When Your Favorite Restaurant Gets Political
From Hymie's on the Main Line to an old school sandwich shop in Norristown, some eateries are wading into the previously uncharted waters of Election 2024.
Outside of Philadelphia on the Main Line, the Jewish deli Hymie’s finds itself in the middle of controversy after allowing a pro-Donald Trump ad to be filmed there. (Photo via Google Maps)
I’ve been going to Lou’s in Norristown longer than I’ve been going to any restaurant on the planet. I was born in the working-class Montgomery County town, where Lou’s has been a staple since the first half of the 20th century. My parents went on dates there in high school. I sucked down thick milkshakes at Lou’s chrome-lined lunch counter in the late ’70s, before we white-flighted to a South Jersey cul-de-sac home with a pool. And after I met the woman who is now my wife, it didn’t take long for me to bring her to Lou’s for a Zep, a type of hyperlocal hoagie that Lou’s became known for, a sandwich my wife and I have since returned to Lou’s for time and time again. But my recent visit to Lou’s was a bit different.
I decided to go to Lou’s for a Zep. I think I’d only had one Zep since the Great COVID Shutdown of 2020. So I was overdue. As I parked my car on Main Street across from Lou’s, I saw it. It was impossible to miss: A giant red-white-and-blue “Trump-Vance: Make America Great Again” sign. The sign was hanging in the window of my favorite sandwich shop.
The sign was about four times the size of the illuminated “OPEN” sign. It was about twice as tall as the Lou’s marquee that’s been hanging for decades above the window and door. It’s fair to say the Trump sign stood out. Not just because of its dimensions and prominent placement along the busy thoroughfare — also because it’s just so unusual to see a local business in this region display such explicit support for any presidential candidate. (South Philly’s hard-left and thoroughly Trump-hating Morning Glory Diner being one notable exception.) And in the case of Lou’s, the shop was screaming its support of Donald Trump in the middle of Norristown. This is a predominantly minority and immigrant town. In 2020, Norristown went decidedly for Joe Biden. In 2016? Hillary Clinton.
Lou’s owner, Lou Alba, whose maternal grandfather opened the restaurant six days before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, tells me that he hasn’t had any complaints since the sign went up. He says business has been just about even. “If anything, I get some people coming up to me and telling me, quietly, ‘Love the sign,’” Alba says.
I’ll be voting for Kamala Harris on November 5th. And, more to the point, I’ll be voting against Donald Trump. But I had no issue giving Lou’s my money. The place makes a good sandwich. There’s lots of nostalgia there for me. And, if anything, I give Alba credit for putting his money where his mouth is, even though I strongly disagree with his presidential choice.
But some extended family members from Montgomery County, who I saw just after my Lou’s visit, weren’t so forgiving when I told them about the sign. (I’m not identifying them, because I don’t want them to get the inevitable hate mail.) “Well, I guess I’ll be going to Eve’s from now on,” the one told me, referring to Lou’s main Zep competition in the area. “I’ll never go to Lou’s again,” said another, adding, “Fuck that guy.” I asked him if he was referring to Alba or to Trump. “Both,” he was quick to respond.
In a democracy, we’re in this together. We have to try to understand one another’s views about politics and policy or we can’t do our job as citizens. At the same time, we have to know when to put our differences aside and remember that we have identities other than our political ones. This is someone you’re fond of, someone who has helped create a fine equestrian institution that has made a positive contribution to your community. Does this woman — this stable genius — deserve nothing better than being shunned? You’re a client, a supporter and maybe even a friend of hers. Our lives can become constricted when our political identities are always holding the reins.
Not long after my visit to Lou’s, I met a friend for a snack at Monaghan’s Irish Pub in Delco. It’s a bar that I would have fully expected to have Trump signs everywhere. After all, this is a bar that has ceremonially banned hyper liberal Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner and former mayor Jim Kenney — there’s a sign in the middle of the bar proclaiming their banned status. The bar also has “Cops Lives Matter” and “Beer Drinkers Lives Matter” signage on display, while my search for “Black Lives Matter” messaging there proved futile. Oh, and let’s not forget the “Hanoi Jane” piss targets displayed in the urinals. So, yeah, a Make America Great Again sign — or thirty — would seem to fit right in.
