Just an acknowledgement and an apology.”
Joe’s Rusty Nail turned off the comments on Facebook earlier on Thursday saying:
We appreciate the dialogue that this has opened up and are glad we as a community can learn and grown together. We’re going to shut off the comments on this post for now and welcome your feedback in the future. We encourage you to continue to have conversations with the people in your lives. Pull up a chair to a table with someone who thinks differently than you, share a face to face conversation and really listen, maybe over some good food.
