It wasn't bad coffee or poor service that led to a flood of negative online reviews for a Conway restaurant Sunday. Instead, users on a popular online review website denounced Mean Bean Cafe for hosting a white supremacist meeting.
Owner Dawnel Verkler said a longtime employee at the business on Dave Ward Drive near the University of Central Arkansas asked if the restaurant could be used after hours for a "political meeting of a conservative group."
Verkler said she questioned the employee about the nature of the meeting before leaving town for the weekend.
"We were assured that no extremist or other hateful views would be exchanged," Verkler said in a statement on the restaurant's Facebook page.
But photos from the Saturday meeting were posted online. They showed men holding up a flag emblazoned with a red-and-black Swastika and wearing patches with other apparent Neo-Nazi symbols.
Verkler told Arkansas Online she isn't sure exactly what happened, but she thinks the photos appeared on a political website before spreading to the restaurant's Facebook page and then onto Yelp, a crowd-sourcing review website.
The images have been deleted from the restaurant's Facebook page, but they still show up on Yelp, along with more than a dozen fiercely negative reviews referencing the meeting.
"If you're ever looking for the perfect place to hold a White Nationalist meeting, look no further. The hate flows just as pure as the coffee at the Mean Bean," one review read.
"Good food, but not worth having to sit with nazis," another read.
Verkler said she doesn't have a Yelp account and rarely uses social media, so she didn't find out about the posts until she began receiving phone calls from friends.
"I was disgusted and appalled," Verkler said. "We were led to believe it was a completely different situation. Had I been in town, that would not have been allowed."
Verkler posted two statements on the restaurant's Facebook page to explain her position.
"We in NO WAY support the group that held a meeting at the cafe yesterday," she said on the page. "We are appalled that the employee hijacked our business to provide a platform for hate and we absolutely denounce it and all forms of hate."
Verkler said the employee has been fired. She declined to give the employee's name.
She said she hopes people can direct their attention toward condemning hate itself rather than her restaurant.
"We support diversity. We support love," she said.