Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a man who supported separating parents from their children at the U.S.-Mexico border, dined at two Mexican restaurants on Friday, the same day he gave a speech about unchecked immigration in Houston. First, he had huevos rancheros at La Mexicana, according to the Chronicle. Then, for dinner, he had fajitas at El Tiempo Cantina. After chatting with El Tiempo Cantina’s co-owner and chef Dominic Laurenzo, Sessions posed for a photo which landed on the restaurant’s social media accounts. The restaurant’s caption on the photo noted that it was an “honor” to serve Sessions. “Thank you for allowing us to serve you,” the final line read. The backlash was swift, and the restaurant group that owns El Tiempo Cantina was forced to delete the post and shut down its social media accounts over the weekend amid calls for a boycott. But, Roland Laurenzo, president of El Tiempo Cantina’s parent company, Laurenzo’s Restaurant Group, now says it was a misunderstanding. He told CBS that while Sessions was “treated like any other guest,” the restaurant’s social media post was not meant to “imply the company endorses Sessions’ politics.” Further, Laurenzo says he and his team are not “in favor of separating families,” and do not agree with Sessions’ views on gay rights. “In retrospect, it was a mistake because it angered so many people,” Laurenzo told the local news station. “We have gotten so many complaints and comments. And threats, death threats. This has been extremely shocking to our family.” A day after posting the photo to its Facebook page the restaurant took its social media accounts offline. Yelp has not yet posted a “clean up” alert on El Tiempo Cantina’s page though several reviews reference the Attorney General’s visit. “We didn’t think we were doing something wrong,” Laurenzo told local news stations. “We didn’t have any idea this was going to happen.” That would be plausible if Laurenzo hadn’t seen any recent news reports showing that Trump administration officials haven’t exactly been welcome at restaurants in the past few months. First, it was Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, who was asked to leave the Red Hen in Lexington, Virginia in June. Then, in early July a diner in D.C. approached EPA chief Scott Pruitt and asked him to resign (three days later he took her advice!). And who can forget the times Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was heckled out of restaurants in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky? It’s a wonder Sessions’ meals weren’t even interrupted.<doc-sep>Houston chain El Tiempo Cantina appears to have deleted its social media pages, a day after a photo of the restaurant's owner with Attorney General Jeff Sessions drew outrage and calls for a boycott. El Tiempo did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the chain's Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages were down Saturday afternoon. On Friday, owner Roland Laurenzo posted a photo with a caption saying it was an "honor" to serve Sessions, who was in town to discuss immigration enforcement with law enforcement officers. The post was quickly condemned by customers, some of whom called for a boycott. ON THE RECORD: Houston Latino Trump Coalition films campaign song at an El Tiempo restaurant with owner's endorsement Laurenzo soon after responded, writing that the photo "does not represent us supporting (Sessions') positions." "El Tiempo does not in anyway support the practice of separating children from parents or any other practices of the government relative to immigration," Laurenzo wrote, according to CultureMap. "The posting of a photograph of the Attorney General at one of our restaurants does not represent us supporting his positions. The secret service contacted us that a government official was coming to dinner at our establishment and his identity was not know until he walked through the door." READ MORE: AG Jeff Sessions has breakfast at Houston mainstay La Mexicana before speech on immigration "The man came to dinner and he was served without us even thinking about the political situations. We were preoccupied with the secret service and catering to their wants and needs. The only thing on our minds was serving great food and giving great customer service. It was posted without review or approval by ownership and this has lead to everyone jumping to conclusions that somehow we are involved in this political matter. We don't approve of anyone separating parents and children."