A large number of Washington, D.C., restaurant owners and workers say they intend to confront officials serving in President-elect Donald J. Trump‘s administration when they dine at their establishments. Failing that, many say they will offer poor service, bad tables, and long waits to those they recognize for working in the Trump admin.
“I personally would refuse to serve any person in office who I know of as being a sex trafficker or trying to deport millions of people,” Suzannah Van Rooy, a manager at Beuchert’s Saloon on Capitol Hill, told The Washingtonian. “It’s not, ‘Oh, we hate Republicans.’ It’s that this person has moral convictions that are strongly opposed to mine, and I don’t feel comfortable serving them.”
“I’ll only give them a bad table but will otherwise guarantee decent and polite service,” said another, adding: “I feel like them getting a bad table is nothing compared to the harm they’ll be inflicting.”
“This person theoretically has the power to take away your rights, but I have the power to make you wait 20 minutes to get your entree,” said Nancy, another D.C.-area bartender, who also added: “There’s a lot of opportunities for us as workers to feel like we’re taking our power back, while not necessarily ruining someone’s life. Giving them a subtle inconvenience feels like a little bit of a win for us.”
Restaurant industry workers are suspected of aiding protestors during the 2018 confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, tipping activists off that Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) was dining at a local establishment. The senator and his wife were forced to hide in the restaurant’s kitchen until police could arrive and disperse the protestors.
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