Angie Ugarte Debary diner owner in Florida bans President Joe Biden supporters after Afghanistan pullout fall-out. Unapologetic stand following US policy in the mid-east.
When eating out clashes with differing political views…
A Florida diner owner has advised supporters of President Joe Biden that they are not welcome at her establishment following last week’s suicide bombing in Afghanistan which killed 13 US service members after the President’s decision to end US occupation in the forlorn country after 20 years invasion.
A sign posted in the window of the DeBary Diner tells would-be customers in stark terms, ‘to turn around if they back Biden and his administration following Thursday’s attack by ISIS-K at the Kabul airport’, WOFL reported.
‘If you voted for and continue to support and stand behind the worthless, inept and corrupt administration currently inhabiting the White House that is complicit in the death of our servicemen and women in Afghanistan, please take your business elsewhere,’ the unabashed notice reads.
Angie Ugarte, who has owned the restaurant in DeBary for five years, said she posted the sign Thursday after the suicide bombing which also killed just on 200 Afghans. The Florida proprietor said she intends to keep the sign up as long as Americans are stranded in Afghanistan.
Mixing politics with scrambled eggs & black coffee
‘It was the only thing I felt like I could do,’ Ugarte told WOFL. ‘I was just angry; I was just let down. I felt like one of those mothers or wives or sisters who were going to get that knock on the door.’
Ugarte said a lot of her regular customers at the diner — which boasts the ‘tastiest’ Cuban sandwiches in town, according to its website — are military vets. An entire wall inside is devoted to service members featuring military photos, flags and other décor.
‘They have coffee every morning,’ Ugarte said of the local vets.
Reaction from customers, however, has been mixed, Ugarte said.
‘I’ve had people come to the door and look at it and turn around and walk away,” she told WOFL. ‘And I’ve had people come into my kitchen while I’m cooking and say, ‘Hey, I like your sign.”
Regardless of the response it causes, Ugarte said the poster is there to stay for now.
‘If you really, really still stand behind what’s allowed this to happen in the way that it has happened — which was unnecessary — then I really, really don’t want to be associated with you in any way and I certainly don’t want your business,’ she continued.
Fierce response on social media
But at least one Florida man told WOFL he was put off by the sign and wouldn’t be sitting at a table anytime soon.
‘I wouldn’t go there,’ DeBary resident, Louis Vasquez told WOFL. ‘I don’t appreciate it.’
And then there were these responses on social media that caught this author’s attention. See what you think?
‘Cool, make sure you ban all voters who supported any president over the last 20 years. Good luck with your business.’
‘Good boycott her restaurant! We don’t have to be uninvited ! We gladly won’t support a Trump supporter.’
‘Where is the outrage for the soldiers who died before the withdrawal? Where is the outrage for all the people dying of Covid? All of these businesses are just chasing social media clout.’
‘Why would anybody have anything to do with a restaurant that’s strictly political? I thought a restaurant was a place where you went to have a meal and enjoy company I guess not I guess she made a stance too bad they’re going to lose a lot of business because of it.’
