Sneakers Bistro, a Winooski breakfast hot-spot, is one of several  businesses that has voluntarily maintained a small garden on a plot of publicly owned land to help beautify the city. As part of “Operation Bloom,” participating businesses are allowed to post a small advertising sign in their garden. Sneakers decided to have fun with its sign at the bottom of the Winooski traffic circle. 
“Yield for Sneakers Bacon,” it read.

Not everyone got the joke. 

Last week, a Winooski woman who identified herself as a “vegan and member of a Muslim household,” posted a notice to Front Porch Forum, saying of the bacon sign: “Its insensitive and offensive to those who do not consume pork.”

Citing Winooski’s demographic diversity — 31 languages are spoken in the local K-12 school — she requested that it come down.

“Although I love Sneakers and the delicious food they serve, I strongly believe this sign is unnecessary, offensive, insensitive, and should therefore be taken down,” she wrote.

For a couple days, a largely respectful debate ensued on the online forum page, with some posters saying the complainer was being overly sensitive.

“While you do have the right to express your opinion, you don’t have the right to not be offended,” one Winooski resident wrote. “There are things throughout our environment that offend all of us. It happens.”

Last Friday, Sneakers owner Marc Dysinger  announced that the bacon sign would come down, saying he didn’t want to offend anyone.

“We regret any harm or damage caused & the sign has been removed,” Dysinger wrote on the Front Porch Forum. “Our goal is to bring joy to Winooski as a community gathering place — never a source of stress or drama. We always appreciate any advice or input to help us achieve that goal. Thank you neighbors!”

The woman posted a follow-up note on Front Porch Forum, saying that she had received several ugly e-mails attacking her position after her initial post. People accusing Sneakers of being overly PC began posting nasty messages on the bistro’s Facebook page. WPTZ broke the story of the burgeoning controversy, and some conservative media outlets picked it up.

The restaurant made a plea for peace on its Facebook page:

“We are here to serve people BREAKFAST, not politics. We removed the sign that was located on public property as a gesture of respect for our diverse community. There were also concerns raised about safety. Removing it was not a difficult decision. We still love bacon. We still love eggs. Please have the political conversation elsewhere.”

 The nasty comments continued to pile up online, prompting Sneakers to take down its Facebook page. Winooski police felt compelled to keep a watchful eye on the bistro over the weekend. And a new Facebook page, Tell Sneakers Bistro How You Really Feel, gave those outraged by the sign’s removal a forum to share their thoughts, which, earlier this morning, included a cartoon of a Muslim apparently getting raped by a centaur-like creature, and an image of American journalist James Foley in the moments before he was beheaded by an ISIS terrorist. (Those images appear to have been removed.)

But a slew of anti-Muslim posts (the nuance of the woman identifying herself as a “vegan and member of a Muslim household” has long since been discarded)  remain.

A sampling we feel comfortable publishing includes:

“Stop pandering to Muslims! This is still America! WE like our democracy served with a side of bacon!!!!”

“Stop caving to Muslim demands. We are Americans. We need to stand for our rights.”

“What a shame an AMERICAN business is bowing down just to keep a bunch of dang muslims happy. We eat pork and if muslims don’t like it then there are plenty of countries they can go live in. Pack up and MOVE.”

Dysinger, visibly weary at the restaurant today, declined to comment.

In City Hall, where officials are starting to receive a trickle of anti-Sneakers comments, Winooski City Manager Katherine Decarreau tried to make sense of the controversy.

“Diverse communities are not comfortable places and conversations have to happen that pull people away from their notions of what is right and wrong,” said Decarreau, a city native. “Sneakers … made a tough call in an attempt to be good neighbors, and I respect them for that. This is crazy. It’s a bacon sign. We have people in this city from every religious background, and with no basic religion. And we can live respectfully — we have for years.”

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Mark Davis was a Seven Days staff writer 2013-2018.

