The Watkinsville, Ga., steakhouse Chops & Hops (pictured) came under fire Saturday for the shameless promotion of a new “black and blue” sandwich (pictured below) on their Facebook page that was inspired by Chris Brown beating Rihanna in 2009, reports the New York Daily News.
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The blue cheese steak sandwich that was depicted on the social networking site was accompanied by a caption that read:
“@chrisbrown, @rihanna and us teamed up for a [sic] award winning celebrity sandwich. Put your hands on this caribbean black and bleu sandwich. Chris Brown won’t beat you up for eating this unless your name starts with a R and ends with A.”
Word of the tasteless marketing ploy spread like wildfire. Locals as well as the public, who picked up the story from news outlets, began bombarding the establishment on Facebook and Twitter with comments about how insensitive they were being toward the issue of domestic violence.
In response, some blew off steam on Facebook:
“I have never heard of this place or the city it’s in seeing as though I’m from Chicago. I read this story on a national blog this morning. IF this company were really sorry about their comments, they’d have deleted the post, or at the ver…y least gone in an edited the description. But since NEITHER has happened, they are fine with using domestic violence as a selling point. Either way, even if I knew where this place was, I wouldn’t patronize it.”
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“Honestly the sandwich looks good and “Black and Blue” is a great name for it. However if you plan on bringing it back I might suggest you name it after an MMA fighter, or hockey player, or something, anything except a woman who was beaten.”
“Regardless of whether or not you agree that the unfortunate promotion was something to ‘harp on’ about, [sic] the fact that so many people have stated here that Chops and Hops have lost their business is DEFINITELY something the restaurant should be concerned about. You lose customers, you lose money. Making amends should be their number one priority. They should continue to address the concerns until people are satisfied. That’s how you make customers happy and keep business.”
Chops & Hops
The owners of C&H would like to make sure everyone knows that we and our staff DO NOT SUPPORT DOMESTIC VIOLENCE. Many of us have been affected by domestic violence in some manner and realize that this is no joke. We have been involved in fundraising for Project Safe Team 6 and we fully intend on donating proceeds (times 6 – in honor of Team 6) from the sales of the burger. C&H continues to strive for a community driven, family oriented, great food and great service environment. We will continue to be involved in our community fundraising and charities near and dear to our hearts.
Mychell Lang
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