A West End restaurant has expanded a message printed on its receipts in connection with this weekend's National Rifle Association convention, saying its original text was misinterpreted in a viral social-media response.

Ellen's, a comfort-food restaurant whose motto is "It's Brunch O'Clock Somewhere," had first said it would donate part of the week's proceeds "to organizations dedicated to implementing reasonable and effective gun regulations. Welcome to Dallas!"

But after "a very courteous and informative conversation with a customer," Ellen's said on its Facebook page, "we realized how our message could be misconstrued. ... By then, the situation had become viral.

"What was not expected," the post continued, "was that those two words — reasonable and effective — would be misinterpreted as our support for gun control. The mistake was an honest one. The opposite is true."

The feedback included a tweet from the NRA itself, which told attendees to "steer clear" of the restaurant.

In response, Ellen's amended its receipts to describe its aim as "effective gun regulations that protect citizens' 2nd Amendment rights and also help reduce needless gun violence" — though the update didn't appear to placate many, who said the restaurant was simply backpedaling.

In its Facebook post, the restaurant said:

"No one wants children to die in their classrooms. No one wants police to be killed in the line of duty. The differences we have are in our approach. But we can fix it if we breathe, calm down, and listen to one another. As Americans, that is what we are supposed to do."

Joe Groves, who has owned Ellen's since 2012, told The Dallas Morning News that he and friends began discussing common-sense gun safety measures after the July 2016 ambush that killed four Dallas police officers and a DART officer after a downtown protest.

"That happened just a couple of blocks away from us," Groves said. "We knew a lot of those cops. They were our friends. We loved them. This was personal."

He said he is neither anti-gun nor anti-Second Amendment, adding that "as the owner of a restaurant and as someone who cares about these issues, being pro-Second Amendment and being pro-safety are not incompatible."

On Friday, he said he had begun keeping notes of "the vile, racist, moronic conversations overheard from NRA attendees eating at the restaurant," including offensive comments made to restaurant staff.