12 January 29 - February 4, 2026 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents ▼ IMMIGRATION TAKE THIS JOB ... DALLAS-BASED CAFE LOSES WORKERS OVER A FIRST- RESPONDER DISCOUNT AND ITS POLICY TOWARD ICE AGENTS. BY LAUREN DREWES DANIELS It was Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and man- agers at White Rhino Coffee were on a man- datory weekly district call. Two things stick out to two employees who were part of that call. One was that their employee discount at the cafe was being reduced from 50% to 30%, but that wasn’t what caused people to walk off the job later that week. White Rhino Coffee (WRC) is a Dallas- based coffee shop founded by Chris Parvin, with more than a dozen locations across North Texas. The company was founded on the concept of providing a third space where everyone is welcome. A motto shared on its website is, “A cup of coffee won’t change the world, but how we share it might.” Margot Stacy had been working at White Rhino since June 2025. She was a manager at the downtown Dallas location until she quit early on Thursday, Jan. 22. She had seen ICE officers in her cafe on occasion; she remembers specifically one coming in on the day of the shooting at the Dallas ICE facility. Their presence made her uneasy. Her staff is Hispanic, Black, queer and trans, and her customers are often trav- elers from other countries. “So we have a very diverse but also vulnerable labor force downtown when I was there,” Stacy says. “And so I’m just constantly aware of safety.” After an immigra- tion agent shot and killed protester Re- nee Goode in Minneapolis on Jan. 7, Stacy was more on edge. She asked a question in the manager chat: Can they refuse service to ICE agents? “I was seeking clarification. Some sort of stance, what our general philosophy and the playbook is on this,” she says. “What do we do? ... What is the core value here?” Before that, Stacy decided on her own not to extend the first-responder discount to ICE agents at her store. “We had autonomy to do things like that, and to me it was a no- brainer. They’re not first responders.” Stacy says there was not a constant pres- ence of ICE agents, maybe once a week, but when they did come in, she was scared. The response to her question about whether she could refuse service in that chat was no. She pressed, reading from a screenshot of the conversation that day, “Me: Given that we have a lot of Hispanic customers and staff and there’s a detention facility nearby, it makes me nervous.” The chat response from management: “I understand our stance is to stay apolitical. We should not involve ourselves in any of that as a business. They should be treated like any other customers.” The MLK-Day Directive Stacy was working the line at the down- town Dallas cafe on Jan. 19, MLK Day. Ev- ery Monday, the shop has a district call, but it was busy that morning, so she got off the call early to help serve customers. Another employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity, remained on the call and says the topic was brought up by a director, who said that after having had some conversa- tions with management, it was decided that not only would ICE agents be treated as any other customers, but they should re- ceive the first-responder discount. White Rhino Coffee has always offered free drip coffee to active-duty police, fire- fighters and EMTs, plus 50% off for every- thing else. This also came with the news that the employee discount for the shift meal was being reduced from 50% to 30%, although Stacy clarifies that this change was unre- lated to the ICE policy. On MLK Day, White Rhino employees were told they would now receive a smaller discount than ICE agents. The news was passed along to Stacy. She had two subsequent conversa- tions with her district manager. The fol- lowing day, he asked for a meeting; she thought she was being fired for bringing it up in the first place. He assured her she was not, but rather he just wanted to check in with her. The Fall Out She told him this issue goes against ev- erything she believes in. “This goes against who I am, like my own personal constitu- tion and beliefs. It goes against what my staff believes in, and it goes against my call as a manager to protect my staff and cus- tomers,” she says. “And then that’s when we had that con- versation about my values,” Stacy says, who is trans. “About my concerns, about how I felt that my concern of safety was met with not just an apolitical choice, but it was met with a direct political choice about who we desire to support and make our customer base.” On Thursday, Stacy informed her em- ployers in an Instagram post that she quit. She told them her keys and laptop were locked in the cafe’s safe. Her post started: “FUCK THIS JOB AND FUCK ICE.” The post went a bit viral. Celebrity and