<doc-sep>Someone important was coming to Domenic Laurenzo’s restaurant, but he didn’t know who. He knew only that the Secret Service planned to arrive at El Tiempo Cantina on Navigation Boulevard in a historically Hispanic community, one of eight locations in a city that embraced his family’s cooking almost as fervently as it does its diversity. But when Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the enforcer of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration, walked through the door and posed side-by-side, smiling, for a photo with Laurenzo, he unleashed a backlash against El Tiempo that four days later was unabated and forced the suspension of the restaurant’s social media accounts. The photo of the pair, posted to Facebook, drew immediate and unforgiving vitriol. “We had the honor to server [sic] Mr. Jeff Sessions,” read the caption, captured in screenshots. Patrons demanded a boycott of the Tex-Mex chain, founded by Laurenzo and his father, an immigrant family. Both gave interviews distancing themselves from Sessions’ policies. Others criticized their response, or came quickly to their defense. There was a time when a celebrity visit to a restaurant was cause for celebration, and possibly a smiling photo on the wall. But the outcry over Sessions’ visit to El Tiempo is the latest in a string of incidents nationwide in which senior members of the Trump administration have been heckled or, in the case of Sarah Huckabee Sanders, asked to leave while trying to eat out, and again revealed an America divided and quick to react — another flash point in the debate over whether politics should affect the way we treat others, personally and as patrons. “It used to be that you would take great pride in [hosting] an attorney general of the United States,” said Nancy Sims, political analyst at Pierpont Communications. “America’s in a great divide about this issue currently, about politics.” Surprised at response Laurenzo, arguably, is Tex-Mex royalty in Houston. His grandmother, Ninfa Laurenzo, or “Mama Ninfa,” founded her namesake restaurant, which sits next to the El Tiempo on Navigation, in 1973. He and his father founded El Tiempo in 1998. Celebrity visitors were not uncommon. But the Secret Service didn’t come every day, and Laurenzo’s 14-year-old daughter begged to be there when they did. When Sessions walked in the door, she shook his hand and took a picture of the famous politician with her dad. A social media manager reportedly posted the photo to Facebook. It immediately set social media abuzz with outrage, much to Laurenzo’s surprise. It wasn’t until late Monday afternoon that Laurenzo publicly shared his account of the ordeal. Others were still voicing their opinions. A rival restaurant, El Real, put up a marquee message taunting them. People such as Mark Marz, 48, who does metal work for the family’s restaurants, took to their own Facebook pages. “They’re good people,” he said, “and they don’t deserve to have all of this backlash on them.” He posted a photo of the fajita lunch he ordered that day. “NOW I HAVE TO FIND ANOTHER GREAT MEXICAN RESTAURANT TO REPLACE MY FAVORITE,” posted Linda Smith, 70, who said she ate there twice a week. That afternoon, Laurenzo spoke on air with Michael Berry, a conservative radio host and personal friend. Berry's wife grew up in India and they adopted two sons from Ethiopia, but who himself has offended any number of racial groups. The radio host introduced Laurenzo as from “as famous a Houston family as the Joneses.” Once choking back tears, Laurenzo, who supported Trump’s campaign, presented himself as someone apolitical, supported by his employees, who wants only to please his customers and was now struggling to explain to his daughter the embattled world she will inherit. “I’m proud of my heritage,” Laurenzo, who did not respond to requests for comment, told Berry. “We just feel that this has all been really unfair, and that we don’t deserve it.” Berry, seeing no excuse for the hate-filled remarks directed at the family, addressed his listeners: “This is an opportunity for Houston, if not the entire country, to say, 'Enough. '” Touching a nerve An hour after Laurenzo’s interview, protesters were gathering on the wide grassy median outside the restaurant Sessions visited. “Es un honor ser inmigrante,” read one sign. “Kids not queso,” said another No matter what he said, the photo had touched a nerve in a heavily Hispanic and solidly blue city, where nearly one third of the residents were born in another country, according to the U.S. census. The attorney general is charged with enforcing the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy on illegal immigration. This summer, he staunchly defended the policy of separating children from parents when they crossed the border illegally. On Friday, he spoke at the local U.S. attorney’s office about reducing gang violence. "This should be obvious," he told the law enforcement audience. "If we want to reduce violent crime, we should reduce illegal immigrant crime." Seventeen people gathered on the median as the day’s heat fell away. The photo was “a slap in the face,” said organizer Jessica Lorena Rangel, 28. She said she wanted to call out the hypocrisy of benefiting from Hispanics' business while supporting a policy maker she sees as opposing the community's interests. Rangel demanded an apology from the restaurant owner, shouting through a megaphone at the diners across the street, who drank margaritas and ate enchiladas on the patio as cheery music played. Reporters on the sidewalk in between looked back and forth on the scene, where everyone seemed to be pointing cameras at one another, sometimes smirking, sometimes tossing nasty remarks. Shiv Srivastava, 33, got on the megaphone: “Y’all think this is a nuisance right now?” the television writer shouted. “You know whats a nuisance? You know what’s inconvenient? Maybe never seeing your parents again.” The controversy underscored the importance of having a social media policy and living by it, said Mike Androvett, founder of the Androvett marketing company. He suggested that the Laurenzos level with their audience. “If somebody screwed up,” he said, “they need to 'fess up.”