Papa John's customer accuses pizzeria of racist remark

New York, Jan 8 (ANI): A public relations representative was shocked when she learned she had been described by a Papa John's employee as "lady chinky eyes."

Minhee Cho, spotted the disparaging phrase on her receipt on Saturday a day after visiting a Hamilton Heights branch of the popular pizzeria, where she ordered a small pepperoni pie.

"Hey @PapaJohns just FYI my name isn't 'lady chinky eyes,'" the New York Daily News quoted Cho's tweet.

The 24-year-old also posted an image of the offensive receipt, along with her tweet.

"I was very surprised because the lady that was serving me was super nice and we joked and it seemed super normal," Cho said.

Meanwhile, Papa John's tweeted on Saturday evening that the employee was being fired.

"We are very upset by recent receipt issue in New York and sincerely apologize to our customer. Franchise employee involved is being terminated," the tweet said.

When reached earlier by the Daily News, a Papa John's assistant manager said she was certain her employees didn't mean to offend the customer.

"I apologize. They're not bad people," she said. "I've seen the receipt and I don't know why they wrote that but I'm sure they didn't mean to offend her in any way," the assistant manager said.

The owner of the store, Ronald Johnson, said that he was shocked over the incident and planned on having sensitivity trainings to make sure nothing similar ever happened again.

"It's just wrong," he said.

"I was shocked and I was very, very upset about it," he added.

He revealed that the employee responsible for the receipt was a teen, who he believed was misguided by "hip hop culture."

"It's unfortunate, but this is the modern culture that they're involved in," he said.

Cho said that she posted the receipt on the internet to show her friends and shame Papa John's.

"I wasn't super angry about it," she said.

"I (just) can't believe this happened in this day and age.

"Some of the tweets I've gotten back are, 'Why are you going to Papa John's when you live in New York City?'" she added. (ANI)