Photo by Sergi Alexander/Getty Images.
All over the country, people are still flaming over Donald Trump’s controversial, pretty racist comments about Mexicans during his Presidential candidacy speech. The fallout from his remarks, in which he said Mexicans are drug dealers and rapists “bringing those problems to us,” has been great: NBC and Univision canceled its telecast of the Miss USA pageant, which Trump partially owns; Macy’s and Serta severed their ties with Trump’s brand; and even NASCAR ended their sponsorship with The Donald.
But in D.C., where Trump is set to open his latest and greatest hotel, the backlash wasn’t so much pointed at Donald directly, but at renown chef José Andrés, who is planning to open a restaurant inside the hotel.
Last week, a petition surfaced urging ThinkFoodGroup, Andrés’ restaurant company, to “reconsider” opening a new restaurant in Trump’s new luxury hotel at the Old Post Office. “We are proud to have José Andrés in Washington, D.C., which is why we hope he decides that Donald Trump is not someone he should do business with,” Erick Sanchez, who started the petition, writes. “We are excited to dine at all of his other locations, but surely this planned Trump location could relocate elsewhere.” And, in less than a week, more than 300 people have signed the petition, including employees of Andrés’ numerous area restaurants.
“How could you not be concerned and raise certain questions about that [decision]?” an employee with Zaytinya who wished to remain anonymous tells DCist. He says that, though Trump’s comments are “unfortunate timing” as plans to open a restaurant in the new hotel have been in the works for a while, nothing yet is set in stone and he, along with other employees, are hoping Andrés will do the right thing.
“Our company is a very successful, thriving company,” the employee says. “It’s built on the idea, hard work, and labor of people who immigrated to this country. José himself was an immigrant.”
Speaking with WAMU, who first reported the story, Lisa Navarrete of the National Council of La Raza said that “who Donald Trump is and what he believes” is “diametrically opposed to what José Andrés believes and more importantly what José Andrés represents.” At this time, neither Andrés or his ThinkFoodGroup company have responded to the petition, other than a single tweet:
@trulldc @wamu885news My views on immigration are clear. All men and women should be treated respectfully regardless of their status.
— José Andrés (@chefjoseandres) July 2, 2015
The Zaytinya employee says a lot of staff members at Andrés’ restaurants are immigrants, and his story is inspiring to them, which makes Trump’s comments—and Andrés’ potential involvement with Trump—all the more troubling to them.
“There’s a lot of people who are looking up to José—a pioneer, artist, chef, entrepreneur, humanitarian, and immigrant—as a public figure to do the right thing,” the employee says. “And while politics is something best left out of bars and [the] restaurant scene, I think it’s an issue people will choose to remember and not keep mum about.”
