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The Daily Dish Restaurants

Pizzeria Waitress Responds After Viral Video Showed Her Body Slam a Customer Who Groped Her

Emilia Holden, 21, who works at Vinnie Van Go-Go's, said, "I didn't even think — I just reacted."

By Tamara Palmer
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A man who thought it'd be A-OK to grab a waitress' butt found out otherwise in a very painful way — specifically the viral way. Emilia Holden, 21, who works at Vinnie Van Go-Go's pizzeria (where scantily clad servers dress like go-go dancers) in Savannah, Georgia, was minding her own business when a man named Ryan Cherwinski groped her. So she body slammed him — and it was all caught on video.

Now that the clip has gone viral, Holden is speaking out about the incident.

“I looked at him and I said, ‘You don’t touch me, motherf---er!’ ” Holden said in an interview with People. “I didn’t even think, I just reacted. I don’t know how I reacted the way I did. I’ve never done that before.”

Holden told People that Cherwinski said he was just trying to move her out of the way and claimed he barely touched her, but police arrested him once viewing the surveillance footage.

The incident happened at a time when more focus is on restaurants and chefs to improve misogynistic and abusive culture that happens in front and back of the house — now being reported widely in the era of #MeToo and #TimesUp.

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