A Bay Ridge restaurant can't quite understand why a signed headshot of Donald Trump hanging in their dining room might cause a bit of a stir. Schnitzel Haus, a German restaurant on the neighborhood's busy 5th Avenue, recently removed a photo of The Donald from their walls following some scrutiny by customers on Yelp, who felt uncomfortable eating while being watched by a rotting baby carrot spewing hate speech.
"I just couldn't stop thinking about me, a black man with plenty of Mexican friends, supporting a business that supports such a racists and disgusting person as he is," wrote Andrew L. from the Bronx on July 28th. "Imagine going to a place and they having a picture of Hitler just because he visited them at one point in time. Just not cool. Should be removed."
"Honestly, I was very upset," Amber Urban, who co-owns the restaurant with her husband Fred, told Brooklyn Daily. "I don’t know how posting a picture on the wall is promoting hatred." The photo has been a fixture at the restaurant more or less since it opened, but with Trump just an election a way from his finger on the button, the photo jumps out more than before.
Fred Urban penned an uncomfortable reply a day after the review, explaining that they'd begrudgingly removed the offending photo since Andrew and others had felt uncomfortable with the Republican nominee's spray tan in their midst.
We have many Mexican, black, Hispanic, Chinese, white, Milano, Indian, German, Italian ( I can go on and on) patrons that adore the schnitzel Haus for its food and hospitality. The picture of trump was given to us after he visited the day after we opened 9 years ago to wish us good luck. He meet us at an event we sponsored during German heritage month at NYU. He was the German American ambassador for the year we opened. If he wasn't running for president we would not even been wasting time on here chatting about this however living in America and the ability to have freedom of speech is obviously not a stronghold that was learned by many. We have removed the picture tonight because I don't like To waste time defending my right to display a picture in my own restaurant. I am hoping autographed Al Pacino picture didn't offend you also.
Urban concluded the note, "Thanks for your time. And hey all lives matter!! Be strong!" because of course he did.
The Urbans seemed oblivious to the many connections that tie Trump to an anti-semitic or Nazi-esque message, repeatedly praising Das Trump's connections to the Fatherland. "I was honored to hang the photo," Fred doubled down to Brooklyn Daily. "He's a prominent businessman and a big supporter of German-American heritage."
If nothing else, at least Trump/Pence have a safe haven in NYC if there's no room at Chili's.
