Minority business owner speaks out after restaurant is vandalized by Denver rioters: Please don’t destroy
Saki Melius, owner of Menya Ramen & Poke in Denver, explains her story on ‘Fox and Friends.’
A Denver ramen shop owner was about to open her doors for business earlier this week when she discovered her restaurant had been targeted by rioters overnight.
In an interview on "Fox & Friends" with host Ainsley Earhardt, Menya Ramen & Poke owner Saki Melius remembered that the first thing she saw was that her dumpster was moved onto the street and was on fire. It was only as she walked into the store that she noticed the shattered glass.
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"I knew that our window was shattered that night. But, on the next day that I came in, [I] decided that I'm going to clean up to open the store. But, I couldn't do it. I just stood there with a broom in my hands and just [stared] out the window. And, I just stood [there] and cried," she recalled.
In response, Melius then lined the windows with messages pleading for rioters to leave the business alone. The messages read: “Please don’t destroy our restaurant” and “Minority-owned business.”
Denver police stand along 14th Street during a protest outside the State Capitol over the death of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man in police custody in Minneapolis, Thursday, May 28, 2020, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Melius, a native of Japan, said her goal in opening Menya Ramen & Poke was a simple one: "serving good, authentic food."
"It's my passion and we have been doing this for a long time," she explained.
"And, our business is still new. We purchased this business last August. And, we have been working really hard up to this point," Melius told Earhardt. "And, [these] last couple [of] months [have] been really, really hard on us simply because we weren't able to open for a little bit -- for about a month. And, after we opened, I had to limit the number of employees that I could have inside in order to control the labor cost."
She also reported that her restaurant's sales had declined to about 10 percent compared to what it was making before the coronavirus pandemic.
According to Melius, they were hoping that they would be open to dining customers this week at 50 percent capacity.
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"And, we [were] really hoping that this [would] be our great new start," she admitted. "But, unfortunately since our window is broken, I decided not to do the dining for now until it gets repaired."
"So, that's the way we are right now," Melius said. But, I have received so many supportive [messages] and actual support from volunteers, our landlord. So, we are hoping to get through this."
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