A Hanoi Jane target inside a urinal at the Delco bar and restaurant Monaghan’s Pub (photo by Victor Fiorillo)
But what is not on display at Monaghan’s, it turns out, is a single thing related to the 2024 election. “We don’t need people talking about politics at the bar,” says owner Joe Monaghan. “In fact, I tell all my bartenders to keep politics off the TVs, because politics just leads to fights. Honestly, I’d like to just get back to watching football.”
Monaghan explained to me that the items in question on display at the bar aren’t “political” per se and stem not from his support of any particular presidential candidate — nor should they be indicative of who he’s voting for, he says, claiming that his wife doesn’t even know the answer to that question — but for his support of police. Monaghan grew up in the same neighborhood as Daniel Faulker, the cop killed by Mumia Abu-Jamal. “But we call him Wesley Cook at my bar. That’s his real name. Not ‘Mumia.’”
In more recent days, the iconic Main Line Jewish delicatessen Hymie’s found itself at the center of a controversy thanks to a pro-Trump commercial released by the Republican Jewish Coalition Victory Fund. In the ad, seen below, three women sitting at a booth inside what is obviously Hymie’s (no sign or staff are visible, but anyone who has been to Hymie’s would immediately recognize it) lament anti-Semitism in the United States and say that only Donald Trump will keep Jewish people safe.
The ad has seen fierce backlash on social media, with some calling for a boycott of Hymie’s and others ironically claiming that the ad itself is anti-Semitic due to the stereotypical mannerisms and language portrayed by the participants, who appear to be actors. The battle has been playing out in various Facebook groups.
But Louis Barson, the owner of Hymie’s for decades, says not to read too much into the pro-Trump ad. Barson says an old friend called him about shooting a commercial at Hymie’s and explained what the content would be. It was an easy decision to make, Barson tells me.
“Only a person who eats at Hymie’s would know this was shot at Hymie’s,” says Barson. “This is not a statement that Hymie’s is endorsing Donald Trump. That is not the case. I would gladly let Kamala Harris film an ad here tomorrow.” Barson, who says he’s registered independent and adds that he’s “torn” about who to vote for, wishes he had a better candidate to choose from than Harris or Trump.
Barson’s position isn’t likely to diminish the controversy surrounding the ad. Some customers — or make that former customers — have taken to the Hymie’s social media accounts to voice their objections. Wrote one, under a non-political Hymie’s post about Yom Kippur: “As regular Hymie’s patrons for decades, we will not be returning. To allow such filth to be filmed in your establishment that I have taken my kid to …”
On the subject of social media, this can be a landmine for restaurants. Most establishments stay far, far away from making posts that could be considered even remotely political. One local restaurant owner, who happens to be a Republican, faced a torrent of negative comments and threats of a boycott after he made a comment critical of Trump’s behavior on his personal Facebook page. The restaurant owner, who asked to remain nameless, started off defending himself and responding to angry commenters. And then? “I took it down,” he says. “It just wasn’t worth it.”
It never is. That’s the observation of longtime Philadelphia public relations executive Peter Breslow.
“If about half of the market is on one side and about half the market is on the other side, why would you risk one side being turned off by your political views and, therefore, not supporting your business?” posits Breslow. According to Breslow, a restaurant owner who used to be his client suddenly decided to use his personal social media as a political soapbox, “spewing all sorts of Trump rhetoric on a daily basis,” in Breslow’s words. (I’ve reviewed some of the posts, and they go far beyond supporting Trump; they are full-blown MAGA conspiracy theory-laden, anti-immigrant propaganda.) “And guess what? Customers stopped showing up. Business was off. Imagine that.”
Of course, some restaurants may be so popular that they’re immune to any consequences of getting political — or at least they think they are.
“What was it that P.T. Barnum said?” asked Barson, rhetorically. “All publicity is good publicity. We are always busy. I don’t think I’ll be selling less corned beef because of this.”
