SALEM, ORE. (AP) — It’s hard to miss Epilogue Kitchen and Cocktails when walking through Salem’s downtown district. Taped to its windows are tons of signs, some of them handmade. They read: “Black Lives Matter” and “No Place For Hate.”
There are large portraits of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, and in chalk marker, the names of dozens of other people killed by police in recent years.
There’s also a small cardboard sign that reads: “VACCINES REQUIRED FOR SEATED DINING.”
Despite that sign, and despite having a reservation at a different Salem restaurant, Naomi Wolf, in late June, walked into Epilogue and argued at length with staff about their indoor dining rule.
“So she walked by, saw our signs — she decided that that meant that she needed to cause a scene,” said co-owner Jonathan Jones.
Wolf was once a well-known feminist author — she wrote the 1990 bestseller “The Beauty Myth” and advised Bill Clinton and Al Gore — who in recent years garnered online attention for spreading misinformation about the coronavirus. Her Twitter account has been disabled, but she continues to use other social media alternatives, including one targeted to American conservatives called Gettr.
That’s where she posted two videos of her late June encounter with staff at Epilogue. In one of them, two employees repeatedly ask Wolf to leave. One points to the vaccines-required sign, and they ask why Wolf decided to violate that boundary by coming inside and arguing with staff anyway.
“Well, I mean, first of all, a lot of people in this nation’s history pushed boundaries like that,” Wolf says in the video. “And it turned out to be the right thing to do.”
Speaking to one of Epilogue’s Black employees, Wolf goes on to say the indoor dining rule is “absolutely discrimination.” (By law, discrimination is prejudice or bias against a protected class of people with regards to their race, age, gender, sexual preferences, or disability status. Legally speaking, COVID-19 vaccine status doesn’t put someone into a protected class of people.)
Epilogue also offers outdoor seating for people who can’t provide proof of vaccination.
Another video shows Jones telling Wolf that she’s been banned from the restaurant because of the way she treated his staff.
“You have been officially 86’d. If you ever come back, you will be trespassing,” Jones says.
Wolf responds: “Well, I’m only trespassing if I enter,” while appearing to stand on the sidewalk in front of Epilogue’s front doors, near its outdoor seating area.
Wolf didn’t respond to OPB’s requests for comment.
Wolf’s videos on Gettr have hundreds of comments from people rallying to harass the restaurant. Several of them make fun of Jones’ appearance and call for violence against him. And many more call on the crowd to leave negative reviews on the website’s various online profiles. That’s when its ratings on Google and Yelp plummeted.