<doc-sep>On Monday the debate remained: had El Tiempo erred in serving Attorney General Jeff Sessions and then posting to Facebook about it? The decision over the weekend had drawn ire from both sides. Some called for a boycott of the restaurant, a favorite Tex-Mex spot of many. Others said El Tiempo should not apologize but stand strong. And then, amid the noise, a rival Tex-Mex restaurant threw itself into the fray, perhaps seizing an opportunity to poke fun at -- and perhaps drum up some business from -- the establishment down the road. GOOD ONE: Houston restaurant gets Texas-wide attention for hilarious sign Along busy Westheimer Road in Montrose on Monday evening, the marquee on El Real Tex Mex Cafe blazed in bright red letters: "BRUNCH SESSIONS AT EL REAL ARE ALWAYS CAGE FREE AND FULL OF RAINBOWS." El Tiempo wasn't the only place visited by Sessions, who was in Houston Friday to speak about ways to reduce gang violence. "This should be obvious: if we want to reduce violent crime we should reduce illegal immigrant crime," Sessions said. He spoke the words after visiting La Mexicana for breakfast.. But it was the El Tiempo debate that drew attention from near and far, as the controversy spread on the radio, in offices and on personal social media accounts. (The restaurant's social media platforms are now dark .) People also took to Yelp, which Monday had an alert saying it was in the process of clearing out posts related to the news event. A protest was planned at another of the El Tiempo locations for Monday night.<doc-sep>
Two Mexican restaurants served U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions breakfast and dinner, respectively, before and after a Friday news conference where Sessions mentioned immigration. Sessions is behind a public statement issued by El Tiempo owner Roland Laurenzo clarifying the restaurant's stand on immigration. #BoycottElTiempo was trending following a picture posted to the restaurant's social media accounts featuring Sessions and founder Domenic Laurenzo on Friday evening, according to an About.com report. Newsweek learned the El Tiempo franchise deleted their social media profiles on Saturday afternoon. Sessions also ate huevos rancheros and discussed politics with the owner of La Mexicana, another Mexican eatery on Friday morning, according to the Houston Chronicle. During the news conference Sessions sandwiched between mealtimes, he cited unspecified statistics about Houston's number of "illegal aliens." The two restaurants are located half a mile apart, and both restaurants confirmed law enforcement officers approached the restaurant with questions about security and no details about the identity of the individual. El Tiempo is expecting to close their Montrose location due to a landowner wanting to build an apartment complex in its place. Following the posting of the now deleted photo featuring Sessions captioned "We had the honor to serve Mr. Jeff Sessions, Attorney General of the United States. Thank you for allowing us to serve you," some customers have said on Facebook that they would avoid the business. "It (the photo) was posted without review or approval by ownership and this has lead to everyone jumping to conclusions that somehow we are involved in this political matter. We don't approve of anyone separating parents and children," said El Tiempo's statement on the no-longer-available Facebook page posted yesterday evening. "We will never apologize for working with Homeland Security Investigations going after violent gang members," said Police Chief Art Acevedo following his morning discussion with sessions, "but if they're going to ask us to help round up day laborers or kitchen help, we're not interested in that, and he understands that." During the press conference, Sessions said the presence of illegal immigrants made the work of police officers across the country "more dangerous than it ought to be" and tied the presence of people crossing the border to MS-13, an international criminal gang that originated in Los Angeles. "According to one estimate," he said, "Houston has the third most illegal aliens of any metro area in America. Half a million aliens are in this area." said Sessions at the conference. La Mexicana and El Tiempo could not be reached for further comment in time for publication.