A social media video is attracting attention over a Northern California cafe’s controversial promotion that encourages customers to throw away their masks.
In mid-March, Fiddleheads Cafe in Mendocino prominently posted a sign in the window of its cafe reading, "Throw your mask(s) in our trash bin and receive 50% off your order."
A TikTok video posted of the flyer last week has taken off on social media, reaching at least 39,000 likes and receiving almost 1,700 comments since its posting; animosity toward the cafe has also spilled over onto Yelp, as users have begun trashing the cafe for its new promotion, leading the review site to post its “Unusual Activity Alert” warning usually saved for businesses under a negative spotlight from a news report or, in this case, social media.
But according to Ted Williams, 5th District Supervisor of Mendocino County, there’s not much the government can do about the promotion.
“As far as I can tell, there's nothing illegal about him giving a discount to people who throw masks away,” Williams told SFGATE. “... if it happens to be the mask that they're wearing, that seems to go against the health order and just common sense and caring for neighboring businesses and residents.
“My only comment is, imagine the good that you could do with all this energy he has. I've equated it to giving discounts to people who don't wash their hands when they use the restroom.”
Mendocino County Code Enforcement Supervisor John Burkes did not want to comment on the situation, but did acknowledge that he has received complaints about the sign. He did, however, tell local news website Redheaded Blackbelt Thursday that he is “investigating as we speak.” (A followup call to the county for a statement was not returned to SFGATE.)
Fiddleheads Cafe owner Chris Castleman stands by his sign, however. By his own estimation, the reception to the discount from customers has been 50-50, “you either love it or you hate it,” he said. Castleman said that since he’s posted the sign, he’s received a number of bogus, negative reviews on Google from people who have not been to his cafe, but rather detest his mask protest.
“It’s very alarming how people have gotten all up in arms about this sign — the sign isn't breaking any law or any ordinances,” Castleman told SFGATE. “If people are upset with it, they don't have to come here. … My point is, if you don't like me, that's fine. I respect that opinion of yours, and you can go anywhere else in this county right now to eat and pretend that you're in a safe environment.”
At left, is a copy of one sign posted in the window of Fiddleheads Cafe in Mendocino, which warns customers that they do not require masks to enter. At right is the sign advertising a discount of 50% off orders for those who throw their masks away.
Courtesy Chris Castleman / Fiddleheads CafeMany locals, however, aren’t supportive of how Castleman is treating the masking and safety ordinances in the state and county. Scott Roat owns a real estate business located near Fiddleheads Cafe, and although he noted that Castleman has been “relatively peaceful” in previous protests about the mask ordinance, he does feel that Castleman’s actions will have a negative impact on Mendocino.
“I think there's this feeling that the town has, that they've been working so hard to do all this right and then there's this guy just sort of embarrassing them,” Roat said. “So I think it's like, however many steps forward and how many steps back. And I personally think as a business owner, I think it makes us look bad — we're supposed to be this romantic getaway, cute town on the coast, and here's some guy taking a strong political stance, that's beyond just what you think politically. It's like a social responsibility.”
This is not the first time Castleman has been caught up in controversy with his stance on the pandemic; in late June 2020, he faced two $10,000 citations for violating health orders requiring restaurant employees to wear masks, the North Bay Business Journal reported. Instead, he chose to shut down his business for months, reopening just over two weeks ago.
“When the mask ordinance came down last year, [Castleman] was inviting people into his restaurant ... And so people were gathering without masks and they were having this sort of 'freedom' attitude,” Roat said. “That's fine, I suppose, at least in theory, but the general sentiment around town was that we're all really working hard to flatten the curve. And then here are these people out here doing this — it's not responsible. It's not part of the social fabric we've worked together on and that really kind of got exacerbated when the counties got opened up … So, his attitude was, ‘Tough, I'm going to go ahead and do it. I have a right. I'm an American citizen.’”
During his monthslong closure, Castleman said he traveled across the country to states like Florida and Texas, that have only solidified his stance that lockdown orders, like the ones implemented in California, were unnecessary.
And although there were initial articles in March stating that Florida and California have “experienced almost identical outcomes in COVID-19 case rates” despite differing approaches to lockdowns, other analyses do show otherwise. In a look at some of Florida’s more populous counties (Miami-Dade and Orange), the San Francisco Chronicle found that Florida is seeing “notably higher levels” of coronavirus transmission over California; the Los Angeles Times has also reported that the cumulative death rate in Florida has been higher than California’s, with a difference as wide as 84% last fall, to as low as an 11% difference during California’s winter COVID-19 surge. (SFGATE and the San Francisco Chronicle are both owned by Hearst but operate independently of one another.) California has seen 151 deaths per 100,000 people during the pandemic; in contrast, Florida has seen 157 deaths per 100,000 and Texas has had 169 deaths per 100,000 people, according to the New York Times’ COVID-19 tracker. If Texas had the same deaths per 100,000 rate as California, more than 5,000 people wouldn’t have died in the state — or the equivalent of the population of Guerneville, Calif.
For his part, Castleman is not patronizing any businesses with mask policies and has worked around them, either by employing delivery from grocery stores, or calling ahead to places to see what their mask requirement is, he said. He emphasized, however, that he is not supportive of anti-mask protests at businesses that require them.
“I don't advocate for people to walk into other businesses without their mask on and just protest,” Castleman said. “I mean, I've had people come to me and say, ‘Hey, Chris, let's get a thousand people together and go march into a grocery store without their mask on.’ I think that is horrible. I don't think that that solves anything and I don't think that that's the right message. You know, if I'm asking people to respect me and my customers and their choice, you can't go into somebody else's business and be disrespectful.”
Castleman has been affected by his actions, saying that he has been forced to sell his trailer, motorcycle and other items to pay rent for the cafe, essentially living in his camper van to stay afloat.
“This year, it came at great financial risk and loss for me, and I would not have done what I did if I didn't have a good reason for it,” Castleman said. “And the bottom line is that I think that the shutdown mandates or mask mandates are having a terrible effect on our way of life and our American way of life. I think COVID did not cause people to have an increase in suicides and drug overdose and domestic violence, shutdowns did that. … So you ask, ‘Well, why don't you just wear a mask and do the protocols at your business and still support or all those things to support your community?’ and the reason is because I would be participating in the problem.”
Although Castleman has his detractors who disagree with his stance on things, others have come out in support of him. Ryan Genaro delivers milk to businesses along the Mendocino Coast, including Fiddleheads Cafe; while he doesn’t agree with how Castleman is putting his message out to the public, he also doesn’t care for how people have treated Castleman over his views, which have included death threats, vandalism of Castleman’s van and people leaving horse manure in front of the cafe. As far as Genaro is concerned, Castleman hasn’t been retaliating over his treatment due to the anti-mask stance.
“[Detractors are] trying to ruin his livelihood because they hate him as a person, and if you hate him as a person, just don't go in there, don’t talk to him,” Genaro said. “He's a human, just like the rest of them, you know? And I just hate seeing the animosity around here, [it's] kind of getting a little childish in my eyes. I'm not right-wing, I'm not left-wing, I'm just right in the middle and I want to be left alone. It's really disgusting, calling for his family to die and s—t like that.”
Castleman agreed.
“I think at this point, you know, people who don't want to come in here have made the choice not to come in here,” he said. “And that was kind of my request all along. If this environment makes you uncomfortable, unfortunately I won't have your business right now. Maybe I'll have it in the future, but that's the price I'm willing to pay right now.”
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