Multi-concept operator Scott Weiner says one of the first rules of Restaurant 101 is never talk politics.
But Weiner, co-founder of Chicago’s Fifty/50 Restaurant Group, acknowledges he is violating that commandment this month.
His West Town Bakery & Diner announced this week it would be selling “Go Vote Smash Cakes” featuring less-than-flattering images of President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, with a “generous portion” of proceeds from each cake going to benefit an ACLU of Illinois voter initiative.
Plus, Weiner’s restaurant group is closing all its locations for a couple of hours during the afternoon of Nov. 3, so employees have time to vote.
“I think my employees appreciate that they have an idea of where we stand,” Weiner said. “I’ve voted for both parties over the years, and I can tell you that, during the debates, I wish I had something to smash … To me, this election is more important than it’s ever been.”
This is a rare time in which Weiner’s business has taken a political stand. Early on in the pandemic, the group’s Roots Pizza concept sold cookies featuring infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci next to Trump with the words, “I’m with stupid.”
“We sent out an email blast to 100,000 people on our list and I got two or three people who were like, ‘Screw you; I’m never ordering from you again,’” Weiner said.
There’s little debate that November’s presidential election is as contentious as any in modern history. And restaurant operators large and small are taking note, even though many are still adhering to that Restaurant 101 adage and are opting to remain neutral. Nevertheless, they’re offering employees paid time off to vote, selling voting-related merchandise and are hosting get-out-the-vote drives in their stores.
A few recent examples:
Washington, D.C.-based pizza concept &pizza, well known for its support of progressive causes, added voter registration portals to its stores and website last month. &pizza previously announced it would close all units on Election Day and would give workers paid time off to vote.
Starbucks earlier this week announced a partnership with Lyft to give all of its employees a free, one-way ride (up to $75) to go vote, volunteer as a poll worker or drop off a ballot. The coffee giant previously created an online portal for employees with information on voter registration, as well as adding voting resources to the chain’s app.
Last month, Noodles & Co. said it would give workers an hour of paid time off to vote in the presidential election.
This year, Chipotle Mexican Grill launched its “first comprehensive get-out-the-vote program that includes internal and external components,” according to a spokesperson for the fast-casual chain.
In 2016, Chipotle hosted an episode on its weekly Snapchat series about the presidential election. In 2018, the chain changed its Twitter handle to “Chi-Vote-Lay” during the mid-term elections.
“At Chipotle, we know voting is one of our most powerful expressions of freedom,” the spokesperson said via email. “Unfortunately, voter participation in our country is low, and we want to use our platform and massive community of Rewards members to promote real voter action during this critical election year.”
Chipotle is seeing strong consumer response to its efforts.
The chain launched a line of Chi-Vote-Le T-shirts, which sold out within two hours of launching on the Chipotle Goods Site. More than 1,100 people registered to vote on Chipotle’s TurboVote site within a day of the T-shirt rollout, the company said.
Chipotle is paying for up to two hours of voting time for its employees who are scheduled to work on Election Day.
For its part, the brand said it is staying out of politics so as not to tune out any of its customers.
“Our CHI-VOTE-LE platform is simply about encouraging our fans to register to vote and participate in the election,” the company said. “This bipartisan approach ensures we are connecting with fans across different political parties.”
The business case for a restaurant’s political involvement is still a bit murky.
About 30% of young consumers, aged 18 to 34, and 46% of those over 35 said they don’t want to see restaurants get involved in the country’s recent protests over racial equality, according to Q3 data from Restaurant Business sister company, data firm Technomic.
Fifteen percent of younger consumers and just 7% of older ones said they would like to see restaurants offer paid-time off for employees wanting to demonstrate activism in response to the civil unrest, Technomic found.
In 2017, a Technomic survey found that 53% of consumers would visit a chain more often if it was identified as being “very conservative” politically. Just 29% of consumers surveyed said the same about a chain that was identified as being “very liberal,” according to the research firm.
Wings Over, a 36-unit chain based in New York City, created PTO policy to allow for voting as well as community activism, allowing employees to get up to four hours a year to vote, protest or do “something they believe in,” CEO Dan Leyva said.
“Our employees, they live on tight budgets, they work two jobs sometimes,” Leyva said. “We didn’t want anyone to have to choose. We didn’t want anyone to have to decide between coming to work and going to vote. We don’t have any political agenda.”
In Atlanta, Matt Weyandt, co-founder of Xocolatl Small Batch Chocolate, launched the Staff the Polls Initiative to urge restaurants and other food industry leaders to offer paid time off to employees to vote or staff the polls.
“The group we’re working with is friends of ours, other small businesses, restaurants and bakeries. We’re all part of this local food community,” said Weyandt, who served as campaign manager for the late Rep. John Lewis in 2012. “The local food communities are really tied to the rest of the community, through farmers’ markets, through our customers, through staff. We’re directly impacted by things that happen around us.”
