Pittsburgh Eatery Denies Vance Entrance, But Hosted Harris in August
JD Vance handled the situation well. Good for him.
Republican VP candidate Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) once showed he’s the most presidential of the four candidates.
The Trump-Vance campaign planned a stop at the iconic Pittsburgh restaurant Primanti Bros.
Trump-Vance supporters filled the place, but once Vance showed up, the manager denied him entrance:
A source familiar with the campaign told Fox News Digital that when the vice presidential campaign stopped by Primanti Bros. Restaurant and Bar in North Versailles, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, their planned visit to excited supporters was cut short when they were promptly kicked out by employees. The source noted that Primanti Bros. management was aware that the Trump-Vance campaign was planning on stopping by.
An employee told the campaign that this was “not a campaign stop” and that “JD’s not allowed in,” the source said, adding that the manager threatened to call the police if they didn’t leave.
Trump-Vance supporters shot back, booing the employees as they were ushered to the exit, the source said.
Vance handled it perfectly when greeting supporters in the parking lot:
We paid for everybody’s food, we gave them a nice tip. And of course when I gave him a nice tip I said no taxes on Tip Hold it against her she just got A little nervous Business let keep on supporting and most importantly November 5th or before Go vote lets go win this thing.
.@primantibros refused to let @JDVance in to their restaurant full of customers waiting to greet him. They all paid for their drinks, cancelled their food orders and left after hearing that VP candidate was not welcome. Here was his response #Trump2024Vance #RepublicanParty #GOP pic.twitter.com/JsggvQiuhu
— Anissa Zappala (@anissa_zappala) September 28, 2024
Primanti Bros. Restaurant and Bar released a lame statement, especially since, again…this event had to be planned.
Because two people tried to kill former President Donald Trump, I would hope security made arrangements before it happened.
Give me a break
— Primanti Bros (@primantibros) September 28, 2024
This is the same place that allowed VP Kamala Harris to stop by. The diners accused the campaign of staging the whole thing with hired actors:
Harris’ campaign made a stop at the Primanti Bros. location on Aug. 18 – much to the chagrin of locals, who were kicked out of the restaurant.
“I wanted to watch some sports and enjoy an afternoon lunch,” Mark Dodson previously told Fox News Digital. “Around 3:30, the bartender, she goes, ‘It’s last call’ – what do you mean last call?”
Employees informed the Pennsylvania native that the restaurant was closing early for a private event.
—-
Outside, kicked-out patrons and Trump supporters protested the event. Others verbally accused the campaign of employing “actors” – as video captured by ABC News of Harris’ visit itself depicted a full dining room with people enjoying their food.
“Holy hell, all these actors in these vans,” a man was heard shouting among the anti-Harris demonstrators.
Going to @primantibros in Pittsburgh is the cultural touchstone equivalent of getting a cheesesteak in Philadelphia. Problem for Primanti instead of welcoming to both sides they welcomed Kamala Harris here & not Vance
Cannot be understated the grace @JDVance handled this with https://t.co/yqISx6VWN4 pic.twitter.com/sBwKwtenuv— ZitoSalena (@ZitoSalena) September 28, 2024
Remember, @primantibros kicked out their paying customers so Kamala could bring in a fake audience for a staged appearance. pic.twitter.com/jmftADKJk7
— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) September 28, 2024
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Comments
I don’t care what JD Vance said, Primanti Bros are scumbags. No one should patronize any of their businesses. They are dirtbags of the worst sort.
They did NOT deserve any tips. Tips are for decent service, not d-bag service.
To be fair to the waitstaff, the report is that it was the management that didn’t want Vance there.
Why would anybody be surprised at that? If the management wanted them there, it’s unlikely they’d be bulled by Karens on the waitstaff.
I imagine the manager of that particular location is a leftist Harris supporter. I wouldn’t be surprised if the corporate office didn’t have a thing or two to say to her. They’ve got 46 locations, including two in Florida.
I would add that they’re owned by L Catterton, a GIANT private equity multinational which is itself a partnership between a US private equity firm and LVMH, which is one of the largest corporations on the planet that owns some of the most exclusive brands (Louis Vuitton, Dior, Hennessy, Sephora). While I’m sure the CT-based L Catterton has plenty of Harris supporters in management, like you, I suspect this is exactly NOT the kind of PR they’re looking. And, neither company likely wants to make this kind of statement against a candidate who might be VP in a couple months and then perhaps president for 8-years after that. It will be interesting to see how L Catteron/LVMH responds publicly.
The restaurant kicked out real, paying customers so Harris could have a staged event of an “impromptu” campaign stop. I’m surprised they have any customers coming back.
What happened with the Harris-Walz event? They did it right. You even quoted it:
Let’s not wind readers up with rage-bait.
