Resturant refuses to serve republicans

Political rally rescheduled for Seabird Restaurant in Sheboygan
Original Post: Sheboygan Press

Why did the “Stand Against spending — Stand with Walker” bus tour and rally change locations several times in the hours before its 4:30 p.m. kickoff Thursday?

The answer depends on who you ask.

If you ask Linda Gabrielse, owner of Nino’s Steak and Seafood — the original site of the rally — it’s because what she actually booked was a dinner reservation for 45 people in the restaurant’s banquet room. It wasn’t until the next day that Gabrielse found out the dinner was to be accompanied by a pro-Walker rally sponsored by Americans for Prosperity and the Sheboygan Liberty Coalition.

Not wanting her restaurant to become the site of a partisan political rally, Gabrielse cancelled the group’s reservation and sent them looking for another site.

Several hours and at least one false start later, the group announced the rally would be held at the Seabird Restaurant at Blue Harbor Resort and Conference Center.

However, rally organizers gave a completely different reason for the change

According to a press release sent out by the Sheboygan Liberty Coalition, it’s because “The union thugs are hard at work in our own county. They threatened Ninos, where SLC and AFP had planned on holding their event today. The owner received so many calls including threats to shut their business down, that she canceled our event.”

Not so, Gabrielse said.

Though she did receive many calls Thursday from people on both sides of the political aisle, and some of them did threaten to never patronize Nino’s again, no one threatened her or restaurant, she said.

“I never got a call specifically at all from someone in a union saying they were going to shut me down,” she said. “We do not want to be seen as taking sides in political debate at all and that is what it appeared to be. If you want to have a rally, say that. If you want to have a dinner, say that.”

Oriannah Paul, one of the organizers of the Sheboygan Liberty Coalition, said the rally was moved because of the phone calls Nino’s management received, but “I don’t know if it was union people.”