Brooklyn Kosher Cafe Owner Gets ‘Outpouring of Support’ After Erroneous Fine

Video: watch video below  Owner was interviewed on the Tucker Carlson show

 Hamodia  - A kosher café owner who received a wrongful summons from New York City amid the state’s controversial COVID shutdown, has experienced a national outpouring of support. Mixed Greens Café, on Coney Island Avenue and Avenue V in Brooklyn’s Homecrest neighborhood, was open Tuesday for takeout and delivery only, as required for restaurants in a “red zone” hotspot, when a man in plainclothes entered at 3:30 p.m., store owner Jacob Green told Hamodia Wednesday evening. 

The man asked if he could sit down and eat, but Jacob’s cousin Mike Green, the manager who was in the store at the time, said the store was only open for takeout and delivery. The man then identified himself as an officer of the City Department of Consumer Affairs, and proceeded to write the store a summons for keeping its doors open. The store manager, Jacob’s cousin Mike Green, can be heard pleading with the officer, “I’m struggling here every single day. It’s hard for me. There was nobody inside the store, obviously, because we don’t have dining, we only have takeout. There was nobody in the store and I’m only getting a ticket because my doors are open?”

As Mike makes his case, the officer says, “I’m not here to argue; I’m just reporting.” The summons said the business was being cited because it “failed to keep the store closed for pedestrian and customer traffic.” Several hours later, Mike got in touch with City Councilman Chaim Deutsch, who reached out to the City Health Department about the incident. “The Health Department said they had to reach out to the restaurant inspectors and could not give them an answer on the spot,” Deutsch recalled, in an interview with Hamodia Wednesday evening. “But the Health Department is an agency that works with other agencies to put together these guidelines, and if they don’t have an answer on the spot, how are business owners supposed to know the guidelines?” On Tuesday evening, Deutsch tweeted video of Mike’s exchange with the inspector, writing, “Why would anyone want to open a business in NYC??” The video also went viral on several popular social-media accounts. Before long, Mixed Greens began hearing from people near and far, outraged at the incident. “We had a tremendous amount of support,” Jacob said. After Deutsch and other social-media accounts tweeted a link to Mixed Greens’ website, “people from across the country started ordering food, and said we should give it to homeless people.”