Tadich Grill’s ex-owner: It wasn’t about Gene Upshaw being black

People passing by the Tadich Grill on California St. in San Francisco Tues. October 27, 2015. People passing by the Tadich Grill on California St. in San Francisco Tues. October 27, 2015. Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 10 Caption Close Tadich Grill’s ex-owner: It wasn’t about Gene Upshaw being black 1 / 10 Back to Gallery

Wednesday’s column about Steve Buich, one of the former owners of the Tadich Grill, refusing to speak to his daughter, Terri Upshaw, after she formed a relationship with — and later married — Raiders star Gene Upshaw kicked up a firestorm in the city.

Tadich Grill was torched on Yelp, which got so many comments it posted a note saying, “This business recently made waves in the news, which often means that people come to this page to post their reaction. The best place to share your thoughts is on Yelp Talk.”

Although we made several attempts to contact Buich before the column ran, there was no response until Wednesday morning, when he sent an e-mail. Here it is in full:

“This is an issue between a father and his daughter and does not extend to the rest of the family who have been in contact with Terri and her sons, despite what the article suggests. This personal family matter has nothing to do with Tadich Grill, which I retired from over 20 years ago. Although I hold a strong belief that the details of my relationship with my daughter, including those that were omitted from the article, do not warrant public attention, I do want to make one thing clear: This has never been a matter of race, but rather the sanctity of marriage and personal judgment of character. Simply because a dispute involves people of different races does not mean that the dispute is racial in nature.”

Significantly, Buich does not deny that he and his wife have not contacted their daughter, nor her two sons, in over three decades. Certainly, he’s entitled to his opinion and his view of how this happened.

However, it should be said that I specifically asked Terri Upshaw if she thought this was about the fact that Gene Upshaw was an older, then-married man when they both moved to Washington. She said it was not. Asked if this was a matter of race, she was emphatic.

“Absolutely,” she said. “The bottom line was that he was black.”