That San Francisco Restaurant Was Right for Refusing Service to Three Police Officers
Even if the co-owners of Hilda and Jesse later backpedaled the eatery’s initial decision
This past Friday, the new brunch restaurant Hilda and Jesse in North Beach asked three uniformed, armed SF police officers to leave the establishment shortly after they were seated. The employees involved with serving the group were cited as being “uncomfortable with the presence of their multiple weapons,” presumably around the firearms that they were holstering. The incident appeared to have gone off without much offense; it was described that the officers peacefully left, without objection, by various sources.
Those restaurant employees had every right to feel uneasy — disorientated, anxious, unbalanced — in the presence of these weapons.
“At Hilda and Jesse, the restaurant is a safe space,” reads a now-deleted Instagram post published on the eatery’s official account. “The presence of the [officers’] weapons made us feel uncomfortable.” The officers would be welcome back to the restaurant in North Beach when they were off duty, out of uniform, and without their weapons, the post added.
