Angry NRA Members Bombard the Wrong Restaurant With Negative Reviews

Ellen’s Cafe, a restaurant in Old Town Spring, is changing its name after getting mistaken for a Dallas eatery that’s currently embroiled in a controversy involving the National Rifle Association.

The quiet eatery in Old Town Spring has been targeted with negative online reviews that don’t have anything to do with its food or service, according to Click2Houston. The reviewers are mistaking Ellen’s Cafe for Ellen’s, a southern restaurant in Dallas that made headlines for criticizing the National Rifle Association’s members who were in Dallas for their annual conference and added a pledge to donate a portion of its earnings to organizations that lobby for gun control measures on the bottom of its receipts.

According to the restaurant’s owners, a name change was already in the works, but it’s coming sooner than planned. “It can be very damaging. And I understand people are using their 1st Amendment rights to speak out on the issue and that’s great. But just keep in mind who you’re rating and to make sure it’s who you want to rate, because you can damage what we worked so hard to build back up,” Ellen’s Cafe owner Jessica Lynn said. Her husband Matthew Lynn, added, “We had planned on changing the name to Lynn’s Table. This is probably gonna accelerate that a little bit.”

The Lynns have attempted to quiet the backlash by posting a message on Ellen’s Cafe’s Facebook page clarifying that it is not in any way affiliated with the similarly-named Dallas restaurant, and noting that both owners are concealed carry permit holders and are members of the National Rifle Association.

It’s unclear when Ellen’s Cafe will change its name to Lynn’s Table, but expect for the swap to happen soon.

• Old Town Spring restaurant may expedite name change due to mix-up [Click 2 Houston]
• NRA’s Visit to Dallas Prompts Ellen’s Owner to Get Political [EDFW]