The Lincoln Cafe on East Long Street made national headlines this week, but not for good reasons. A Columbus Police officer was injured by glass shards in a sandwich from the cafe. While the officer was treated and released, and the police department and health department issued statements that the accident was not intentional, the story went viral and many angry internet commenters bombed the Facebook and Yelp pages of the cafe to vent their outrage.
The owners of the cafe kept fairly quiet in the media during the days that followed the incident, but took to Facebook yesterday morning to address concerns. The following message was posted by the cafe:
“This week our café experienced a terrible turn of events. We would like to first assure the public that our establishment is and always will be a safe place for EVERYONE to enjoy a meal.
We are a small café located in the same building as the Columbus Police Department, therefore, most of our patrons are officers. Many of these officers we know by name and they know us. At the Lincoln Café, we have always had a positive relationship with the CPD. The Lincoln Café supports all first responders. Our hearts are heavy over this unfortunate accident.
Moving forward, we have taken all precautions to ensure that our kitchen is safe and orderly to avoid any future incidents. Our staff has been trained on kitchen safety and we are now establishing new procedures in our kitchen to increase that level of safety. We value ALL customers and want to provide you with a comfortable dining experience.
We want to assure everyone that we are still OPEN for business and still serving our patrons in BLUE. We welcome everyone to experience our café.”
The managers of the Lincoln Cafe’s Facebook page appear to have deleted old posts that contained a lot of the backlash from Facebook users all over the US who read the article and deemed the cafe guilty of intentionally harming a police officer, often injecting racist remarks toward the African American owners of the business. The review section of their Facebook page still contains over 800 one-star reviews, the vast majority added during this past week. The Yelp page has an “Active Cleanup Alert” in effect, but still contains over 60 single-star reviews, also mostly added this past week by users from outside Central Ohio.
