The bar made the call to, well, bar the piece of apparel in a Facebook post Saturday. "After much consternation and consideration and to maintain a ‘classy environment,' Replay Lincoln Park has implemented a new and strictly enforced dress code. No face tattoos, no specific hats, please see below. Let's keep it classy Chicago. Sincerely, management. Replay Lincoln Park," the establishment posted on social media.
Below the message can be found images of a man with tattoos on his face and another of a MAGA hat.
In other words, supporters of 45 just got 86'd.
Perhaps owner Mark Kwiatkowski just wanted to make bars great again? "I was just frustrated and I just kind of wanted to make somewhat of a statement," Kwiatkowski told NBC 5. "I felt like we did have an opportunity to say something that might draw some attention to this ugliness."
After some blowback online, the owner agreed to allow MAGA hat wearers in under conditions of "extreme vetting," a reference to Trump's calls to subject immigrants to harsher reviews following a terrorist attack in New York City that killed 8 in late October 2017.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 1, 2017
"I think what we would do is kindly ask them to remove [the hat] but we would let them in certainly and maybe have an opportunity to discuss all of this and see their opinions," Kwiatkowski said. Later, the bar posted a shout-out to Red Hen, a restaurant in Virginia that drew headlines after denying service to White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders last Friday.
The move is reminiscent of a recent legal case in New York City. The bizarre saga began when Trump supporter Greg Piatek claimed to have been kicked out of a bar for wearing a MAGA hat and sued the establishment. However, Manhattan Judge David Cohen wasn't hearing his argument that the bar had discriminated against him by violating his spiritual beliefs.
The judge tossed the case after the West Village bar's lawyer, Elizabeth Conway, made the incontrovertible assessment that "Supporting Trump is not a religion."
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