Restaurant hit with backlash for playing national anthem every day
Topics: Food and Drink, US News, Viral
Callum Jones
Featured Image Credit: TikTok/@paulinappa_0
Topics: Food and Drink, US News, Viral
A US restaurant has been hit with backlash for playing the national anthem every day while diners tuck into some food.
Of course, some of us would like to think we are patriotic and will celebrate our country of origin loud and proud.
The UK will be doing that this weekend, for example, as the coronation of King Charles III is set to take place on Saturday.
But there is certainly a time and place, with many people believing a busy restaurant isn't the place for it - or perhaps not every day, anyway.
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Yes, because the Rainbow Oaks Restaurant in Fallbrook, California, has its customers stand up every day to sing a rendition of the US national anthem.
Footage of patriotic occasion was posted to TikTok by user @paulinappa_0, which shows around a dozen people standing by the bar area as Star-Spangled Banner plays aloud on the TV screen.
Captioning the post, the TikToker wrote: "By far the most dangerous situation I’ve ever been in," while using the hashtags #godblessamerica, #getout, #illegal and #whitepeoplethings.
Since its upload last week, the post has gone viral with more than 3.4 million views, 580,000 likes and 23,000 comments.
Like the content creator, many were not too impressed with the video.
"Yeah no, stopped doing it in school awhile ago and the rage & hate I felt around me was insane," one person wrote.
While a second added: "Serious question. Is this real? Like people actually do this in real everyday life?"
And a third simply remarked: "This feels like a horror movie."
Meanwhile, another TikTok user who claims to have worked at the restaurant, said she 'hated it so much'.
Now, Jeanene Paulino, the owner of Rainbow Oaks restaurant, has said that all the complaints are just a way of getting attention.
Speaking to Fox News, she said: "I feel like, if we take a few minutes out of our day to be grateful for the men and women who have made the sacrifices so that we can stand up and say how we feel and she said how she felt.
"And I wish she realized that it's because those men and women who made those sacrifices that she was able to do that.
"This particular TikToker had seen a local news post, so she probably did it for attention."
Singing the national anthem in the Rainbow Oaks is a tradition spanning years, with Paulino saying she is proud to keep it going from previous owners.
"I come from a long line of patriots, so I was thrilled to keep the tradition going. No, we won't be stopping," she concluded.