The Red Hen, a small restaurant in the town of Lexington, Virginia, has found itself at the centre of an absolute internet shitstorm, after White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked to leave because of her association with Donald Trump.
Stephanie Wilkinson, the owner of the farm-to-table eatery, told The Washington Post that a number of her staff expressed reservations about serving Sanders, and after consulting with them, she approached her table and asked for a private chat. She said:
“I’m not a huge fan of confrontation. I have a business, and I want the business to thrive. This feels like the moment in our democracy when people have to make uncomfortable actions and decisions to uphold their morals.”
She eventually asked Sanders to go, saying:
“I was babbling a little, but I got my point across in a polite and direct fashion. I explained that the restaurant has certain standards that I feel it has to uphold, such as honesty, and compassion, and cooperation.”
Sanders and her party left, and weren’t charged for a cheese course they had already consumed. The next day, however, she Tweeted about her experience at The Red Hen, and the restaurant was immediately inundated with a flood of angry feedback and negative reviews.
Last night I was told by the owner of Red Hen in Lexington, VA to leave because I work for @POTUS and I politely left. Her actions say far more about her than about me. I always do my best to treat people, including those I disagree with, respectfully and will continue to do so
— Kayleigh McEnany 45 Archived (@PressSec45) June 23, 2018
The restaurant’s Yelp page quickly degenerated into a battleground, with opponents and supporters of trump rushing to post fake reviews either congratulating or slamming Wilkinson for her strong stance on Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
One Yelp user, who gave the restaurant one star, said: “Maybe if the owner spent more time in the kitchen and less time watching CNN, she would understand how to run a restaurant. No thanks! This place sucks.”
Another person countered this with a glowing five-star review, saying: “Thank you for having the courage of your convictions. Bravo The Red Hen for standing up to evil, brutality, lying, and corruption.” And so on, and so on.
The bickering between the two groups became so drawn-out that earlier today, Yelp themselves stepped in and announced that they would be “cleaning up” The Red Hen’s page, and removing reviews that are clearly fake and ideologically-motivated.
From this morning, would-be restaurant critics were greeted with a pop-up reading:
“This business recently made waves in the news, which often means that people come to this page to post their views on the news. While we don’t take a stand one way or the other when it comes to these news events, we do work to remove both positive and negative posts that appear to be motivated more by the news coverage itself than the reviewer’s personal consumer experience with the business. As a result, your posts to this page may be removed as part of our cleanup process.”
As you may recall, Sarah Huckabee Sanders was at the centre of another epic internet temper tantrum meltdown in April of this year after comedian Michelle Wolf made a joke about her at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
2018, folks – what a time to be alive.
