San Francisco restaurant roasted for booting 3 on-duty cops from its ‘safe space’
By Lee Brown
New York Post
December 6, 2021
The restaurant said the staff felt uncomfortable with the weapons in the
business, but would gladly serve the officers when they were out of
uniform and weaponless
A hip San Francisco restaurant is getting eaten alive online after kicking three on-duty cops out of its woke “safe space.”
Upscale all-day breakfast joint Hilda and Jesse admitted on its Instagram page that it “politely asked” the armed officers to leave on Friday.
“Shortly after seating them, our staff felt uncomfortable with the presence of their multiple weapons,” owners Rachel Sillcocks and Kristina Liedags Compton said amid local outrage.
“At Hilda and Jesse, the restaurant is a safe space,” the owners wrote, with an earlier statement saying it was “particularly for queer and bipoc individuals,” short for black, Indigenous and people of color.
“This is not a political statement, we did what we thought was best for our staff,” insisted the restaurant.
When news broke of the cops getting refused service, the restaurant was quickly roasted online, with many calling for a boycott — and for police to refuse to respond to future emergencies there.
Several community members called for a boycott of the business after the cops were asked to leave
Outraged foodies also wrote so many unpalatable reviews for the restaurant that Yelp issued an “Unusual Activity” alert after more than 700 posts left it with just a one-star rating.
One poster said the food “could not possibly be good enough to cover the bad taste this leaves,” while another said diners should expect “$39 steak and eggs with a side of discrimination.”
San Fran Police Chief Bill Scott said on Twitter that he found it “discouraging and personally disappointing” to see his officers turned away
“Community engagement is a core principle of SFPD’s 21st century police reforms, and we are intentional about asking our officers to support local businesses and get to know those they’re sworn to safeguard,” Scott said.
By late Sunday, Hilda and Jesse served up some humble pie.
Hilda and Jesse Instagram Response on December 5, 2021
“We made a mistake and apologize for the unfortunate incident,” the co-owners wrote in a statement on Instagram that had the comments turned off.
“We are grateful to all members of the force who work hard to keep us safe, especially during these challenging times,” the statement said.
“We hope this will be a teachable moment for us as we repair and continue to build bridges with the SFPD.
“These are stressful times, and we handled this badly,” co-owners Rachel Sillcocks and Kristina Leidags Compton admitted.
EDITOR'S NOTE: So the Hilda and Jesse staff felt uncomfortable with armed cops on the premises. I wonder how the staff would feel if a couple of armed robbers entered the restaurant? Of course, they could politely ask the robbers to leave, like they did with the cops.
2 comments:
The management and staff did something incredibly stupid and made reasonable attempts to clean up their mess and apologize. I am unsure how much of a "that's OK" this should give the restaurant. Some fuckups are difficult if not impossible to recover from. I am not sure that this isn't one of them. How forgiving and understanding should we be? Were it me I would suggest they take their apology and stick it where the sun don't shine, but I admit to being something of a reactionary at times.
BIPOC? Are they talking about Elizabeth Warren?
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