Morton’s Steakhouse was flooded with calls and fake reservations after a spokesman slammed abortion rights protesters for disrupting Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s “right” to “eat dinner” when they protested outside the restaurant earlier this week and forced him to leave through a back door.
According to Politico Playbook, the restaurant has been flooded with calls and reservations from fake diners including “Arnold Benedict,” “Abortion Rights” “First Amendment,” “Dick Hertz,” “Amy Coney,” “Neil Gor,” “Kava Naugh,” “Roe Wade,” “Jane Doe” and “Pro Choice.”
Morton’s SVP and COO Scott Crain sent a memo to managers on Saturday warning that there’s more to come.
“Currently we are experiencing a massive wave (trending at #2 on social media now) of negative response to our comments yesterday as well as being bombarded at the local level with phone calls and fake reservations on Open Table,” Crain wrote in the memo obtained by Politico.
“[T]here is a good chance that your restaurant will also potentially have some people reaching out for comment and/or making (bogus) reservations over the next few days. As I stated yesterday, our comment is always ‘No Comment.’ We don’t respond, we don’t retweet, we don’t post on Instagram or Facebook, we don’t do anything. Please remind your teams (especially the hourly employees) of this policy,” he added. “Again, we do NOT insert our political beliefs at any time – not with an employee, not with a fellow manager, and most certainly NOT with a guest.”
The restaurant has also blocked users from commenting on their tweets and their Yelp page has temporarily restricted new reviews due to “increased public attention” on the restaurant.
On Wednesday night, abortion rights protesters were tipped off that Kavanaugh was dining at the Morton’s in downtown Washington DC. Kavanaugh is one of five conservative justices on the Supreme Court who voted to strike down Roe v. Wade last month.
Kavanaugh was forced to leave through a back door exit, before dessert, as protests built outside the main door of the restaurant.
Morton’s later released a statement slamming the protesters for disrupting Kavanaugh’s “right to eat dinner”
“Honorable Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh and all of our other patrons at the restaurant were unduly harassed by unruly protestors while eating dinner at our Morton’s restaurant,” the statement reads. “Politics, regardless of your side or views, should not trample the freedom at play of the right to congregate and eat dinner. There is a time and place for everything. Disturbing the dinner of all of our customers was an act of selfishness and void of decency.”
