The battle in which the Red Hen restaurant, located in a small rural Virginia town, has been involved since June last year, was not on the menu. After the manager of the premises asked White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders to leave the establishment for working for an Administration that did not meet “basic human standards,” an army of enraged trumpistas came out on the attack. : Death threats, thousands of negative reviews on Yelp, postcards stained with droppings or reservations for diners that never appeared were part of the picture that Stephanie Wilkinson had to face. Almost a year after the episode that revealed political polarization in the United States – at that time, especially, due to the measure of the separation of families without papers at the border – Wilkinson published a letter in The Washington Post to describe what he has faced in these months. The text, despite the attacks, reveals something positive.

Sanders’ expulsion from the Lexington restaurant opened up a debate about the right of people to eat where they choose, versus the right of managers to decide who to serve. The media debate took as long to ignite as it did to fade away. However, in the small town the matter was far from settled. The manager of the local, according to an account in the letter published this Tuesday, configured the filters for her email, reset her privacy settings on Instagram and blocked calls on her phone. But a doubt still assailed her: “What chance was there that the guy who was texting me from Minneapolis was actually going to come to town to set our restaurant on fire? It was impossible to know, “he describes in the letter.





Stephanie Wilkinson, thank you message to the local, restaurant facade and one of their dishes. Facebook

When the woman managed to keep the haters From his social networks, physical letters began to arrive at his home. At first they were a handful that fit in the mailbox. But as the days went by, they increased, until the mail delivery man began to leave large plastic bags of writing and packages outside the door. Hello, bigots, psychopaths, socialists and with intellectual challenges! Your alleged business is in jeopardy. Rest assured that this is not a threat, but simply a warning that predicts your fall (…) By the way, we are many more than yours, “said one of the messages. However, the person in charge of the Red Hen he began to notice one detail: “For every hate message, there was one of gratitude.”

He claims that he received more than 4,000 letters. While some accused her of not accepting the defeat of Hillary Clinton in 2016, others congratulated her for that action before an Administration that had reduced their social protections. “For every wish that our business had a painful death, there was a dollar bill, a generous check or a gift card,” says Wilkinson in the letter published by the US newspaper. In addition, after having closed the premises for 10 days after the episode, the customers arrived in a waterspout. The restaurant and the Shenandoah Valley in which it is located received travelers from all over the world who learned of its existence through the expulsion of the White House spokeswoman.

Wilkinson notes that the show of support has not only helped his restaurant, which is doing better than ever, but also the people of Virginia. “Supporters sent thousands of dollars in donations to our local food bank or to the shelter for victims of domestic violence in the area,” he says. Sales in hospitality and commerce have increased, as have the revenues of Lexington charities. “It is possible that our enemies believed that” they “were more than” us “, but it turns out that we have more than enough to continue cooking,” concludes the manager of Red Hen.