Online reviews slam wrong San Francisco restaurant over denying police service

A San Francisco restaurant says it’s been bombarded by “hate-filled” false online reviews and phone calls after being mistaken for a nearby eatery under fire for turning away police officers.

“I started picking up the phone today, and some people were very nice and understanding and listening,” Maureen Donegan of North Beach Restaurant told KRON. “Other people screaming and lots of hate.”

Hilda and Jesse, a North Beach brunch spot, sparked outrage by turning away three armed San Francisco police officers Friday, Dec. 3, saying their guns made employees ”uncomfortable,” McClatchy News reported.

The restaurant’s co-owners have since apologized, saying “we made a mistake.”

Some national news stories on the outcry identified Hilda and Jesse as a North Beach restaurant, which Donegan believes prompted some to target her restaurant in error.

“It’s shocking that people don’t read all of the information and just assume,” Donegan told KRON. “We were getting all these random emails all of a sudden, and I was like ‘hey team, what’s going on?’ It was just hate-filled and ‘we’ll never come back again.’”

The restaurant also was hammered by one-star reviews on Yelp, which has temporarily shut down reviews. A notice on the Yelp page says it is being monitored.

The restaurant added a notice to its Yelp page clarifying that it did not turn away any police officers, saying it has a “Long, Happy and Healthy Friendship” with city police.

Freelance journalist Stanley Roberts told SFist that he also was mistakenly drawn into the fray over Hilda and Jesse when his reporting led some to believe he owned the restaurant.

“It was funny until it wasn’t funny anymore,” he told the publication.

This story was originally published December 8, 2021 at 8:14 AM with the headline "Online reviews slam wrong San Francisco restaurant over denying police service."