Vegan cafe in Georgia attacked by sausage-wielding extremists
Right-wing extremists attacked a vegan cafe in Tbilisi, Georgia, on Sunday evening — only the attackers' weapons weren't knives or crowbars, but sausages.
"They pulled out some grilled meat, sausages, and fish and started eating them and throwing them at us, and finally they started to smoke," Kiwi Cafe wrote in a statement. "They were just trying to provoke our friends and disrespect us."
According to Radio Free Europe, the incident erupted after the men were told to leave the no smoking area of the cafe during a screening of the animated sitcom Rick And Morty. "Customers said the group of rowdy Georgian men entered the cafe as the screening was under way, wearing sausages around their necks and carrying slabs of meat on skewers," Radio Free Europe reports.
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And while "antivegan provocative action" is a somewhat preposterous-sounding accusation, the attack on the counterculture and LGBT-friendly Kiwi Cafe is symbolic of a larger trend of intolerance in Georgia, where neo-Nazis and "fascist ideas" are on the rise.
However, Kiwi Cafe has said they are still "ready to accept all customers regardless of their nationality, race, appearance, age, gender, sexual orientation, or religious views" — just not, perhaps, diet.
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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
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