Local activist organization NorCal Resist has called for a boycott of local cafe Old Soul Co. over allegations that the cafe is knowingly serving ICE agents as of Wednesday, Feb. 18.
Old Soul Co. via Instagram
Tempers flared between NorCal Resist, a local activist organization, and Sacramento-based coffee roaster Old Soul Company. And it’s broken out into a public online feud, resulting in a call to boycott the cafe.
Two volunteers with NorCal Resist’s Court Watch program on Tuesday morning entered the downtown location of the cafe at 555 Capitol Mall and told the baristas that a group of customers were plainclothes ICE agents. According to a social media post by NorCal Resist, the staff told the volunteers to “f— off” and threatened to call the police on them.
Autumn Gonzalez, a volunteer with NorCal Resist, said the group had a conversation with the volunteers who had been in the cafe.
“We fact-checked with everyone from our team before putting the statement out,” Gonzalez said.
Tim Jordan, co-owner of Old Soul, framed things differently.
He said he was not present at the time of the incident. But Jordan said he was told that the NorCal Resist volunteers “burst in and started yelling and making a scene,” and the barista who confronted them “had to get loud and shout back or talk over the people who are yelling.” The barista threatened to call security.
By that evening, the issue had gone viral on social media.
Dueling social media posts
Old Soul posted a statement to its Instagram story and said the professions of the customers were unknown to them. The post said the activists’ “cause is worthy” and that Old Soul “does NOT support any law enforcement tactics that run afoul of justice and American values.” It went on to call NorCal Resist’s actions as “a lack of civility and respect for us and the patrons,” and said “aggressive disrespect won’t be tolerated.” The stories expired around 8 p.m. Wednesday.
Wednesday afternoon, NorCal Resist posted a call to boycott the cafe on its social media channels. The post had more than 14,000 likes and 350 comments as of Friday morning. In addition to the boycott, it asked “people call in and demand that Old Soul begin refusing service to ICE agents immediately.”
NorCal Resist’s post said, after leaving the cafe, the customers in question “proceeded to yell at all our volunteers, telling the people in line at John Moss not to trust us, and demanding our volunteers reveal how much they are being paid.” NorCal Resist said their Court Watch program is entirely volunteer-run.
Old Soul made a new post on Thursday evening to its Instagram reiterating, “Identified ICE personnel are not welcome at Old Soul Co., and will be told they are not being served or welcome at OSC establishments.”
According to Jordan, the cafe has been inundated with calls. He underscored that neither he nor the cafe staff know who the customers are, nor what they do for a living. The NorCal Resist post asked those who called in to “please treat the baristas with kindness if you call.”
Jordan said the group of customers identified by NorCal Resist volunteers came in through the front door which meant they were not employees from the cafe’s building. The John Moss Federal Building, which houses ICE and other federal offices, is across the street.
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Sean Timberlake is the food and dining reporter for The Sacramento Bee. He has been writing professionally for nearly 30 years, and about food for 20. A variety of well-known outlets have published his work, including Food Network, Cooking Channel, CNN, Sunset Magazine and SF Weekly.