Napa’s Red Hen mistakenly targeted after Trump tweet

Tanya Berry didn’t see President Donald Trump’s tweet attacking The Red Hen restaurant. But she noticed when her phone started buzzing with dozens of angry emails.

Berry, the manager at The Red Hen Bar & Grill in Napa, and her staff found themselves facing a wave of online wrath from geographically confused Trump supporters this week after the president denounced a similarly named Virginia eatery that refused to serve his press secretary.

Napa’s Red Hen, a Mexican cantina that’s been open 35 years and is known by locals for its fajitas and margaritas, was improbably sucked into the nation’s latest political uproar — even though it’s 2,300 miles away from the offending restaurant and completely unaffiliated with it.

The torrent of negative reviews and angry messages has been so bad that the staff took down the restaurant’s Facebook page.

“I was pretty shocked,” Berry said. “If we hadn’t shut down our messages, it would have blown up my phone.”

The political brouhaha, which has reignited debates about civility in American politics, began when press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was kicked out of The Red Hen in rural Lexington, Virginia, in the middle of a Friday night dinner. The owner asked her to leave because she believes the Trump administration is “inhumane and unethical,” she told reporters.

Huckabee Sanders tweeted about the episode Saturday morning, and the story was swiftly picked up by conservative news channels and social media activists as an illustration of the left’s intolerance. Trump chimed in Monday, telling his 53 million followers that “The Red Hen Restaurant should focus more on cleaning its filthy canopies, doors and windows (badly needs a paint job) rather than refusing to serve a fine person like Sarah Huckabee Sanders.”

He didn’t specify which Red Hen he was talking about.

It took less than an hour after Sanders’ tweet for people to start calling, emailing and messaging the restaurant on Solano Avenue, a few minutes down the highway from the region’s famous vineyards. Even more anger

“The Red Hen Restaurant should focus more on cleaning its filthy canopies, doors and windows (badly needs a paint job) rather than refusing to serve a fine person like Sarah Huckabee Sanders.” — President Trump, in a tweet

flowed in after Trump tweeted.

There were politically charged missives calling the restaurant’s owners communists. Others were just strings of curse words. “They were pretty rude,” Berry, who’s worked there for three decades, said diplomatically.

One-star reviews started to fill up the restaurant’s Yelp and Google pages. “We will do every thing to put you out of Business,” wrote one Trump supporter. “Refusing service for any reason beyond shoes, shirts is un-American,” declared another. “I found a rat turd in my soup,” tweeted someone else — whose profile says he lives in Texas.

On OpenTable, two people made dinner reservations Tuesday for “Mr. President.”

While there haven’t been any explicit threats, the Napa Police Department alerted officers to the controversy after a reader sent them a tip about the vitriol directed at the restaurant, a spokeswoman said.

Restaurants across the country with Red Hen in their name have been facing similar unwanted attention; one restaurant in Washington, D.C., posted a sign declaring “not that Red Hen” in its window.

The staff in Napa have been responding to each message and negative review, explaining that they have nothing to do with the Virginia eatery. Only two people who fired off angry missives wrote back to apologize for their mistake, Berry said.

The staff are just hoping the political spotlight moves on to the next controversy — and they can get back to making margaritas.

“We don’t mix politics with our restaurant at all,” Berry said. “Everybody’s welcome here.”