Rollercoaster of Emotions: r/Bellingham restaurant is resurrected... by a Trump supporter

Context: /r/Bellingham is the subreddit for the city of Bellingham, Washington, USA. Bayou on Bay was a restaurant located downtown that offered New Orleans style French Cajun meals, oysters, frog legs, gumbo, stuff like that. It was pretty beloved by locals but unfortunately had to close ~2 months ago. I don't know why, but this post has some speculation and people mostly refer to higher insurance & repair costs for the space the restaurant was in.

As a local, I think it's important to note that while the restaurant wasn't particularly loved (*edit: for quality, moreso for its uniqueness and being different), people mostly saw it closing as a sign of the times.

4 days ago, a family known as the "Painter family" announced through Bayou's Instagram and FB that they would be buying the restaurant. See here for the repost to the Bellingham subreddit and further discussion. Not a whole lot of drama (yet)

In the past 24 hours, redditors soon discovered the personal accounts of this "Painter family" and were shocked to discover that the patriarch, Ryan Painter, was posting some pretty hateful things on his Instagram, which sparked a shitload of drama for such a small sub.

Drama Post 1: Sad News 2 (This is a repost / update (?) to a post that was removed by the mods before I could save the link)

The post is a screenshot of Ryan Painter's Instagram showing an AI image of Kamala Harris eating 5 hot dogs, with the caption:

Hot Dog Harris isn't a DEI hire. She earned her way up thru the old fashioned way. A lot of sacrifice and hard work

Dramatic threads:

I don't usually let politics dictate where I'm going to eat, but this post is gross.

...

And buy the groceries from… Fred Meyer? Haggen? Safeway? Heck, even a lot of the higher ups at the Food Co Op. If you spend enough energy looking for MAGA CEO's and Owners, you'll be shocked to find that it's a huge percentage of them. Let's try not to shit on others for not protesting the way we want them to.

She was possibly the worst presidential candidate ever.

No, she's was definitely not as bad of a candidate as the corrupt hateful billionaire who hung with Epstein a shit ton and tried to overturn the previous election and told specific Americans that he hates them on social media.

Jesus. Who cares. Move on with your life and live it without constantly worrying about what others are doing. Especially people that aren't even in a position of power or authority.

I don't like wasting water on weeds in my garden pal, just because you don't care doesn't mean others don't. You chose to stop and comment instead of moving on :)

I'm all for voting with your wallet, however I'm still a bit perplexed by all the hate for wanting America to be great again?

Can someone explain it to my less than knowledgeable smooth brain... For the record, I immigranted from Scotland a couple years ago, and wasn't legally allowed to vote until a month or so ago... I want to understand the hatred, because freedom of speech isn't a thing everywhere...

When was America great, and what made it great?

Drama Post 2: Bayou facebook page comments scrubbed

Looks like Bayou on Bay's Facebook admin deleted all of the critical comments, as well as the son's and daughter's pleas for leniency toward their hotdog-loving father. There was a pretty hefty pile of comments and dialog late last night, but I can't find it now. Thought I'd say something, because the original subreddit thread is getting a little buried.

Dramatic threads:

Full screenshots of Austin Painter (Ryan's son) talking about his father

This is some mealy mouth both sides bullshit. F**k these people.

Maybe business owners should keep their personal opinions and beliefs separate from their business ventures. Frick Bayou for its subpar food quality.

They aren't bad people just because they don't think the same as you, you are sounding awfully like a nazi

Classic centrist pretending to be a leftist move 🤡 thanks for the update.

Centrism absolutely deserves its criticisms but I don't think this is a good example of dumb centrist bullshit, which I think is why you're being downmarseyd.

Maybe think of the workers who take a job because they need money?

SURPRISE MORE DRAMA when it is discovered that the Painter family set up a "Rock & Rye LLC" which is the same name as an entirely unrelated Rock and Rye Oyster company also located downtown. The real life Rock & Rye has the business name but their legal company name is different.

Drama Post 3: Rock & Rye Oyster House confirms they are NOT Rock & Rye LLC associated with Painter family

From the screenshotted Instagram post:

We've recently been made aware that an LLC using the name "Rock & Rye" was formed by an individual with no involvement to our restaurant. We do not know the reason for this and understand the confusion, as we share it.

Rock & Rye remains fully owned and operated by Algonquin Enterprises and has since 2013. While we do business as Rock and Rye Oyster house, that is not the legal name of our business. There is no connection between our restaurant and any actions or online content associated with this other party. Rock & Rye continues to uphold its long-standing values of inclusion, respect, and hospitality.

We're grateful for your continued trust and support. Thanks!

Unfortunately, not a lot of drama in the threads but I do think it's a crazy turn of events that this family, now embroiled in drama, holds the legal rights to the same name as a business that serves a directly competing food item? That's frickin nuts.

https://old.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/1jnxyzu/rollercoaster_of_emotions_rbellingham_restaurant/