Three cops walk into a restaurant. The owners asked them to leave because the firearms they carried might make people uncomfortable.
This is not a joke, but the restaurant owners wound up as the punchline when their eating establishment was flooded with one-star Yelp reviews once news of the incident broke.
According to an Instagram post made by the breakfast restaurant, “On Friday, Dec. 3, three armed and uniformed San Francisco police officers came in to dine at Hilda and Jesse [name of the restaurant]. Shortly after seating them, our staff felt uncomfortable with the presence of their multiple weapons. We then politely asked them to leave. At Hilda and Jesse, the restaurant is a safe space. The presence of the officers [sic] weapons in the restaurant made us feel uncomfortable. We respect the San Francisco Police Department and are grateful for the work they do. We welcome them into the restaurant when they are off duty, out of uniform, and without their weapons.”
Restaurant co-owner Rachel Sillcocks wrote on Twitter that Hilda and Jesse was a “safe space – particularly for queer and bipoc individuals.” BIPOC is an acronym for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. Sillcocks said that in addition to her staff members, the armed policeman could have made guests uncomfortable as well.
No guests present at the restaurant that day wrote about feeling unsafe due to peace officers trying to order coffee, but concerned citizens took to Yelp to support the cops. The overflow of support seems almost too much to hope for in SF, since they’re the most liberal of the libs – except for maybe Portland, but they already did away with their cops and now just have daily loot ‘n burns with a schedule posted on Google calendars.
But so many one-star reviews were posted that Yelp added a statement to Hilda and Jesse’s page saying it had temporarily stopped accepting reviews since most did not relate to people’s dining experience at the restaurant.
One review stated, “I would not support or recommend a San Francisco business that discriminates against the SFPD. Shame on you!!!”
Apparently, Sillcocks reads her own reviews. On Sunday evening, she and co-owner Kristina Compton took to Instagram to post an apology.
“We made a mistake and apologize for the unfortunate incident on Friday when we asked members of the San Francisco Police Department to leave our restaurant. We are grateful to all members of the force who work hard to keep us safe, especially during these challenging times. 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.”
So, the owners were stressed and handled a situation badly. Who hasn’t been there, done that, right? Can’t hold the mistake against them for too long, since they owned up to it. At any rate, it’s encouraging to see public support for our nation’s police officers.
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