When Tara Coleman heard about a new "'90s hip-hop themed fried chicken" restaurant opening in East Liberty, she thought it was a joke.
"Once I saw it was in fact real, it was more insulting than anything else," says Coleman, a Bloomfield resident who works at a boutique in East Liberty. "It's insulting to me as a person of color. I don't understand why it's being marketed this way. It's rather stereotypical to pair fried chicken and hip hop."
An article announcing the new restaurant called "the Coop" appeared on the website Good Food Pittsburgh over the weekend. The project is being launched by the owners of Muddy Waters Oyster Bar in East Liberty. According to the article, the owners are also planning to open a Hawaiian poke themed restaurant called the Big Kahuna.
“This area is coming along so fast, even in just the past two years, so much as changed. We try to find the next thing that the city needs, and work to contribute it. We started with the oyster bar, and now we want to do a fried chicken spot, and a poke bowl restaurant,” owner Adam Kucenic said in the article.
But critics are saying the Coop is one thing the city doesn't need. Dozens posted comments on Good Food Pittsburgh's Facebook post linking to the article and several threads decrying the venture have been started on various social media sites. The new restaurant has been called everything on the spectrum, from racist to tone deaf, but many say it's an example of cultural appropriation.