activist Kathy Griffin commented on Stacy’s post on Threads: Stacy says up to 10 people walked out of their jobs at White Rhino cafes last week, not in whole, but all in part, because of the ICE policy. She says wages were a simmer- ing problem. The ICE discount was the final straw. We asked White Rhino to confirm this number and did not hear back. We spoke to three people who quit last week, all in part or in whole because of the policy. ICE Policies On Friday afternoon, White Rhino sent an email to the Observer denying that it ever instructed employees to give ICE agents first-responder discounts. “White Rhino Coffee does not offer the first responder dis- count to ICE agents. Our first responders discount policy includes local police offi- cers, local firefighters and EMTs.” The email was from a marketing account, and no name was provided. As for the Jan. 19 call, the email ex- plained that “the participants on that call did not have the authority to change or im- plement company policies. If it is deter- mined that any policy was misrepresented or acted upon without authorization, ap- propriate action will be taken immediately. An internal investigation is already under- way to fully understand how this miscom- munication occurred.” White Rhino also shared its HR policy on how to handle the presence of ICE agents in stores, for both customers and employees. (Two managers we spoke with on Friday — Stacy and another who asked to remain anonymous — said they had never previ- ously seen these policies.) The policy acknowledges that recent im- migration-related news and events may be causing some fear or uneasiness for some of our team members. “We want to assure you that our priority is to provide a safe, respect- ful, and supportive workplace for everyone,” it reads. ▼ PIZZA SLICE OF HEAVEN FRISCO GETS A TASTE OF AN AWARD- WINNING PIZZA PLACE. BY AAREN PRODY T ony Gemignani has dedicated over half of his life to three things: dough, tomatoes and cheese. Inspired by his mother’s lessons on cooking with fresh, sea- sonal ingredients from their family farm, Gemignani has carried on her legacy and per- fected his passion for pizza over the decades. The pizzaiolo’s obsession with perfection has earned him a roster of accolades, with the most impressive being 13-time World Pizza Champion at the prestigious competi- tion held in Naples, Italy, every year. 50 Top Pizza USA has named him Pizza Maker of the Year, USA Today has named him a Top Pizza Maker, and he’s also earned a gold medal on Food Network’s Pizza Champions Challenge. His flagship restaurant, Tony’s Pizza Na- poletana, along with Capo’s, Slice House, Toscano Brothers Bakery and Giovanni’s Italian Specialties, are all rooted in San Francisco’s historic Italian neighborhoods. Slice House originally opened in the his- toric North Beach neighborhood in 2010 and is the only concept of his to be fran- chised outside California. The 28th location will be the first in Texas and is now open at 5995 Preston Road in Frisco. Slice House serves an expansive menu of Gemignani’s famous New York, Sicilian, Grandma (sheet-pan pizzas inspired by home cooking) and Detroit-style pizzas. They can be ordered by the slice, as whole pies, with gluten-free crust, or swapped for vegetarian and vegan-friendly options. Also on the menu are fresh pastas, wings, salads and drinks like local craft beers, wines and non-alcoholic options. The tradition for every new Slice House location is to debut an exclusive pizza. Frisco’s exclusive offering is The Texan, developed by Gemignani, made with meat from a local butcher shop in Frisco. It’s a New York-style barbecue brisket pizza with mozzarella, bacon, green onion, crispy onion, Romano cheese, oregano and finished with garlic oil. It will only be available by the slice. Per the Slice House website, another loca- tion in Texas will open in McKinney at 7851 El Dorado Parkway sometime in the future. Slice House, 5995 Preston Road (Frisco); Sunday – Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday/ Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. ▼ EAT THIS MASTER OF HIS CRAFT FORGET EVERYTHING ELSE AT BUSHI BUSHI. JUST ORDER THE DUMPLINGS. BY COURTNEY E. SMITH T wo words: soup dumplings. If you love them, then get in your car, point it towards Bushi Bushi Dim Sum Place in North Dallas (so close to Addison that it hurts a little), and order a steamer full of them. The Duroc pork soup dump- lings come in a set of five ($10.99), just enough so that if you go with two people, you’ll have to argue over who gets the last one, or if you go with three or more, you’ll need two orders. Margot Stacy Margot Stacy quit her job rather than give ICE agents a first-responder discount. Dish from p11 “OUR STANCE IS TO STAY APOLITICAL. ... THEY SHOULD BE TREATED LIKE ANY OTHER CUSTOMERS”
