What’s in a name? Poison apparently if the name is “Red Hen.”
Following the decision of the owners of the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Va., to refuse service to White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, the eatery received plenty of hate messages. But so did “the twenty restaurants, bakeries, and coffee houses in the United States with ‘Red Hen’ in their name,” Quartz reports. That includes one right here in New York, on West 14th Street.
Over the weekend, several were bombarded with death threats, nasty online reviews, and even eggs, after White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Twitter she was was asked to leave the “Red Hen” restaurant in Lexington, Virginia.
CBS News ran interview with one “Red Hen” restaurateur who showed up at work Monday to find more messages than usual on her phone. But most callers weren’t seeking reservations or phoning in take-out orders.
Regardless of which side of the political spectrum people are on, all need to take a deep breath and stop pestering innocent restaurant owners.