Bread & Circus Provisions, the hip artisanal pizza and sandwich shop tucked away on Bendel Road in Lafayette, is apologizing to customers after announcing sale of what the restaurant’s owners thought was a clever riff on 2016: a T-shirt depicting (small) hands reaching for a slice of pizza under the legend “GRAB ’EM BY THE” — an obvious reference to President-elect Donald Trump’s graphic sexual-assault admission in a leaked audio last summer.B&C posted an image of the T-shirt on its Facebook page Tuesday to announce the shirt would go on sale to the public the following day. Social media was having none of it. Dozens of Facebook users commented on the shirt, with the overwhelming majority offended by the reference (see screen shot below).B&C attempted to defend the T, emphasizing its majority female ownership at one turn. But contacted Thursday in a private Facebook message, co-owner Abi Falgout on behalf of the restaurant sent the following response, which she indicated would also be posted to B&CP’s Facebook page later today:

We have pulled the shirts & they are no longer for sale. We deeply & sincerely apologize to anyone that was offended. We saw it as a silly way to make mention on how ridiculous & nonsensical 2016 (in particular the election) was. Our intent was NEVER to imply that sexual assault is anything but a deplorable act & we think it’s absurd to suggest we had any form of malicious intent. However, we clearly see our mistake & want to correct our oversight. We hope that those who were offended by this can accept our sincere apology.

This news“paper” suspects and hopes the public will cut B&C some slack. Its wood-fired oven pizzas are to die for.