With such a vibrant street vendor scene in California, you’re never too far away from an affordable, freshly-cooked meal. While many residents and tourists find it convenient to grab a quick bite on the sidewalk, especially when they’re in a hurry, there are some locals who are not best pleased with the large swathe of street vendors that offer their catering services in public. Case in point, a San Diego business owner was caught on camera attacking a street vendor outside of their establishment. Making things worse, the pub owner claims that these street traders have had an adverse impact on his business, which has had to close down permanently.
In the 57-second snippet of footage that’s currently making the rounds online, the owner of Henry’s Pub in downtown San Diego can be seen running up to a street vendor outside of his restaurant. Sporting a black long-sleeved t-shirt, dark blue jeans, and a black trader’s belt, the business owner grabs the street vendor’s red food trolley and proceeds to push it over and angrily throw it onto the sidewalk. While doing so, you can hear him yell a warning to the street trader, “Run away! Run away!“
While this goes on, you can also hear an onlooker yelling at the owner, shouting, “Leave him alone you f**ing dumba** broke a** b*tch! F*ck you, b*tch!” To this, the owner sounds like he’s responding with, “Grow up! Grow up!” to the woman, while giving her an offensive gesture with his hand and heading back into his restaurant. There’s further back and forth between the onlookers and the business owner, but it’s hard to discern what is being said. From what we can gather, it sounds like he’s accusing the street vendor of “scamming motherf*ckers on their credit cards.”
The end of the clip cuts to a brief moment where the cameraman asks a Henry’s Pub employee on the door for some extra context. “Alright, so Henry’s is acting really weird. I don’t know what’s going on. We’re just trying to-” explains the man recording. The employee then interrupts and gives us some insight, saying, “I think this is really just closing down because it’s having to close down and-” Interjecting, the cameraman attempts to clarify things, “No, no. Henry’s is permanently closing down in a couple of weeks?” Correcting him, however, the employee confirms, “No, today.”
Across social media, viewers largely sided with the street vendor and condemned the actions of the San Diego business owner. Over on Reddit, one user chimed in with, “If a street vendor is able to put your restaurant out of business, the issue was never the street vendor” with another commenter declaring, “With that attitude, it’s no wonder they’re closing!” Meanwhile, over on X, one commenter penned:
Funny how “illegal street vendors” are the demise of brick-and-mortar businesses. I always thought it was paying 15.99 for a hotdog that isn’t as good as the vendors hotdog. What about all the overpriced price gouging food from these “brick and mortar” locations? Yeah, I’ll pass on paying $20 for a sub-par hamburger too. If you want to stay in business, make quality food and stop gouging the customers, you go out of business because you don’t know how to run a business, not because a guy in a hotdog cart is running you out of business. You guys are idiots.
via X
Interestingly, in an Instagram post on the restaurant’s official social media page, the pub released a statement apologising for the “embarrassing” and “upsetting” incident.
As of right now, Henry’s Pub’s official website states that it is currently closed for business. It’s unclear whether the police were called to the incident, but we’re hoping that no one was hurt and the street vendor who was targeted walked away unscathed.
