Minneapolis restaurants ask: Would you please use gender-neutral pronouns when addressing the staff?

citypages.com ^ | November 8, 2017 | Emily Cassel

[lowbridge]

It’s why, at Powderhorn’s May Day Cafe, a small sign taped to the counter bears a polite request: “The May Day Cafe asks that you use gender-neutral language when addressing its employees. Thank you.” A similar note, modeled after May Day’s, went up next to the cash register at Taco Cat’s Midtown Global Market stall in September: “Please use gender-neutral language when addressing our staff. Thanks for being a pal.”

“I think gendered language is pretty integrated in restaurant culture,” says Taco Cat co-owner Tristan Jimerson. “I’ve been working in restaurants for a long time, and sir-ing and ma’am-ing people, that’s just how you’re taught.”

For Jimerson, who in interviews asks potential hires their preferred pronouns right after asking their name, it just made sense to extend that same courtesy to customer interactions. Following May Day’s lead, the bike delivery taco joint became one of the newest practitioners of this emerging language movement in the service industry.

That movement got its start in the Twin Cities at Cafe SouthSide. More a community gathering hub than just somewhere to hunker down and suck up the free WiFi, the Powderhorn cafe was a place of radical hospitality, one that actively welcomed LGBTQ+ customers and served as a safe space for trans and non-binary folks. Co-owners Roxanne Anderson and Anna Mayer intentionally created that trans-friendly environment—it was always as connected to their mission as brewing coffee or selling sandwiches.

[hal ogen]

Avoid LIBs. They are malignancies on civil society . What losers in life.

[fwdude]

Minneapolis must be the Sodom of the Midwest.

[KC Burke]

I’m going to have to go with dipsh*t.

Hey, dipsh*t, over here.