California restaurant owner refuses to serve customers with MAGA hats

The Hill

A restaurant owner and award-winning author in California tweeted that he will no longer serve customers who wear “Make America Great Again” hats at his eatery.

“It hasn’t happened yet, but if you come to my restaurant wearing a MAGA cap, you aren’t getting served, same as if you come in wearing a swastika, white hood, or any other symbol of intolerance and hate,” J. Kenji López-Alt, who works as a chef-partner of the Wursthall restaurant in San Mateo, said in a tweet on Sunday, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on Thursday.

Though the tweet was no longer accessible on Thursday, the newspaper reported that the post had garnered over 2,100 likes and 200 retweets as of Wednesday.

He had also reportedly drawn comparisons between supporters of President Trump who wear MAGA hats and members of the Klu Klux Klan in another tweet that has also since been deleted, writing: “MAGA hats are like white hoods except stupider because you can see exactly who is wearing them.”

Some diners told The Associated Press on Thursday that they understand the restaurant owner’s position but added that they have mixed feelings about the ban.

“I see where he’s coming from, but I don’t think you should just keep people out because of a hat,” Jamie Hwang, a San Mateo resident, told the news agency.

Another diner, Esther Shek, told the publication that she believes the hats have “come to represent racism, intolerance, exclusivity” but also added that López-Alt’s choice to refuse supporters of the president might spell trouble later.

“They already feel like they’re being demonized by what they call the liberal elite,” she told the outlet. “We shouldn’t add fire to that.”

Lopez-Alt, who penned the 2015 book “The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science,” declined to comment further about the ban to the Chronicle but said his eatery has received a number of threatening emails after his Twitter announcement.

Lopez-Alt's restaurant did not immediately return a request for comment from The Hill.

In an era where it's okay to deny sales of gay wedding cakes and medicine for miscarriages for religious reasons, it's within their right, I'd say. Same deal with the Red Hen and their denial of Huckabee-Sanders last year.

I dont like it when people refuse wedding cakes.
I also dont like this for the same reason. They may be wearing MAGA hats, but they arent necessarily doing something wrong.

I'm against this. I may loath what it stands for, but freedom of speech is universal. Still, this is his private business but if we do this do private businesses also have the right not to serve wedding cakes to people different from them?

Unless something is vividly hateful - like a racist hat - a MAGA hat doesn't carry the same weight.

People want to talk about equality, but now that the lefties made it OK to label all white people nazi klan members by the symbol of the maga cap, they can now let out their inner hate that they couldn't do before, cause everyone seems to have racism for white people, including white people, which is really lame if you ask me.

How is this racism?

@saltslasher: I’m white and I’ve never been labeled a Nazi KKk member, which begs the question of what the two of us are doing differently.

@saltslasher: All? Way to over reach.........

Womp Womp

He has ever right, he also has every right to sound like a complete dipshit comparing maga hats with swastikas and the like.

LOL.

-Byshop

If it's a private business let him do what he wants. That goes for people who don't want to bake a gay couple a wedding cake etc. Let the free market decide. Outside of a leftwing shithole like California this probably wouldn't go over very well.

Oooooh this isn't good. I'm a big fan of Lopez-Alt, he is really great at explaining food science, and his restaurant just opened not too long ago. Thankfully, it's in the Bay Area, so I imagine this might actually increase business.

With that said, I had two reactions, one before the other:

1. Bad move. Liberals need to be better than the regressive right, and serve everyone. If they refuse to serve people, then they are no better than the people that refuse wedding cakes to gays. They are bigots, more or less, just political ones instead of homophobic or racist or what have you.

2. This was my second reaction. The right already act like victims despite being at the top of the economic and social food chain (white and male, for the most part), we don't need to give them any more ammo in this regard.

Ultimately, however, my feelings are this: there is already enough division in this country caused by politics and other things, we really don't need to add anything to it. Furthermore, people need to understand that you can disagree with someone on some very core things and they are still a good person. For all Lopez-Alt knew, these people were wearing MAGA hats because they agree with Trump's fiscal policy, not with his stance on race, immigrants, and so forth.

He shouldn't really be doing that. Just my opinion. Of course if I were republican I would argue that the people he discriminated against shouldn't be able to do anything in response to this because he doesn't deserve to lose his entire career over.....well, anything, right?

@Baconstrip78: I have a friend that says the same. But also says that "a guy can't even talk to a woman without being called a rapist". I tell him that we must have a very different approach to courtmanship.

In the majority of the US it would be fine, as the majority of US citizens do not support Trump.

People have a right to refuse service for what ever reason. The thing is that word gets around on social media and people avoid it, which can hurt the company.

On a side note, whats with the ads.

What an idiot. How could a patriotic message on a hat be hateful? I don’t recall anyone coming down in Bill Clinton or Ronald Regan when they coined the slogan as well.

No biggie, just one less bad establishment not to patronize.

@Toxic-Seahorse: When over 40% do no that's not fine. And in everywhere In between the East and West coast his numbers are much higher.

Ad algorithms are based on your browsing, by clicking on a topic about MAGA you get linked to it. Pretty crap but it is what it is.

Also it's probably the opposite of the effect you described as far as notoriety. For every 1 person who won't come because this person makes business based on politics, probably 4 more will come either to support this stance or because they just got free national advertising.

