A restaurant in San Francisco, with no connection to the restaurant that refused to serve police officers because they wore their weapons, is being dragged into the controversy.
North Beach Restaurant on Stockton Street in San Francisco Tuesday found itself getting angry messages for something it had absolutely nothing to do with.
“They’re calling and on social media,” said Leo Petroni of North Beach Restaurant. “They are fairly frustrated.”
Over the weekend, workers at Hilda and Jessie Restaurant on Union Street refused to serve food to three San Francisco police officers because their weapons made the staff feel uncomfortable.
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Hilda and Jessie is in the city’s North Beach neighborhood and some confused that with the actual North Beach Restaurant. The angry calls and social media messages started coming in.
“Basically that ‘I can’t believe you would do this to our community, to the police department’ and saying other things that I don’t wanna say in front of a camera,” said Petroni.
The backlash for Hilda and Jessie has been swift and severe on social media. And then there’s this one man protest, right in front of the restaurant.
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“If something goes wrong here, burglary, robbery whatever- who are they gonna call?” said Steve Ghiselli of San Mateo.
Owners of Hilda and Jessie have publicly apologized in no uncertain terms, but this controversy has taken on a life of its own.
Petroni would like it to die out.
“Absolutely. Or no uniform at all. We don’t care,” he said when asked if police in full uniforms are welcome at the North Beach Restaurant.
