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A restaurant in the Borgata's attempt at a tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. backfired in the eyes of some.

(Joe Epstein/The Star-Ledger)

An Atlantic City restaurant's plan to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday by placing some of the slain civil rights leader's favorite foods on its menu was lost on some offended social media users.

People angrily tweeted about the Borgata's decision to offer a $24 dish featuring fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, sweet potato casserole, collard greens and homemade pecan pie.

Professional poker player Shaun Deeb tweeted a picture of the special menu followed by the hash tag #isiracist. Others re-tweeted a picture of the menu, adding comments such as, "you've got to be kidding me," and "trash."

Borgata management said there was nothing offensive about the Metropolitan's food choices.

"Our general manager of the restaurant is an African-American female who wanted to come up with the menu to celebrate and honor Dr. King," Borgata senior vice president Joe Lupo told the Associated Press. "We allow our managers to run their restaurants. She did research and came up with an authentic recipe. It's very clear these were his favorite foods."

Lupo says the casino's restaurants offer menus geared toward holidays, including Chinese meals at Chinese New Year, and Mexican food on Cinco de Mayo.

This is what borgata is serving #isitracist pic.twitter.com/U2TmangJWZ — on hiatus (@shaundeeb) January 19, 2015

The Associated Press contributed to this report.



Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JGoldmanNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.