For those that aren’t aware, when Human Robot opened earlier this year, they did so in collaboration with Poe’s Restaurant. If you have never been to the location, Poe’s offers a menu of food from a separately owned and operated kitchen located inside the brewery.
According to a report from Philly Magazine, Poe’s recently published that they would start refusing service to local police in response to current events.
It all began when the “sandwich joint” as they are referred to posted the following through their Instagram stories:
The post reads “We will be open 11AM – curfew to serve civilians only”.
The report goes on to say that an Instagram user responded to the post with the following question:
“Are police officers allowed to purchase ur food yes or no?”
To which owner N.A. Poe (a.k.a. Richard Tamaccio Jr.) responded:
“If police in uniform came to the window and tried to order, I’d use my right as a small business owner to not serve them,” replied Poe.
The author of the Philly Magazine report reached out to Poe directly who responded with the following:
“I am not serving food to cops during the occupation of Philadelphia,” he told me. “I realize I am not being a good businessman. I am being an activist, and this is a battleground. They can troll the fuck out of me all they want. But what side of history do you want to be on? I want to be on the side that believes that people shouldn’t be murdered — and that people shouldn’t be teargassed when we say those murders aren’t right. I’m going to stand my ground.”
We spoke with Human Robot Brewing regarding the matter, who has the below statement regarding the situation:
Although Human Robot shares a space with Poe’s Sandwich Joint we do not agree with his post or policy. We understand Poe’s anger and message, and agree to disagree.
We do not believe in discrimination and simply feel that making broad generalizations is part of the problem. We believe that Black Lives Matter and demand an end to systemic racism immediately.
We offer Human Robot as a place to have positive discussions among the entire Human Community over a beer.
As of this writing, Poe’s has not published any further updates regarding the matter. As more information becomes available we will share.
