No soup for Washington, 'Soup Nazi' restaurant changes its name following outcry

Andrew Ho has been planning to open a new restaurant in Everett, WA, under the name 'The Soup Nazi Kitchen'  by next month. On Tuesday afternoon, the restaurant’s sign was installed and featured the name as well as a cartoon character holding a ladle and a whip. The restaurant's website featured a different cartoon in a full Nazi uniform.

By the next morning, someone had vandalized the building with spray-paint and shoot out the windows with a BB gun.

The name was intended as a reference to the 'Soup Nazi' episode of Seinfeld, which aired in 1995.  Ho claimed on his website that he owns the trademark to the name. The website even parodied the ordering style of the fan favorite episode.

Following an outcry on social media, Ho tried to temper down the outrage through his online blog, but only managed to fan the flames further. In the blog, Ho admits he was trying to be provocative and that it does not bother him that he is offending anyone.

"I’m not responsible for other people’s feelings, only my own. The moment you become responsible for other people’s feeling is when you stop being responsible for your own feelings. And that’s not a healthy way to live."

Ho wrote on the site that he was being provocative to "help put an end to tyranny," and added "businesses need to push back before everyone and everything is cancelled." He compared his efforts to the Chinese Cultural Revolution and said "people were sent to education camps for cooking and eating the politically incorrect meal. Appeasing the mob won’t make the situation better, it emboldens the mob to ask for more concessions until there’s nothing left."

Ho also discussed possibly attracting white supremacists on the site and if white supremacy is on the rise, to which he answered "No, White supremacy is not on the rise. Nationalism — wrongly conflated with White supremacy — everywhere is on the rise, which is a reasonable response to globalism, the rule of transnational corporations with the US as its private security force."

Ho added that he might change the name of the restaurant to 'The Soup SJW (Social Justice Warrior) Kitchen.' In another blog post he discussed alternative names such as 'Soup Lenin Kitchen' and 'Soup Mao Kitchen.'

Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin posted a thread to Twitter to address the restaurant’s name. "The City of Everett is a Safe City and strives to be inclusive and welcoming for all residents and visitors. Unfortunately, recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions have greatly restricted the City’s authority to regulate the wording of signs and largely prohibits the City from banning signs based on the hateful or offensive wording in that sign."

She added, "we strongly urge and prefer that our businesses not use hateful, culturally-insensitive, derogatory or offensive wording or images in their signage or business materials. We will continue to look into this and hope to work in partnership with our business community to ensure all our residents feel safe."

In other blog posts, Ho uses other racial slurs and discusses his own conspiracy theories with regard to the coronavirus and calls Dr. Anthony Fauci a fraud.

Ho has also authored several books which appear to be self published and include the titles "How to Cook Like a Racist: in the age of identity politics" and "How to look f***able while pregnant."

Ho told the Everett Herald that he had invested $100,000 in the restaurant so far which included 100 red 'The Soup Kitchen Nazi' T-shirts he planned to sell.

By Wednesday afternoon, Ho had blacked out the word ‘Nazi’ on the sign and removed it from his blog.

In his blog, Ho claimed he removed the word because "The sign was putting neighbors in danger — there was a drive by shooting and graffiti last night — and we don’t need police officers getting hurt if a mob shows up. I feel bad about inconveniencing people and grateful that my neighbors are so patient with me."