Local coffeeshop chain Ink! Coffee put out a sandwich board sign that said “Happily gentrifying the neighborhood since 2014.” in a Denver neighborhood that’s gentrifying. A local writer and event organizer, Ru Johnson, tweeted a picture of it and people got really really mad.
Someone spray painted “white coffee” on the wall at ink! Coffee in Five Points and broke a window there in what appears to have been retaliation for a sign the business placed out front this week…
… The sign went viral on social media, motivating so many one-star reviews and angry posts on ink’s Facebook page Wednesday night that the coffee-shop chain shut down the review function.
The Aspen-born company apologized for the sign Wednesday, first with a short message on Twitter and Facebook and later with a longer statement from founder and CEO Keith Herbert. But many people made it clear they did not feel the responses, some of which cast the sign as a joke, were enough.