David Rasavong closes his restaurant after being unjustly accused of "serving dog meat" in false online reviews. Now, he has started anew and, stronger than ever, opening the new "Love & Thai."
AP Photo (Richard Vogel)
The News
One evening in May, David Rasavong first noticed strange reviews about his Fresno restaurant. Having just put his children to bed, he saw several Google user profiles talking about "dog meat" related to his gastronomic offering. Initially, he simply reported them to Google before going to sleep.
The next morning, Rasavong found his Yelp, Facebook, and Instagram accounts, plus his restaurant's email, flooded with dozens of fierce reviews and comments, as reported by Business Insider: "Disgusting." "How could you?" "Guys, you should be arrested." From then on, everyone accused the restaurant of killing dogs, then selling and serving their meat. Rasavong soon discovered that an alleged animal rights activist had turned to social media to insinuate that a dog tied up in the nearby house would be served on the Tasty Thai restaurant menu.
A few days after the accusation, based on the racist stereotype of Asians consuming such meat, Rasavong reluctantly closed his restaurant, which had opened just seven months earlier as a tribute to his parents. He no longer felt safe, with a continuous flow of harassment and people lingering outside the sign. "Naively, I thought we could talk sensibly to people," Rasavong said. "But when I started answering calls, I was told, 'Go back to your country, you're disgusting. You're all dog eaters.'" Online, some wrote, "This is why I don't eat at Chinese restaurants." The insinuations did not stop there. After Tasty Thai received a barrage of negative reviews, Rasavong said that even a handful of other Asian restaurants in the area began receiving phone calls and verbal attacks. "All of this broke my heart."
But fortunately, the story took a positive turn after a brief pause to "digest" what had happened. In November, Rasavong reopened his restaurant with a new name: Love & Thai. "The name means a lot to us. It's the way I pay tribute to my parents." This time, the restaurateur was surprised and encouraged by the support from the surrounding community. A mural in the new restaurant, painted by local artist Hana Luna Her, depicts Rasavong's mother when she was young, dressed in traditional Laotian clothes. It is next to an elephant, the national animal of Laos, and vast rice fields that blend with the Golden Gate Bridge, where Rasavong's parents emigrated in 1981; Fresno, where the restaurant is located, is also featured. Above the mural are the words "Spread love."
"We believe this is the most important thing. There is too much hatred and mutual anger nowadays," he observes bitterly. "I want people to continue supporting each other, giving each other the benefit of the doubt before believing things based on stereotypes. Only then will we all live in a better world."
