Houston bar Anvil won't allow derogatory language

Anvil Bar & Refuge Location, 1424 Westheimer, has a strict policy when it comes to mutual respect among patrons. Anvil Bar & Refuge Location, 1424 Westheimer, has a strict policy when it comes to mutual respect among patrons. Photo: Alex Negranza Photo: Alex Negranza Image 1 of / 35 Caption Close Houston bar Anvil won't allow derogatory language 1 / 35 Back to Gallery

Staff at Montrose establishment Anvil Bar & Refuge are making it clear that they will refuse service to anyone who violates their strict policy against "derogatory" or "offensive rhetoric."

After an incident involving Houston Chronicle food critic Alison Cook Wednesday, customers at Anvil, 1424 Westheimer, were presumably asked to leave.

Cook says she was on the bar patio Wednesday at 8 p.m. for roughly 10 minutes when she heard a patron use the word "c--t."

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"I didn't say anything, just looked at him, pretty sure my eyes had widened and perhaps my jaw had gone slack. He said to me, 'I'm trying to bring that word back,'" Cook recalls. "I was so astonished that I turned, picked up my handbag, and walked off the porch toward my car, leaving my drink half-finished. I never said a word, just too flummoxed and desperate to get out of there."

Cook said that the group included about a half dozen people, and that she "just wanted out," so she retreated to her car. Soon after, she returned to Anvil because she wanted to report the incident with the staff.

"I thought about what he had said, and the way the word "c--t" had been weaponized during the campaign, and how he had doubled down on it rather than shrugging it off with a 'sorry,'" she recalls. "I decided to go into the bar and report the incident."

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Cook says the staff was receptive to her complaint and "handled it beautifully."

"As I drove off, I saw the group of guys walking east on Westheimer. They'd been kicked out," she said. "I tweeted about it because I had been so upset, and because the Anvil folks had done something about it. I really admire their recently posted zero-tolerance policy about use of degrading language."

Anvil owner Bobby Heugel wrote a letter detailing his bar's strict policy. It reads, in part:

"Under no circumstance will any derogatory, disrespectful, or offensive rhetoric towards members of our staff or other patrons be tolerated, especially if those remarks are made in reference to another's race, gender, sexual orientation, religious or non-religious views, or cultural identity. Should you unintentionally offend someone in this manner, we expect that you will immediately apologize. Should you intentionally violate this policy, we will ask you to leave the premises immediately."

It goes on to say the policy is "not an attempt to limit political conversations." He adds that he wants his bars to be places where patrons can "politely engage one another's views, and expand their understanding of the various needs and concerns we each have."

Heugel adds, in the letter, that this is how they have always operated their bars.