Toast on Lenox owners should know glad-handing isn’t always an asset

Three days after Rick Jackson, the Republican nominee for Georgia governor posted a photo with Tamara Young, co-owner of Toast on Lenox, the restaurant shared a message to its customers: “Toast on Lenox does not endorse Rick Jackson. We did not do a campaign, nor are we affiliated with Rick Jackson.”

In the now deleted Instagram post, Jackson, the founder of Jackson Healthcare, praised Young’s story as an entrepreneur. “Grateful for the time, conversation, and amazing food!” he wrote.

Social media users quickly called for a boycott of the popular Atlanta brunch spot.

Young and Virgil Harper are the owners of Toast on Lenox with locations in Buckhead and Midtown. They bill the restaurant as a Black-woman owned, community-supported business.

As customers reacted to what felt like an endorsement of Jackson, Harper attempted to squash the controversy by posting, “A Discussion is not a Vote,” with the hashtag #StayWoke.

But Young and Harper are the ones in need of a wake-up call.

Not only did their response fail to address customers’ concerns about their values, but their actions revealed a disappointing naivete from otherwise savvy business owners.

Jackson is set to campaign with Donald Trump on Wednesday in Cobb County, cementing his alignment with the MAGA agenda, his support of policies that have left a half-million Georgians without healthcare and his adherence to conspiracy theories including claims of widespread election fraud.

In response to the controversy, Jackson’s campaign accused Democratic candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms of fanning the flames. The statement suggested that Jackson has greater affinity for “abandoned Georgians” as a former resident of Techwood homes who was placed in the foster care system and had seven different stepfathers — an aside that feels more insulting than inspirational given the context.

This isn’t the first time businesses in Atlanta have had to navigate political fallout during a gubernatorial campaign.

In 2018 when the founders of Monday Night Brewing were blasted for hosting candidate Brian Kemp at their brewery in northwest Atlanta, they responded by holding a listening session for concerned customers and issuing a public statement that detailed the company’s core values. They encouraged customers to hold them accountable whenever they fell short.

Young has the right to take a photograph with anyone who enters her restaurant, but when Rick Jackson, a candidate who has pledged to criminalize diversity, equity and inclusion posts a photo of himself with a Black female entrepreneur, Young can’t then cry foul when her customers see that as a contradiction.

Businesses are entities created by people. Business owners reveal their ethics through brand positioning, advertising and publicity among other things. The values they reflect, whether based on truth or perception, are just as important as the product or service they are delivering.

Some commenters on social media argued that boycotting restaurants or other businesses for hosting, supporting or seeming to endorse certain politicians or political policies amounts to “cancel culture.” But businesses and business owners are not innocent victims.

Consumers want to spend their time and money supporting the people, businesses and ideas that seek to build and sustain the kind of world they want to live in, now and in the future.

Their currency is their only currency and withholding it is the quickest and most direct way to urge a business to get clear on their mission.

Businesses exist to do business, and the first rule of doing that well is to fill a need. But the most valuable asset a business owner has is a relationship with customers that is built on reputation and trust.

Atlanta is overrun with restaurants that can fill customers’ needs for brunch. Toast on Lenox may be successful, but it is not singular.

Young’s reputation was called into question when she was photographed with a political candidate that some of her loyal customers do not trust. Allowing those images to be posted and commented on by Jackson, felt like an endorsement, even if it wasn’t meant to be one. The visit stopped being just “a discussion” as soon as the photo was blasted online to tens of thousands of viewers and voters.