So, how about that Heine Brothers?

[Robin Garr]

I'm sure most of you already know about the controversy involving Heine Brothers Coffee in the past couple of days: Co-founder and president Mike Mays instructed baristas to take down Black Lives Matter and Breonna Taylor signs; the employees raised public hell, and Mike apologized and walked it back in a couple of steps, ending up with the graphics post below.

What do you think? I've known Mike for a long time since the second Heine's shop opened in our neighborhood about 25 years ago. It really doesn't seem like his style, to the extent that I wonder if the force behind it came from co-owner Chuck Schnatter, "Papa John"'s brother. Just my theory, nothing I've heard or read.

So what do you think? Most of the 200-plus replies on Heine's apology are supportive, but many more are not, and some are threatening to take their business elsewhere. Do you think the apology (and Mike's $900 donation to Black Lives Matter that followed) was enough?

Here's the link to the post and comments:
https://www.facebook.com/HeineBrothersC ... =3&theater

And here's the image:

Heine Bros' apology

mikemays.png (394.88 KiB) Viewed 1828 times

Letting people learn and correct themselves is more important than eternal punishment, so I'm good with the reverse-course. It won't affect me much since it's maybe my 4th choice when it comes to coffee, but it's still good.

I'll go back when they open a retail shop west of 9th street. That's my metric.