Locals are being asked to boycott a teriyaki joint in Washington after a sheriff reported that the restaurant told law enforcement they were not welcome.
“I am not often speechless but today I was advised of an incident at the Lucky Teriyaki restaurant in Sedro-Woolley that completely took me by surprise,” Sheriff Will Reichardt began in a Facebook post on July 14.
The post says officers were told three separate times that their business was not welcome and to spread the word.
The first instance occurred when two deputies went up to pay for their meal, during which time the owner requested that they not eat there anymore. The chief deputy, taken aback by what he heard, spoke to the owner for confirmation and received the same message. The owner then repeated the request to the chief while asking that the word be spread to other law enforcement. The owner told them that customers found the presence of law enforcement in the restaurant uncomfortable.
Mr Li, the owner of Lucky Teriyaki, is now attributing the incident to a language misunderstanding. Both the owner and his son are Chinese, and the pair say their intent was lost in translation.
The restaurant had been receiving a lot of calls from angry English-speaking customers, to which the son normally responded “ok” without fully understanding, Mr Li told a KIRO 7 reporter through a interpreter.
Mr Li, who was noted as being visibly emotional, added that he appreciates law enforcement and all the work that they do. He invited all officers to eat for free at the restaurant on Monday.
