After toying with the idea of closing indefinitely, the University of Arizona area restaurant Cup It Up American Grill will open on Saturday afternoon after facing widespread condemnation for a politically-charged Facebook post Friday afternoon.
Owner Christopher Smith said they would open at 1 p.m., two hours after their posted opening time. Hours earlier, he said they would close in the wake of widespread calls to boycott the restaurant after he and co-owner Jay Warren announced on Facebook that they would not broadcast NFL games to protest players kneeling during the National Anthem. The post also outlined where they stood on political issues that included supporting President Donald Trump.
"It’s hate feedback and it's for one reason only and it’s that we showed our support for Donald Trump," Smith said Saturday morning. "There was nothing that we put in the post that was absolutely wrong and terrible in that we supported our president and our troops.”
Meanwhile, Cup It Up operating partner Julian Alarcon said he has resigned. He said he is working with an attorney and his partners to legally untangle himself from the restaurant at 760 N. Tyndall Ave.
"This is just the first step of me removing myself from this company," he said Saturday morning after spending hours Friday night reaching out to diners, investors, employees and customers.
Alarcon, the architect of the restaurant's multilayered meals in a cup menu, was not involved in the Facebook posting and learned of it from a friend an hour after it was up, he said.
"I don’t know the reasoning for this," he said, adding that the business since moving near the UA had been good. “We catered to several teams at the UA plus the Alumni Association just picked us up as their preferred caterer this year. With all this coming on board with us, we were ecstatic."
Alarcon did not know how or if the Facebook post would impact those relationships on campus.
Cup It Up's Facebook post went up just before noon Friday and was immediately met with backlash. In addition to nixing NFL broadcasts, the owners outlined where they stood on political issues that included supporting President Donald Trump, the repeal of Obamacare and drug screening for welfare recipients and opposing global warming, fake news and political correctness.
The post also encouraged people who agreed with the restaurant's position to share it with five friends "and we look forward to your next visit." Those who disagreed were invited to "share it with 100 friends and we won't be expecting you anytime soon."
The post was removed around 3 p.m. and by late Friday, the restaurant's 4.9 star rating on Facebook had dropped to two stars. By Saturday morning, the Cup It Up Facebook had been deleted.
"Even people who gave us five stars in the past removed their posts," Alarcon said.
Smith said it was not their intention to alienate their customers.
"Our intentions were never to do harm to anybody or rile anybody up," he said. "But everybody calling us racists, supremacists and Nazis — that's absurd and out of line.”
"There was a lot of hurtful things that people said to us," he added. "All they know is that we supported Donald Trump. They don’t know me or my family."
The Pima County Republican Party on Saturday morning took to Facebook to encourage people to support Cup It Up. The party invited people to the restaurant from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 7.
"Those who hate and disparage freedom that was fought for by many in behalf of ALL and represented by our United States Flag must not be heard louder than you," Ana Henderson, first vice chairman of the Pima GOP, wrote. "Those who 'take a knee' and lash out in our community at our freedom must witness our strength and our voice in our community. Do not surrender to enslavement. Stand together now — stand with me!"
Neither she nor Pima GOP Chairman David Eppihimer could not be reached Saturday to comment.
Cup it Up opened in early 2016 at 1101 N. Wilmot Road near East Speedway, a location they now use for catering. They moved to the North Tyndall Avenue space, in the shadow of the UA, in April.
