Last month, I read about a Baltimore restaurant where a server who wore a Palestinian pin was asked to remove it. The whole thing blew up, social media, protests, and cancel culture. It wasn't pretty.
Before the election last November, servers at a Boston restaurant wore "No on 5"* t-shirts, and there were matching table tents. The same message was printed on checks.
Meanwhile, a diner in Connecticut displays a Trump poster right on the host stand. I was told that the owner often ranted on about Joe Biden.
All of this had me wondering: In such a divided time in the United States, should restaurants really be spaces for political discourse? Do politics belong here?
Historical Precedent
Historically, the answer is yes, politics and eating/drinking establishments can mix.
A hundred years ago, taverns and pubs weren't just watering holes — they were hubs of political life. Many "belonged" to particular movements or political bosses, serving as gathering places where ordinary people could connect directly with power.
Taverns functioned like newsrooms, places where information was shared and politics were mobilized. During Prohibition, speakeasies became moral battlegrounds. Juke joints offered resistance to Jim Crow. In the 1950s and '60s, lunch counters became the stage for desegregation protests. And bars have long provided safe havens — from Stonewall to today's LGBTQ+ spaces.
In every era, restaurants, pubs, and diners have been more than places to eat and drink. They've been sites of belonging, resistance, and political expression.
The Legal Right to Express
So, is it appropriate for a restaurant to take a political stand?
Absolutely. Under the First Amendment, you can express your views in your own business. What you cannot do is deny service based on protected categories like race, sex, religion, or national origin. But you can ask someone to remove a MAGA hat, or refuse entry to someone wearing a Nazi armband. Being a Nazi or MAGA isn't a protected class.
The point is: you're free to say who you are — and be proud of it. Those who disagree can take their business elsewhere. Just ask my friends at Mamaleh's in Boston: Proudly Jewish, and clear about it.
If you feel strongly about something, you can put it on the table, literally — like the "No on 5" campaign did.
If you feel tipping is an oppressive practice, you can eliminate tips, pay everyone well and tell your customers why you don't accept tips — like my friends at Wishtree in North Adams, MA.
The Hospitality Tension
Here's the tension, though.
Hospitality itself isn't political. If you want your restaurant to be about pure hospitality, then politics don't belong. Keep the focus on food, service, and the guest experience. You should still demand respect and safety for your staff.
It's a spectrum of sorts — on one end is the French Laundrys of the world, and on the other are the gay bars of the world. One is purely about food, atmosphere and service. The other is all about belonging and safety. They both work.
You get to choose what's important to you and how you express it in the space of your restaurant. Most of all that message must be clear to your staff. It might look like a dress code that is rigorously adhered to. Some customers may not like it. Some staff may not like it.
The Power of Choice
Ultimately, restaurant spaces can send a message. A rainbow flag. A Black Lives Matter poster. A server in a MAGA hat. Each is a symbol — and each tells me something about whether I want to walk in or walk out.
As a guest, I have a choice: to support or not. As an owner, you have a choice: to speak or stay silent.
And that's the heart of it. Restaurants have always been more than neutral dining rooms. They are stages for expression, for belonging, for values lived out in public.
So the real question is not whether politics and restaurants belong together. History has already answered that. The real question is:
what do you want your restaurant to stand for?
*Question 5 would have phased out the subminimum wage for tipped workers in favor of a full minimum wage with tips on top.
