Epilogue Kitchen and Cocktails owners threatened after banning woman who harassed staff about vaccine policy
Jonathan Jones, co-owner of Epilogue Kitchen and Cocktails on Monday, Jan. 18. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter)
The owners of Salem’s Epilogue Kitchen and Cocktails say they’ve received dozens of calls including death threats after banning a woman who harassed workers about the restaurant’s vaccination policy.
It’s among multiple attacks directed in recent years at the restaurant, where its owners have said they seek to create a space for everyone to feel welcome.
A post on Epilogue’s Facebook page said Naomi Wolf, an author who has spread false conspiracy theories about Covid, had reservations at a neighboring restaurant on June 30 but instead went to theirs.
Wolf told staff she “just wants to have a conversation” and criticized the restaurant for requiring proof of vaccination, the post said. “When I told her she was officially 86’d, and would be trespassed if she ever came back, due to how she spoke to and treated the crew, she began filming.”
Friends of Wolf’s then arrived, with one getting into a fighting stance, according to the post. “Her followers, cultists, whatever the hell they are, called us no fewer than 35 times,” it said.
Photos also showed reservations made under names including Donald Trump, Joe Biden and Joe Brandon, as well as obscenities.
“I have gotten 5 direct death threats. This Is America,” a post Monday said. “On a positive note, our actual community of Salem has rallied and made us feel loved.”
Wolf did not immediately respond to a request for comment through Facebook Tuesday.
The owners said on Facebook they have received at least seven one-star reviews, which they asked people to report.
In February, co-owner Jonathan Jones was one of 14 semifinalists for a James Beard Foundation’s Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific award.
Jones told Salem Reporter the calls started coming in after Wolf posted about the incident on the social media platform Gettr.
“They only get bolder with every new decision that plummets us towards a theocratic hellscape. We are one of maybe four places requiring vaccines in Salem, and they won’t let us have just this,” Epilogue’s post said.
The owners recently announced the restaurant would be moving locations to double its capacity and expand its community activism.
Epilogue was last targeted in early June, when Jones told Salem Reporter someone had graffitied swastikas and anti-Black Lives Matter messaging all over the business’s windows and lampposts and sidewalk.
Their transgender inclusion flag and every “community-minded” sticker on the restaurant and nearby light pole were also spray painted, he said.
-Ardeshir Tabrizian
