Dear Friend of Fiola,

As you may have heard, Fiola has been in the news lately and not in a particularly helpful way. On Monday night, a group of protesters found out that Senator Ted Cruz was at the restaurant for dinner. A large group entered the restaurant suddenly and were joined by others already inside the restaurant who may have been patrons or protesters in waiting. Together they surrounded the senator’s table and chanted slogans at him and his wife. They were politically motivated, loud, and disruptive. They were also potentially a danger not only to the senator but to our other customers and to our property and so, as is our policy, our managers called the police and eventually escorted the senator outside away from the protesters when it was safe to do so.  We managed to hide him in the kitchen until the protesters left and he finished his dinner and left, thanking us for our hospitality.

We have no idea how the protesters knew to come to Fiola to protest, but some in the media have suggested that we intentionally leaked his presence to the protesters. How insane to imagine we choose to host an attack in our own restaurant!  As crazy as that idea is, the negative effects of the repetition of this false statement is unprecedented in our careers. We had to take down our social media temporarily because we received thousands of hateful comments.  Our reservation lines are inundated with calls from people who are taunting our staff and threatening to destroy our restaurant. Maria and I have personally received death threats. We would have never thought such a thing was possible in the restaurant business.

Fiola is being blamed simply for being the location for the attacks as if we ourselves were the attackers. While anyone may disagree with the politics of Senator Cruz or Senator Corey Booker or anyone else in the spotlight, we know you understand that we operate a restaurant in a city where politics is the main industry. We cannot stay open if we don’t welcome everyone regardless of party affiliation.  We take our hospitality seriously and dole it out generously to all comers.  Under difficult circumstances and without regard to who was being attacked, our staff did the best they could to handle a horrible situation that they, as hospitality professionals, were not prepared to handle and tried to offer the kind of care that any of you would like to be offered if you were in such a situation.  As always, we are proud of our team. 

And we want to make it crystal clear that would never participate in or would condone a protest of anyone of any political stripe inside one of our restaurants. 

We are now living in the aftermath of this PR disaster.  The restaurants will be getting security guards for the time being to avoid similar instances. We are re-training the staff at all our restaurants on what to do in the event this happens again. We are trying to run a restaurant that was besieged this week with the sort of vitriol that is the story of divided politics in America now.  It will be challenging, but we are not afraid of working hard, and our entire team is committed to coming back even stronger. We will come back no matter what it takes.

If you are receiving this email, you are a friend who comes to see us when you want a good meal and warm hospitality. You are a friend of Fiola, and we take that friendship very seriously too.  As a friend of Fiola, you may ask what you can do to help.

We are writing to explain what happened and with a request.  Simply, please come to Fiola now and through the Fall and holiday season. Not to the neglect of our other restaurants but to come with friends to enjoy the original Fiola soon.  As you know, our menus change daily and some amazing items are coming into season now. Please come celebrate the end of the rain (please!) with us, have a cocktail before heading to the Capital One Arena, or make jury duty less dreary by having a Presto lunch at the bar.  We promise that Fiola is better than ever, and with your support we will emerge from this challenge quickly.

Please contact our reservations team at [email protected] or visit www.fioladc.com, and we will welcome you with open arms.

From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you for allowing us to serve you over the years. Our most fervent desire is to be able to continue to do so for many more, and so we ask that you come back soon and show us your support now when our staff could really use it.

Sincerely,