On the same weekend that hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets across the country to defend the rights of women, a restaurant in New York is receiving backlash for allegedly banning single women from sitting at the bar because they could be mistaken for hookers.

The woman who put the restaurant on blast, identified by Page Six as Clementine Crawford of the branding firm Finch & Partners, said she has been a regular at Nello for the last few years when splitting her time working between Manhattan and London.

Nello, located in New York’s Upper East Side, is known for its pricey Italian cuisine and celebrity guest list.

Crawford described in an essay she penned that on her recent trip to the Big Apple, she stepped out for the evening and headed to Nello where she perched at her favorite seat at the bar.

Shortly after, a waiter that she recognized advised her that she was no longer permitted to eat her usual spot and redirected her to sit down at a table.

Confused, she obliged.  When she returned a few days later, she was told to move again. This time the waitress told her it was “company policy.”

From her new table, Crawford wrote “as the evening unfolded, I watched with great interest and gathering fury as they poured him his dirty martini; brought him his breadsticks; adjusted his white linen; dished up his spaghetti; added his fresh parmesan and black pepper to boot; chatted amiably to him over the counter; and rounded off his evening with a limoncello.”

Crawford continued that after further interrogation, it transpired that the owner had ordered a crackdown on hookers: the free-range escorts who roamed the Upper East Side, hunting prey in his establishment.

Travel Noire reached out to Nello Sunday morning for comment, but the attendant stated that the owner was not available and to call back at a later time.

People on Twitter, however, are calling for people to boycott the establishment.

https://twitter.com/ktmanhattan/status/1086999380102647809

https://twitter.com/OtariidDocAK/status/1086728965526437888