[WARNING: This piece contains strong language]
Cup It Up American Grill, a restaurant in Tucson, Arizona, has decided to close up shop indefinitely in the wake of threats and harassment directed at their business. The threats came after the restaurant posted the following to their official Facebook page:
While some costumers were pleased by the message, others were not, leaving brutal reviews on the restaurant’s Facebook:
[[{“fid”:”25980″,”view_mode”:”default”,”fields”:{“format”:”default”,”field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]”:”Cup It Up bad reviews on Facebook.”,”field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]”:”Screenshot via Facebook”},”type”:”media”,”field_deltas”:{“2”:{“format”:”default”,”field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]”:”Cup It Up bad reviews on Facebook.”,”field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]”:”Screenshot via Facebook”}},”attributes”:{“alt”:”Cup It Up bad reviews on Facebook.”,”title”:”Screenshot via Facebook”,”class”:”media-element file-default”,”data-delta”:”2″}}]]
The Daily Wire spoke with Cup It Up co-owner, Christopher Smith, who said that in the two days following the Facebook post, “people would come in and scream at the employees, calling them racist, nazis, bigots.”
Smith even recorded several voicemails in which anonymous individuals offer their scathing rebukes of Smith and the restaurant. In one message, a man says: “Hey Chris, congratulations on being an ignorant f***…you’re a piece of sh*t…I hope you enjoy going down the tubes because that’s what will happen to you. We’re after you, a**hole.”
In another, a woman goes on a loud rant about welfare, unarmed African American men being shot by police, and how the restaurant owners are “racists.”
Then, things got a little scary.
Here’s one of the emails given to us by Smith:
[[{“fid”:”25981″,”view_mode”:”default”,”fields”:{“format”:”default”,”field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]”:”Threatening email Cup It Up.”,”field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]”:”Image via Christopher Smith”},”type”:”media”,”field_deltas”:{“3”:{“format”:”default”,”field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]”:”Threatening email Cup It Up.”,”field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]”:”Image via Christopher Smith”}},”attributes”:{“alt”:”Threatening email Cup It Up.”,”title”:”Image via Christopher Smith”,”class”:”media-element file-default”,”data-delta”:”3″}}]]
After the threats and harassment, the restaurant announced that they were closing:
The sign in the window reads: “Cup It Up. Closed indefinitely. Dear loyal fans and patrons of Cup It Up American Grill, we have made the decision to close our doors indefinitely as of today, Monday, October 9, 2017. The safety of our employees and our families is of great concern and is our number one priority as of this time. We would also like to extend a special thanks to our Military and First Responders.”
Christopher Smith and co-owner Jay Warren sent a message to their patrons via ABC affiliate KGUN:
To our loyal customers and ALL fellow Americans, we wish all of you nothing but the best. We appreciated your patronage and wanted to give a very special thank you to our military and first responders for giving us all the opportunity to speak our minds. God Bless Tucson and God Bless America!
Speaking with The Daily Wire, Smith said that he plans to open the restaurant in other city. He stated that reopening in Tucson would be welcoming sabotage from the more unstable of his detractors.