Complaint Review: East Gate BBQ - Morgan City Louisiana

East Gate BBQ and East Gate BBQ Express are barbecue restaurants owned by Harlan Kappel.  The business in question in this Ripoff Report is East Gate BBQ, located in Morgan City, LA.  The owner, Harlan Kappel, is often at the Morgan City, LA location. Unfortunately, Harlan Kappel has some serious issues.  He is unable to tolerate disagreements.   I personally experienced bullying by Harlan Kappel when I posted a negative review of his East Gate BBQ location via the East Gate BBQ Facebook page.  Harlan Kappel quickly responded with personally insult me about my looks and weight.

I found that to be a very odd way to respond to a former customer.  Most restaurants attempt to resolve matter, especially when they're at fault.  My friend and I had been served the loaded fries.  The loaded fries come in a basket.  Unfortunately, the loaded fries were sitting in almost a half an inch of orange grease.  The orange substance wasn't any time of gravy or sauce.  It was pure grease.  My friend and I notified the server of this and she came back to say "they" weren't going to take this appetizer off our ticket.  Mind you, this overly priced appetizer was over $8.  I inquired as to who "they" were. She said the owner (i.e. Harlan Kappel).

Not long after, Harlan Kappel came out from the back and his excuse was that it was explained on the menu.  I responded that the menu said nothing about large amounts of grease nor that one needed a cardiologist with a Roto Rooter to assist in declogging the eater's arteries.



<br  He simply made more excuses to justify him serving us slop.  Not once did he ever apologize or show any semblance of remorse for how he treated us.  In fact, the server was more apologetic about our experience.

Never in my life did a business owner actually engage in insulting and degrading me.  I don't expect every business owner to agree with their customers.  However, if a customer comments about a valid issue at your place of business then it's highly unprofessional to respond by insulting the person's weight and proceeding to engage in bullying.

This wasn't enough for him.  Harlan Kappel actually went to my Facebook profile page and downloaded silly pictures of me and posted about three to four of them as comments on my review.  I have publicly available silly pictures (i.e. profile pictures) on Facebook.  They're silly because I had used the various lenses and filters available on Snapchat.  I enjoy joking around and can make fun of myself.  That's why it doesn't bother me to post silly pictures of myself.  However, I find it very disturbing for a business owner to actually download these pictures to their computer or device and then upload them as comments in a review about their business in some failed attempt to make me look stupid or poke fun at me.  This leads me to believe that Harlan Kappel not only is a bully but may have some serious mental issues that he should get dealt with.

Of course, Harlan Kappel has a number of his supporters who fully support bullying.  Their logic is that by me posting a negative review I was deserving of the harsh and cruel treatment Harlan Kappel dished out to me.  Apparently, a number of people in the Morgan City, LA area think that it's perfectly acceptable to bully someone if they speak out against the way they're treated by a local business and the business owner.  Quite sickening.

Unfortunately, the issues with East Gate BBQ don't end there.  Around July 14, 2020 East BBQ posted a culturally insensitive photograph.  East Gate BBQ posted a picture of two people wrapped in sheets in an attempt to make it look as if they were wearing a burqa.  For those unaware, a burqa is a piece of clothing that covers most of the body and head.  East Gate BBQ and Harlan Kappel were attempting to poke fun at people from the Middle East as people from the Middle East do wear this type of attire.  I've attached screenshots of the original post as well as the comments from East Gate BBQ.  You can see that East Gate BBQ had no remorse for poking fun at other cultures.

What's truly troubling is not only the complete lack of sensitivity to other cultures but the fact that East Gate BBQ is a member of the St. Mary Parish Chamber of Commerce.  The St. Mary Parish Chamber of Commerce has the following mission statement on their official website:

"Businesses working together to build a better parish community…Providing resources, support and leadership with vision and integrity!"

I really don't see how a business that is a member of the St. Mary Parish Chamber of Commerce is contributing to "build a better parish community" when they're making fun of other cultures.  I also don't see how said business is engaging in "leadership" and "integrity" by making fun of other cultures.

I have contacted the St. Mary Parish Chamber of Commerce on July 14, 2020 via a private message on their Facebook page.  Thus far, the message has not been read.  While the St. Mary Parish Chamber of Commerce posts regularly on Facebook, it seems as if they don't check their Facebook messages.  It's possible that they have notifications turned off for Facebook messages on their Facebook Pages account. 

Personally, I find it quite unprofessional of an organization that's supposed to promote businesses to do so poorly with social media.  In any case, East Gate BBQ and Harlan Kappel are part of the St. Mary Parish Chamber of Commerce and as such is a reflection of their alleged mission of values (or lack thereof).