A Park Slope restaurant's small gesture of support for immigrants has found a global audience after a diner posted on Twitter a photo of a receipt with the words "Immigrants make America great."
NBC News contributor Mary Emily O'Hara's tweeted photo of her Sunday brunch receipt bearing the phrase "Immigrants make America great (they also cooked your food and served you today)" racked up more than 120,000 likes and 45,500 retweets within a few hours.
Breakfast in Brooklyn pic.twitter.com/JHEtfJhqPO
— Mary Emily O'Hara (@MaryEmilyOHara) February 5, 2017
Kiwiana's chef, Mark Simmons, told DNAinfo New York he added the pro-immigrant note in response to President Donald Trump's "ridiculous" executive order to bar refugees and travelers from seven majority-Muslim countries. Workers at Kiwiana come from about five different countries, Simmons said.
"I added that message to the bottom of the receipts recently, to remind ourselves [and] our customers that immigrants are quite often the backbone of the hospitality industry," Simmons said Monday in an email to DNAinfo.
"I normally add little notes at the end of the receipt, though rarely are they political. We are happy people are noticing. Overall the feedback has been positive."
The restaurant, on Union Street and Seventh Avenue, serves cuisine inspired by Simmons' native New Zealand.
Trump's executive order has provoked nationwide protests, including a spontaneous rally at JFK Airport when it was announced the order was being enforced and a march by thousands of Yemeni bodega owners last Thursday.
"I was pretty shocked to see this go as viral as it did," O'Hara told DNAinfo in an email Monday. "The message seems to have resonated with a lot of people. I also got some flak for spending nearly $50 on a brunch for two, but that was mostly from people who live outside of New York and I'm jealous of how little they pay for rent—so, like, don't rub it in, OK?"
