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Denny’s Franchise Owner Scolded By Company CEO For Anti-Obamacare Comments

An owner of 40 Denny’s restaurants declared last week that he planned to add a five percent “Obamacare surcharge” to customers’ bills, earning him a rebuke from the chain’s CEO.

John Miller, who runs the Denny’s corporation, rushed to clean up the mess left by franchisee John Metz, whose comments on Fox News Thursday set off a firestorm. Miller made it clear that he didn’t agree with Metz’s comments and it was not the company’s policy.

The Huffington Post has more:

Denny’s chief executive John Miller privately reached out to Metz to express his “disappointment” with the Florida franchisee’s controversial statements about Obamacare, which sparked a wave of backlash for the national restaurant chain over the past few days. […]

“We recognize his right to speak on issues, but registered our disappointment that his comments have been interpreted as the company’s position,” Miller said in an email to The Huffington Post.

Metz also released a statement following their conversation expressing remorse for his comments. “We regret that the statements we made may have been interpreted as representative of the Denny’s brand or of other franchisees, which they are not,” Metz said. “Our stores do not have a 5 percent surcharge.”

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The backlash has spread to other Denny’s franchises as well. An owner of seven locations in Florida said that they nearly unplugged the phones after a deluge of angry callers to the restaurants.