You completely miss the point, or pretend to. Our anger is not because they chose to close early to host a campaign event for Harris. It’s that they refused to do the same for Vance, thus showing that they are hostile to us and our cause.
Therefore if there are any Republicans who have been patronizing this establishment, or any other establishment in the same chain, they should take their custom elsewhere. I will not do so, because I have never even heard of this place, have never spent a dime there, and thus have no custom to remove.
Go woke, go broke.
Harris booked a private event. Vance did not. What point am I supposed to be missing?
Harris did not “book a private event”. She set up a campaign stop, as all politicians routinely do at stores and restaurants everywhere. In the case of candidates with Secret Service protection such visits are never spontaneous; they’re always set up in advance. It’s not normal to boot out existing customers, but the place cooperated to the extent of doing so, so that the Harris supporters bused in could fill the place. All very well and nice.
Vance didn’t ask anyone to leave. But when he showed up they told him to leave. It’s their property, and assuming the management made this decision they had the right to do so. But it means they’ve declared war on half the country and should bear the consequences.
Agreed. I came to say that I have no problem with the restaurant manager’s decision. I don’t LIKE it but – a restaurant should have the right to refuse service to anyone*
and the management to have any political leanings they choose.
The constitution swings both ways and I’m okay with that.
Of course I quietly hope that business falls way off, but that is because customers also have the right to refuse doing business with anyone* and the right to have any political leanings they choose.
* (right to refuse service to anyone outside the legally designated categories of race ,religion, national origin etc)
@Hodge .. If the restaurant was full of paying customers then the manager’s decision was idiotic
The best spin on this is that Harris booked and paid for a private event. Given that the restaurant was already full of people when Vance showed up I think it’s safe to assume from the reaction of the management that they cooperated with Harris at no charge
All of them. Milhouse is 100% correct.
You are engaging in malicious misapprehension here. You appear to be a pro.
Agree with the points made by Milhouse.
Add to the context the lefty wokiesta lack of respect for individual business to make decisions about service. Seems very much like they want to demand that some be forced to ‘bake the cake’ while their supporters should be allowed to refuse service and failing that for their supporters to go in and disrupt folks dining by ‘getting in their face, telling them they aren’t welcome’. Walz endorsed the spirit of this public confrontation nonsense with his idea to confront folks in grocery stores.
We are well past the stage of offering the benefit of the doubt to these sorts of confrontational tactics that seem to cut one way. Go woke go broke is the order of the day and the d/prog and everyone else who allowed the wokiestas to get a head start on it can pound sand with their whining that it is happening to them as well.
“Let’s not wind readers up with rage-bait.”
Wow! That’s some bait right there!
You think your fellow commenters here are actually unhinged and ready to fly into a rage over what you call “rage-bait”? I mean, really?
Good to know you have such a high opinion of us.
Is this an in kind contribution?
No. It was not something given to the Harris campaign. That is the definition of a contribution. Nothing here was contributed. Allowing Harris to visit your location isn’t anything given to her, let alone to her campaign.
It’s every property owner’s choice who is welcome on his property and who is not. Public accommodations are not allowed to exclude people on several grounds that are explicitly specified in the law; they retain the right to exclude people on any other grounds or on no grounds at all.
Strongly disagree. If the management cooperated with Harris by closing the venue then they made an in-kind contribution equal to the usual rental charge for the space.
No, they didn’t. A contribution is literally a thing given. If nothing was given then there was no contribution. And it has to be given to the campaign. Generally that means it has to be done at the campaign’s request.
The bigger point is Harris had the customers leave so she could load the place with supporters/actors to make it look like real Pennsylvania people were for her. Primanti Bros assisted in that fiction. Vance let it be known he was stopping by. Real folks showed up to catch a glimpse. No astroturfing here. FKH
I don’t see any grass-roots attractiveness of Vance. It’s another campaign event. = taking as important what is not important.
One cannot show the blind man what wont can’t see 😂
I wonder if they serve Bud Light at Primanti Bros? They sure seem to want to go down the Bud Light rathole! Michael Jordan was a business genius when he said he didn’t get into politics, because Republicans buy shoes, too. Maybe Primanti Bros needs to learn that lesson the hard way?
In 2020, the greater Pittsburg area voted 50.7% for Trump and 47.9% for Biden (per ChatGPT). Not sure why any business in such an evenly divided community would want to take sides when they don’t have to–particularly against the side that carried the area in 2020. I guess math is hard.
As many have said, don’t support companies and businesses that hate you.
There is nothing authentic about the Harris campaign what so ever.
They know they can’t win so what they have to do is show that they are popular enough for the merest hint there to be the possibility to win the election. Makes the steal a little easier to pull off.
Theodor Adorno gets points for the book title “The Jargon of Authenticity.”
Well, now I know where not to stop for lunch next time I’m traveling through PA. I’ll be sure to let all my friends know too.
“hate has no home here”………sometimes.
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