Uptown's Tank Noodle faces backlash after owners go to DC Trump rally

Liz Nagy Image
Saturday, January 9, 2021
Uptown's Tank Noodle faces backlash owners go to DC Trump rally
Tank Noodle is under fire online after its owners posted pictures of them headed to Washington D.C. for Wednesday's Save America Rally.

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Tank Noodle in Uptown, a well-known and well-loved Vietnamese restaurant, is under fire online after its owners posted pictures of them headed to Washington D.C. for Wednesday's Save America Rally.



So many customers have posted scathing reviews on Yelp that the restaurant review site shut down their page.



"We're getting calls from people threatening to burn down our establishment," said Thien Ly, owner. "I found a shotgun shell was placed in front of our business this morning."



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Thien Ly said he took his parents, who are Vietnamese immigrants, to the nation's capital with innocent intentions.



"We came there to stand up for what we believe in," he said. "We came to the Save America rally at the eclipse [sic] and we left shortly after the president concluded his speech."



Ly said they had no idea a portion of the crowd peeled off to violently storm the Capitol just a few blocks away.



"What happened at the Capitol... Our family, when we were there, never intended something like that to happen," Ly said. "There is no way I would bring my family member into something so dangerous."



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The owner of Balboa's cheesesteaks in Naperville is facing a similar backlash, and one of the owners told ABC7 Eyewitness News she was also at the rally but does not support what happened after and was not near the Capitol during the insurrection.



Ly knows his customers can, and in many cases will, eat elsewhere.



"I think you should be able to express your political views, but at the same time it's a free country, so if people don't want to eat at his restaurant they don't have to," said Shahan, an Uptown resident. "That's the great thing about America."

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