This is a public statement being made by the owners of 571 Grill & Draft House regarding a recent New York Times article that featured the controversial political views of one of their employees.
While the 571 Grill and Draft House is happy to be recognized by national news outlets for our 571 Haystack burger, it’s with a sad heart that we must reflect on a divisive political topic that has unfortunately darkened the doorstep of our small business.
A November 25th New York Times article featured one of our employees. In the article, the employee shared his political views, specifically those of being a white nationalist. The article went on, illustrating some very disturbing images and thoughts from this individual. The 571 Grill and Draft House does not share any of these views with this person, nor was the owner aware of them prior to the publishing of this article.
Since the release of this article, we have been swamped with phone calls and social media messages that are threatening and intimidating to both us and our employees. These hateful and disturbing messages are truly saddening to those of us who just want to serve delicious food and cold beers.
Due to these very disturbing threats, the employee who was featured in the article suggested that we release him from employment. We have done so and have also released his wife and her brother who also worked for us. We felt it necessary to fully sever the relationship with them in hopes to protect our 20 other employees from the verbal and social media threats being made from individuals all over the country, and as far as Australia. We neither encourage nor support any forms of hate within our establishment.
We have been in business for a very long time and have a great reputation for supporting our community, and want to continue to do so. We do not check political party affiliation of any of our patrons and as such we are prayerful that members of our community understand that this has been a very difficult situation for us. We hope that you will continue to support us and our small family-owned business.
The owner will not have any further comment on this situation. Thank you
