SAN FRANCISCO—On July 28, the owner of Trattoria Pinocchio, a Sicilian restaurant in North Beach, posted a series of signs in the restaurant’s window causing controversy throughout the neighborhood.
The signs, written in English and Italian, question the gender of the former First Lady Michelle Obama and call San Francisco a “cesspool.”
The owner of the restaurant told KRON 4 he is going to leave the city because its leaders are failing him.
The president of the North Beach Business Association, Dan Macchiariani said the signs were “clearly racist and bigoted” and the owner of the restaurant is known to be “intolerant.”
Aaron Peskin, who serves District 3 on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, told KRON 4: “The owner of this establishment is known by all local residents to be unhinged. Nobody in the neighborhood is sad to see him go.”
David Essling, a resident of the Neighborhood, said “it’s definitely bizarre […] I don’t know what his point is per say.”
Another resident interviewed told KRON 4, “This isn’t representative of North Beach as a community and a neighborhood, so if you do walk by maybe look away.”
The local restaurant is closing because of the economic insecurity of the COVID-19 pandemic and the owner is leaving San Francisco.
The door of the restaurant was vandalized on July 29 asking the owner to stop talking.