84 replies on “Winooski Bistro’s Bacon Sign Ignites Internet Storm”

  1. I don’t agree with it being taken down, but have to say if it said “yield for sneaker’s dog meat” it also probably would cause a stir. Cultural sensitivity is all relative and a hell of a thing.

  2. I don’t believe this is insane on both sides. The woman is overly-sensitive and extremely self-important, but probably not insane. And Sneakers made a world-wise decision, even if people around here aren’t able to accept it. As a longstanding and respected member of the burgeoning Winooski service industry, their job first and foremost is to provide delicious food to their many, many patrons. Their job is not to engage in politics. If the business’ energy is diverted from food to politics, the food quality and customer service will undeniably falter and everyone, EVERYONE, is worse off for it. Marc made the right choice by extricating himself from the political, non-food discussion, and he’s made that stance and justification very clear. The vitriol that has been sparked by this benign and common-sense move is indicative that Winooski, VT is suffering from some serious, serious growing pains, and I am ashamed of residents (and non-residents) who have assaulted Sneakers with their foul language and a lack of support.

  3. Kind of changes the dynamic of the old Sir Francis Bacon Vs Shakespeare debate. Bacon – are you even half serious?

  4. I tried to give an analogy recently to explain why I thought it was just good neighborly behavior of Sneakers to take down the sign.
    Imagine you have a compost pile in your yard, you don’t find the smell particularly offensive and it’s good for the environment.
    Go you!
    But your neighbor comes up to you and says, I REALLY don’t like the smell of your compost pile, could you get rid of it?
    “NO!” You say, “Never! My property means I can do whatever I want! You’re a jerky mean anti-environmentalist! Freedom, freedom, constitution etc!!”
    Can you see how absurd that would have been of Sneakers? A local establishment in a city that is pretty liberal, extremely diverse and all around pretty darn nice to each other.
    Instead we can deal with our more sensitive neighbor by simply offering, “Hey neighbor who has different tolerance levels than myself, what if I moved it as far from our property line as I can? This way you don’t have to smell it and I can still have my compost pile.”
    Basically, this is what Sneakers did. They thought it made more sense to take the darn sign down then bother getting into some kind of ridiculous and trite bickering feud over it.
    They may very well replace it with a sign that says “Break for Breakfast” and everybody can just go back to what they were doing BEFORE Breitbart.com picked up the story.
    They didn’t stop serving bacon, they didn’t close their doors in haste, fearing their existence might cause too much contention. They just took the f**king sign down and moved on with their lives. Kudos to them. Can’t we just leave them alone?

  5. Chittenden County is diverse and cosmopolitan. There’s 13 other counties in Vermont, though.

  6. I am curious as to how this woman manages to exist in this offensive world. She must not go out to eat as, I imagine, the sight of the offensive foods would be worse even than the word. Her friends must have to monitor her conversations around her….no “bringing home the bacon” or getting the “pork” out of politics. No Dr. Seuss in this household! No “ham” actors or radio. No “this little piggy” or “three little pigs” . God forbid she should see a pig in a blanket. No baseball games….hot dogs, you know…no football either…pigskin. I hope she is happy in her little bubble-like world. Mine keeps getting rocked by real problems: journalists being beheaded, Yazidis being wiped out, Women and Gays being flogged and/or killed because of monstrous laws…..guess it all depends on your perspective. By the way, my diet does not include brains but you can write about them, if you can find any.

  7. This is absurd. Shame on both of them. She is given the right to say what she wants and practice any religion she chooses because the first amendment allows her. You cant choose to follow that amendment when it only suits you. You need to respect the opinions and beliefs of others as well. Aside from that, she needs to put on her big girl panties and deal. If she is offended by the word bacon she must be a really annoying lame person. Just because your a minority doesnt mean your opinions are more important. As for Sneakers…shame on you for letting your self be objectified by this woman over a word. Can’t wait for you to see what other changes you will be making. Perhaps we should let Esquire magazine know since they rated you one of the best 59 places to eat breakfast….since you cant say bacon anymore. LAME!!

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