A Father's Day beef over a steak dinner on the Oregon coast devolved into homophobic slurs, rocks hurled through a restaurant window and a man behind bars, according to police, employees and the family at the center of the fracas.

Warren Eric Duncan, 31, is accused of vandalizing the Pier 101 restaurant in Lincoln City as a heated row Sunday night spilled out into the parking lot, where his partner's father and mother were waiting by the car.

He was arraigned on one count of criminal mischief, a felony, and released from jail Monday, records show.

Jonathon Underwood, Duncan's partner of four years, said a server's bigoted comments triggered an unfortunate chain reaction.

"That's when Eric snapped and flipped out," Underwood, 24, told The Oregonian/OregonLive in an interview Monday. "We were treated so horribly."

Ryan Sarina, an operations manager for McGraths Fish House Restaurants, which owns Pier 101, offered a different account.

"Mr. Duncan was upset over a steak," he said.

The couple, who live in Springfield, had decided to take Underwood's parents out to the coast for Father's Day and had stopped at the seafood spot on U.S. 101 about 7 p.m.

During dinner, the family sent back a couple of ribeye steaks because they had too much fat on them, said Dorothy Underwood, Jonathon's mother. The restaurant's top sirloin, a leaner cut offered to the table instead, wasn't to their liking either.

Underwood said his parents eventually left to their car while he and Duncan went to the bar to settle up the bill.

What happened next is a matter of dispute.

According to Underwood, a male server with a ponytail tried to take away their meals, which were in to-go containers.

Sarina said restaurant staff told him Duncan became furious when he learned the steaks ordered at dinner wouldn't be free.

A restaurant manager told the two men they had to leave and began to escort them out, Sarina said.

As the two men were being led to the front entrance, the ponytailed server walked by and called them a homophobic slur, according to Underwood.

"He said it in a regular voice. The manager behind us, I know she heard it," Underwood said.

The slur angered Duncan, said Underwood, who had to restrain him.

Underwood said the server used the homophobic insult against them a second time, escalating the already tense situation.

Sarina would neither confirm nor deny whether a restaurant employee used such language.

"Under anger did someone use a word they shouldn't have? That's to be determined," he said.

Sarina said employees told him Duncan, who is black, began calling the restaurant a "racist dump" and making threats, claims that Underwood denies.

At one point, someone threw a punch.

The brouhaha wound up in the parking lot.

Officers soon responded to reports of rocks being thrown through the front window of the restaurant, court records show. Witnesses later told police Duncan had pitched the projectiles, and officers arrested him.

The incident remains under investigation, said Lincoln City Police Chief Jerry Palmer. Palmer said criminal charges may be filed against other people in the case, though he would not elaborate on who.

Underwood, who was staying in Lincoln City with his parents for a second night Monday, said he was still in a state of disbelief over what happened.

"I felt we were attacked. I really did."

-- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh

skavanaugh@oregonian.com

503-294-7632 II @shanedkavanaugh