White House press secretary Sarah Sanders was told to leave a Lexington, Va., restaurant Friday night, she said on Twitter Saturday morning. Sanders said the owner of the Red Hen in the Shenandoah Valley asked her to leave because she works for President Trump. 
 
 "Last night I was told by the owner of Red Hen in Lexington, VA to leave because I work for @POTUS and I politely left. Her actions say far more about her than about me. I always do my best to treat people, including those I disagree with, respectfully and will continue to do so," Sanders tweeted Saturday morning. 
 
 Last night I was told by the owner of Red Hen in Lexington, VA to leave because I work for @POTUS and I politely left. Her actions say far more about her than about me. I always do my best to treat people, including those I disagree with, respectfully and will continue to do so — Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) June 23, 2018 
 
 Someone who claimed to be Sanders' server seemed to have posted earlier on social media about the incident. That post was tweeted out by Brennan Gilmore, the executive director of environmental group Clean Virginia. 
 
 .@PressSec got kicked out of the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Va tonight. Apparently the owner didn’t want to serve her and her party out of moral conviction. pic.twitter.com/jr3bfiY3XY — Brennan Gilmore (@brennanmgilmore) June 23, 2018 
 
 The Red Hen, located roughly 200 miles outside Washington, D.C., is a farm-to-table, American fare restaurant. CBS News has reached out to the restaurant. 
 
 Lexington is a small Virginia town that's home to the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) and Washington and Lee University. 
 
 People took to Yelp to add their thoughts — many of them negative — about the restaurant and its apparent refusal to serve Sanders. 
 
 "WOW. Just WOW. This restaurant discriminates if it doesn't agree with your political views," one Yelp reviewer wrote Saturday. 
 
 "You have joined a long list of people that open its rude mouth and loose. Shame on you to insult that women nationally. Now its your turn. By the way your food stinks," another reviewer wrote Saturday. 
 
 Apparently, social media users were mistaking a D.C. restaurant also called the Red Hen, with the Virginia restaurant. The unaffiliated D.C. restaurant issued this statement on Twitter: ||||| The White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders, claimed on Saturday that she was thrown out of a restaurant because she works for Donald Trump. 
 
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 Social media erupted, with some lavishing praise on the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Virginia, for taking a moral stand. Others sympathetic to the president urged a customer boycott. 
 
 “Last night I was told by the owner of Red Hen in Lexington, VA to leave because I work for POTUS and I politely left,” Sanders posted on Twitter. “Her actions say far more about her than about me.” 
 
 The press secretary added: “I always do my best to treat people, including those I disagree with, respectfully and will continue to do so.” 
 
 Her father, Mike Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas, candidate for the Republican presidential nomination and strong Trump supporter, responded to her tweet by writing: “Bigotry. On the menu at Red Hen Restaurant in Lexington VA. Or you can ask for the ‘Hate Plate’. And appetizers are ‘small plates for small minds’.” 
 
 The Red Hen did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday but Stephanie Wilkinson, the owner, told the Washington Post Sanders had already been served when she approached the press secretary and asked her to step outside. 
 
 The restaurant has certain standards I feel it has to uphold, such as honesty and compassion and cooperation Stephanie Wilkinson, Red Hen 
 
 “I was babbling a little, but I got my point across in a polite and direct fashion,” Wilkinson said. “I explained that the restaurant has certain standards that I feel it has to uphold, such as honesty and compassion and cooperation. I said, ‘I’d like to ask you to leave.’” 
 
 Sanders, Wilkinson said, replied: “That’s fine. I’ll go.” The press secretary walked out and others at her table followed. Wilkinson said: “They offered to pay. I said, ‘No. It’s on the house.’” 
 
 
 
 The restaurant owner expressed no regrets, telling the Post: “I would have done the same thing again. We just felt there are moments in time when people need to live their convictions. This appeared to be one.” 
 
 Members of the Trump administration are facing a fierce backlash over the policy that has seen more than 2,300 children separated from their parents at the southern border and tarnished America’s reputation around the world. 
 
 Sanders’ banishment comes after Stephen Miller, a senior White House adviser responsible for its “zero-tolerance” immigration policy, and Kirstjen Nielsen, the cabinet member responsible for enforcing it, were reportedly heckled and hounded out of Mexican restaurants in Washington. 
 
 Sanders has been notably reluctant to answer questions on the issue. Monday’s White House press briefing was delayed by four hours so Nielsen could fly back from New Orleans to face reporters instead. There were no briefings over the next four days, which is highly unusual. 
 
 
 
 That did not spare Sanders the wrath of restaurant staff. Jaike Foley-Schultz, who claimed he was a waiter at the restaurant, wrote on Facebook: “I just served Sarah Huckabee Sanders for a total of two minutes before my owner kicked her out along with seven of her other family members.” 
 
 Brennan Gilmore, executive director of the progressive group Clean Virginia, tweeted a photo of a handwritten note apparently from the restaurant that includes: “86 – Sara Huckabee Sanders.” The number “86” is industry slang for “throw out”. 
 
 Families torn apart: the anatomy of Trump's immigration U-turn Read more 
 
 Supporters and opponents of the administration swung into action with reviews on the restaurant’s Facebook and Yelp pages. Some gave it one star, others awarded it five. Twitter users traded blows over whether the incident was comparable to the case of a Colorado baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple, which went all the way to the supreme court. 
 
 Michael McNamara Sr posted on the Red Hen’s Facebook page: “Better not speak while you’re there because if the staff disagrees with you they will toss you out. Why bother with the hassle? Plenty of real restaurants who serve everyone.” 
 
 Sapphire Cianfriglia wrote: “I appreciate how you decided to take a moral standing against an administration that is essentially emulating Nazi Germany (locking up children, letting white supremacists march freely in the streets, etc).” 
 
 The Trump administration is not the first to get an icy reception on the Washington foodie scene. Former defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld once took his family to Buck’s Fishing & Camping, only for co-owner and chef Carole Greenwood to declare that she would not serve “a war criminal”. 
 
 Sanders has been reported to be planning to leave the White House, although she denied that was so.
– The little Red Hen restaurant in rural Virginia found itself squarely in the middle of a big Beltway brouhaha after Sarah Huckabee Sanders was turned away on Friday night, and now the owner gives the Washington Post the backstory. Stephanie Wilkinson was home when her chef called around 8pm to say that Sanders had walked in with a group, and wondered what to do. Wilkinson drove to the restaurant, confirmed that it was indeed Sanders, and asked her staff, "Tell me what you want me to do. I can ask her to leave." Wilkinson notes that some of her employees are gay. "They said 'yes.'" Wilkinson says she asked Sanders to step outside, and though "I was babbling a little ... I explained that the restaurant has certain standards ... such as honesty, and compassion, and cooperation." Asked to leave, Sanders said, "That's fine. I'll go." Sanders' group elected to clear out with her, and offered to pay for their entrees, which were being prepared; Wilkinson opted not to charge the group. Usually, politics aren't on the menu at the Red Hen, Wilkinson says. "I’m not a huge fan of confrontation. I have a business, and I want the business to thrive. This feels like the moment in our democracy when people have to make uncomfortable actions and decisions to uphold their morals." That business was mired firmly in controversy Saturday, with trolls of both flavors clogging the Red Hen's Yelp page (which now has two stars), its reservation line, and even shouting from the sidewalk in Lexington. The restaurant opted not to open Saturday night, writing in an email that "We would like to avoid exposing our patrons to any potential unpleasantness from outside entities."