As one can expect, the blowback following a restaurant owner’s offensive comment on a Facebook post was immediate, fierce and relentless. The statement appeared beneath a Facebook post by Cleveland Scene of an article announcing the imminent opening of Ciao Bistro in Ohio City.

In response to an innocuous comment about the business, owner Shawn Taylor (or somebody with access to his personal Facebook account; see his full now-deleted explanation and statement below) penned the three little words that likely doomed his business before it even opened: “liberal white cunts.”

Attempts to whitewash the incident included deleting the abhorrent comment, naturally, apologizing, and throwing his (fictional?) social media manager wholly and completely under the bus. Obviously, none of it was sufficient in quelling the uproar, which rose to a fever pitch in a matter of hours thanks to screenshots, social media, online comments and Reddit, which has clocked in 175 comments. Eg. “RIP Ciao Bistro (10/25/18-10/23/18)”

While many who have chimed in are taking pleasure in the bottomless pit of schadenfreude, made all the worse by the ironic name (Ciao!) and the owner’s own declaration in the original Scene preview that follows:

“I’ve been doing this so many years,” Taylor says. “I think every restaurant is driven by food and service. If the food’s not good, you’re not going to make it. If service is not good, you’re not going to make it. Day one will set your tone for the duration.”

But the question remains: What happens next? Can Ciao ever take flight? Will the business open as planned? Can any amount of mea culpa repair the damage?

The Ciao Bistro business page has been expunged from Facebook. Neighbors reported seeing the signs being pulled down and some furniture removed from the building on Whitman Avenue.

Calls and texts to the owner have been unreturned, as have calls to the landlord of the building, which recently was home to Cha Pizza.

We’ll update this page if/when we learn anything definitive.

This article appears in Oct 24-30, 2018.

For 25 years, Douglas Trattner has worked as a full-time freelance writer, editor and author. His work as co-author on Michael Symon's cookbooks have earned him four New York Times Best-Selling Author honors, while his longstanding role as Scene dining editor has garnered awards of its own.

20 replies on “Future of Ciao Bistro in Ohio City Unclear after Facebook Comment Labels Neighbors ‘liberal white c*nts’”

  1. He’s bugging out! Dammit! I was hoping for a big noisy protest and maybe another opportunity to have a chat with my old buddy Joe Pagaonakis once again. Opening Day was supposed to be today, right? Looks like the party’s been cancelled. The necktie party, that is. Shee-it. I wanted so much to be there! Boo-hiss.

  2. Shawn Taylor was just seen taking his Facebook-originated excuses to the air on Fox 8 news (10/25/18), since he can’t seem to get his Facebook responses to appeal to us. Special. #ISeeYouShawnTaylor

  3. Wow. He’s toast…and still won’t climb out of the toaster. Does he think he can fix this? Seriously?

    Doug said that Shawnhe came back to Cleveland for family reasons.
    He’ll soon be leaving, for stupidity reasons. He’s like the Lion in “The Wizard of Oz”…

    Lion: Arrrrgggh!
    Dorothy: What’s wrong?
    Lion: Somebody pulled my tail!
    Dorothy: You did it to yourself…

    Whatta shmuck!

  4. Saw him…looks like a typical youngish hipster entremanure foodie business dude. No shock there.

    BUT….BUT…BUT…he’s Caucasian! WTF was up with the LWC remark?

    Okay, maybe he doesn’t like libs, and he’s a misogynist a-hole. But “liberal WHITE (c-word)” HUH?

    Oh, yeah, he is still trying to blame it on an “assistant” of some sort…”in another state”…
    He never actually came out and hinted that maybe the assistant was NOT Caucasian and lost his cool.
    That is the ONLY logical explanation…and if he was a good liar, he’d have maybe thrown that one into the mix.

    But he didn’t. You don’t let some jamoke, even a friend or an employee, use your social media accounts like that. One mistake can kill a whole venture, at great financial and legal and social expense to yourself. And cost you your future and your reputation and even your career–if it’s serious enough.

    It’s like giving your alky cousin or druggie son the keys to your house and your car when you go on a business trip –nd saying “Have a good time! Don’t leave a mess! Refill the gas tank!” Who does that? Especially with so much previous restaurant experience? This guy is no newbie in the business. He’s been around the block a few times, in a few places. So I call bullshit on his story, which he simply repeated for the benefit of Fox-8. “What not to do online…and what happens online lasts forever.” That was their angle.

    There was probably no assistant and nobody out of state and nobody to blame but himself. He’s trying to walk back a YUUUUUGE mistake and see this “concept’ through to a Grand Opening. I have a feeling he and his business may be on the idiot box again, and soon, if he continues down this mined road. Picket lines, and picket signs, hostility, and stupidity. I didn’t buy his sob story, and I don’t think anybody else will.

  7. I read the first three sorrys and decided I’m not over such a wildly inexcusable account for a bussiness before it’s even open. Some shit is completely unforgivable. Better luck, next Nazi..

  8. I’m disappointed it won’t survive long enough for his angry responses to negative Yelp reviews. If he went this crazy on facebook before the place even opened, I can only dream of his responses when someone complained about the food.

  9. I walk by there with my dogs – and he took the sign down and doesn’t look like it will open anytime soon. His bullish rhetoric along with his inability to take constructive criticism does not have any purpose being in Ohio City. Does he not understand the dynamic of the community? Regardless of political views – this is just disgusting behavior that should not be accepted.

  10. Restaurant man bad. He said mean things about soneone so he is a literal Nazi and we must together destroy his livelihood.

  11. Nazi, schmatzi. His moment of stupidity destroyed his own livelihood, you doofus. Using the c-word is more than just a “mean thing” and it did him in as thoroughly as if he’d torched his own business. Good.

  12. How can a troll defend this jerk? What if somebody called your wife or mother or sister a cunt?

  13. You’ve been reported. You may get a visit by a couple of men in dark suits, because it sounds like you’re happy those Jews died., you f’king a-hole.

  16. Fuck off yourself, asshat. SCENE really needs to do some housecleaning and get rid of the right-wing trolls and shit-throwers that have polluted their site for years. You want to play games here, bring it on. I have all day and all night. If battling fascism means battling it here, so be it. Enjoy the next couple of years before you and your ilk are buried on the ashpile of history’s losers.

  18. So it’s been about a month now. I don’t live in Ohio City. Did he open the joint? How’s bizznizz?

  19. Took this joint six months to die? The real question is why…and how…it survived at all…

  20. Hes opening other restaurants in Mentor by the name of
    The Kitchen, good food but lousy service.

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