FREDERICTON – A look at Blaine Higgs, leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick.
Born: March 1, 1954.
Early years: The son of a customs officer, he grew up in Forest City, N.B., near the Canada-U.S. border.
Education: Graduated from the University of New Brunswick with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1977.
Family: Married his high-school sweetheart, Marcia, and settled in Saint John, N.B., where they had four daughters: Lindsey, Laura, Sarah and Rachel.
Before politics: Hired by Irving Oil a week after he graduated from university and was eventually promoted to director of distribution. Worked for 33 years at the company.
Politics: Elected to the legislature in 2010 and later served as finance minister under former Progressive Conservative Premier David Alward. Elected Tory leader in 2016 and has been premier since 2018.
Quote: “I’ve always felt parents should play the main role in raising children. No one is denying gender diversity is real. But we need to figure out how to manage it.” — Blaine Higgs in a year-end interview in 2023, explaining changes to school policies about gender identity.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
GATINEAU, Que. – Treasury Board President Anita Anand will take on the additional role of transport minister this afternoon, after Pablo Rodriguez resigned from cabinet to run for the Quebec Liberal leadership.
A government source who was not authorized to speak publicly says Anand will be sworn in at a small ceremony at Rideau Hall.
Public Services and Procurement Minister Jean-Yves Duclos will become the government’s new Quebec lieutenant, but he is not expected to be at the ceremony because that is not an official role in cabinet.
Rodriguez announced this morning that he’s leaving cabinet and the federal Liberal caucus and will sit as an Independent member of Parliament until January.
That’s when the Quebec Liberal leadership race is set to officially begin.
Rodriguez says sitting as an Independent will allow him to focus on his own vision, but he plans to vote with the Liberals on a non-confidence motion next week.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
FREDERICTON – New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs has called an election for Oct. 21, signalling the beginning of a 33-day campaign expected to focus on pocketbook issues and the government’s provocative approach to gender identity policies.
The 70-year-old Progressive Conservative leader, who is seeking a third term in office, has attracted national attention by requiring teachers to get parental consent before they can use the preferred names and pronouns of young students.
More recently, however, the former Irving Oil executive has tried to win over inflation-weary voters by promising to lower the provincial harmonized sales tax by two percentage points to 13 per cent if re-elected.
At dissolution, the Conservatives held 25 seats in the 49-seat legislature. The Liberals held 16 seats, the Greens had three and there was one Independent and four vacancies.
J.P. Lewis, a political science professor at the University of New Brunswick, said the top three issues facing New Brunswickers are affordability, health care and education.
“Across many jurisdictions, affordability is the top concern — cost of living, housing prices, things like that,” he said.
Richard Saillant, an economist and former vice-president of Université de Moncton, said the Tories’ pledge to lower the HST represents a costly promise.
“I don’t think there’s that much room for that,” he said. “I’m not entirely clear that they can do so without producing a greater deficit.” Saillant also pointed to mounting pressures to invest more in health care, education and housing, all of which are facing increasing demands from a growing population.
Higgs’s main rivals are Liberal Leader Susan Holt and Green Party Leader David Coon. Both are focusing on economic and social issues.
Holt has promised to impose a rent cap and roll out a subsidized school food program. The Liberals also want to open at least 30 community health clinics over the next four years.
Coon has said a Green government would create an “electricity support program,” which would give families earning less than $70,000 annually about $25 per month to offset “unprecedented” rate increases.
Higgs first came to power in 2018, when the Tories formed the province’s first minority government in 100 years. In 2020, he called a snap election — the first province to go to the polls after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — and won a majority.
Since then, several well-known cabinet ministers and caucus members have stepped down after clashing with Higgs, some of them citing what they described as an authoritarian leadership style and a focus on policies that represent a hard shift to the right side of the political spectrum.
Lewis said the Progressive Conservatives are in the “midst of reinvention.”
“It appears he’s shaping the party now, really in the mould of his world views,” Lewis said. “Even though (Progressive Conservatives) have been down in the polls, I still think that they’re very competitive.”
Meanwhile, the legislature remained divided along linguistic lines. The Tories dominate in English-speaking ridings in central and southern parts of the province, while the Liberals held most French-speaking ridings in the north.
The drama within the party began in October 2022 when the province’s outspoken education minister, Dominic Cardy, resigned from cabinet, saying he could no longer tolerate the premier’s leadership style. In his resignation letter, Cardy cited controversial plans to reform French-language education. The government eventually stepped back those plans.
A series of resignations followed last year when the Higgs government announced changes to Policy 713, which now requires students under 16 who are exploring their gender identity to get their parents’ consent before teachers can use their preferred first names or pronouns — a reversal of the previous practice.
When several Tory lawmakers voted with the opposition to call for an external review of the change, Higgs dropped dissenters from his cabinet. And a bid by some party members to trigger a leadership review went nowhere.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