His business, his rules. Given the location, this could turn out to be a prudent move for his business.

As an aside, I’ll never understand why people go out wearing MAGA hats. It’s like placing a bucket over your head, welcoming people to repeatedly hit it with a sledgehammer. I can understand those who begrudgingly support Trump, but to take pride in it? Do they honestly want to be seen to admire someone like him? I’ll never understand the thinking. What is Trump’s draw?

@nintendoboy16:

I agree. On the same grounds that any business can refuse service to anyone, this is fine. It also gives the right a taste of their own medicine. Like how they applauded a business that refused to make a gay wedding cake. I applaud this business for refusing service to MAGA hat wearers. ??

@npiet1 said:

People have a right to refuse service for what ever reason. The thing is that word gets around on social media and people avoid it, which can hurt the company.

On a side note, whats with the ads.

Some of the ads are based on keywords in the thread you're viewing. No surprise we're getting ads for MAGA hats in a thread talking about it, and don't be surprised if you see Ghostbusters Blu-Ray ads in this thread.

Thinking out loud, I wonder what the owner would do if you waited until your plate was on the table and then after taking a few bites the customer pulls the MAGA hat out and puts it on their head.

Maybe they'll get a free meal out of it if the owner's reaction is to kick them out on the spot.

After thinking about this for a minute.......it's a damn dress code. Don't wear it to the restaurant. So it's not technically discrimination.

I'm not disagreeing with you. You guys never learned to not wear hats inside?

Unless it's a shirt and tie kind of establishment, then this is just as dumb as refusing to make a cake for a customer because you disagree with their sexuality.

Would you say the same thing if they told people with OIF Veteran hats that they weren't welcome in their establishment? Or an LGBT hat? Or a hijab?

Either they ban all hats or they're discriminating against views they don't agree with by picking and choosing which hats they say aren't allowed.

Or they don't want political divisions in their restaurant and know MAGA hats can create that.

What is the big deal? Isn't this what conservatives wanted?

@heathen75: I think so? Maybe what's good for the goose isn't good for the gander, I guess.

All three of my examples could be considered political too. But I can almost guarantee they would have a harder time arguing that banning a hat with former wartime service listed would be okay because they are just trying to avoid politics and the accusations of bigotry would never end if they blocked an LGBT hat or a hijab.

You're just looking to complain. The most divisive thing in this country right now is trump. period.

Looks like he even realized how stupid he was. Looks like he apologized.

https://www.google.com/amp/www.grubstreet.com/amp/2019/02/j-kenji-lopez-alt-maga-hat-ban.html

Then just say you are okay with them banning MAGA hats because you don’t like the president. Don’t tapdance around it and say you are okay with them banning MAGA hats because it is a political issue while ignoring the other examples I gave.

MAGA should have no problem with being denied service. :P

Are Trump supporters or MAGA hats a protected class? Should they be a protected class? The answer is no, so the owner's should be free to turn them away.

@Baconstrip78: I got called a Nazi once when I said my government taxes us too much.

@HoolaHoopMan: Nothing and no one should be a protected class. If it's OK to turn away people in MAGA hats, then it's OK to turn away Christians or Muslims simply because you don't agree with them.

Dress code is comparable to other attributes to you? Wow.

Well this was short lived... Glad he came to his senses ... "will continue … to serve all customer regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual preference, gender orientation, disability, or political opinion."

@LJS9502_basic: There much of a difference between a hijab and a hat? It's OK to label one but not the other I see...

Sorry Maga hats aren't a protected class. Don't wear the hat when you go in. Not that hard. Or do you guys shower and sleep with them as well? Actually that wouldn't surprise me.

I hope you're applauding BOTH SIDES because they both have the right to refuse service. Not simply applauding one side out of spite, because then, you aren't applauding for the concept of freedom, but just the spite.

@nattydaddy604:

Both. Out of spite and because it exercises their freedom to refuse service. I can be petty if I wanna. Does it make me look bad? Yeah. But at least I'm not afraid to admit it.

Glad to hear you're true to yourself at least, not many people are. I hope you are the same in person, not worrying about personal opinions.

Although I try to keep personal opinions out of these discussions as much as possible, everyone is subject to making it personal eventually (including myself). I will always recommend to try and keep personal feelings out of certain matters, as much as possible. But then again, to each their own my friend.

@Sevenizz: “Ein Volk, ein Reich” was probably too long to fit on hats back in 1920 Berlin.

lol sure, let's see how great that libertarian dream world would work.

Okay... and? The business is probably better off.

Clearly this Owner doesn't want to make any money. I don't care what type of person you are, if you have the money to spend at my joint, then welcome.

He probably assumed that if he claimed that he would refuse to serve people wearing MAGA hats then people in his community that hate Trump would more than make up for the lost income in solidarity with his position. Kind of how companies like Nike may have assumed that the money they lost from consumers that were against kneeling during the National Anthem would be more than made up by people that wanted to stand behind Kaepernick and support companies that supported him.

Whether or not that will actually work out for him is to be seen. Unlike Nike, who sells shoes to the entire country, this guy's restaurant is in a county with over 50% of the population being registered Democrats and it is unlikely too many Trump supporters (or people that would openly admit to support Trump and wear a MAGA hat) would have came in there anyway. Less than 20% of San Mateo County were registered Republicans, and being a Republican ≠ being a Trump supporter.