As a proud Brisbane resident I spend a lot of time fending off insults and derision from friends in bigger, fancier cities like Sydney and Melbourne, but in my heart I know that Brisbane is a fantastic, beautiful city that has just as much art and culture as our bigger cousins.
I’d go as far as to say, when it comes to opening culturally insensitive restaurants, we’re way ahead of even Melbourne, which is widely considered to be the hipster capital of the world, by every Australian that isn’t from Melbourne.
Recently, Brisbane eatery Aunty Ho! was forced to change their name from “Uncle Ho”, after protesters and angry internet punters pointed out that naming your restaurant after the Vietnamese communist dictator might be in poor taste.
Now, Hawthorne restaurant British Colonial Co. is undergoing a similar experience for their bizarre choice to theme a restaurant specifically around the concept of British colonialism.
From their own description:
“Inspired by the stylish days of the empirical push into the developing cultures of the world, with the promise of adventure and modern refinement in a safari style setting.”
First of all, “empirical” does not mean that, the word you are looking for is “imperial”. Secondly, what you are casually describing as a jolly old sortie into darkest Africa and the far Orient usually actually involved a stylish combination of wholesale murder and active attempts to erase the “developing” cultures they found.
i mean come on pic.twitter.com/ZDrMRyVlb7
— j.r. hennessy (@jrhennessy) September 18, 2016
It’s not the worst thing anyone’s ever done by any means but it sure seems like a weird choice, and probably could have been avoided with some careful word choices: a colonial-era themed restaurant doesn’t sound super bad, but one celebrating British colonialism is something else entirely.
They deleted most of the negative comments and reviews they got on FB, but the Google reviews are still there for everyone to see:
They obviously didn’t intend any malice, but it doesn’t look like they have plans to change the theme any time soon:
“We believe that our décor and menu has great synergy with Brisbane’s climate and the expansive palette of our clientele, who are looking for a melting pot of food and beverages to enjoy in a relaxed atmosphere.“We are therefore upset and saddened by today’s media reports that our brand is causing offence and distress to some members of the community. This certainly was not our intention.”
They changed the description on their website to read “A refined and modern dining experience with the adventure of east meets west in a plantation style, club setting.“, apparently not hugely bothered by the association between colonialism and plantations.
Keep up the good work, Brisbane.
Source: Brisbane Times.
Photo: Twitter.
