F Street Station, a popular watering hole in downtown Anchorage, is being dragged through the proverbial mud by radical leftists on social media this week, after the bar management posted a clever and brutally honest comment on the company’s well-known comment chalkboard:
“We now live in a world where your kid cannot pretend to be an Indian … But a grown man can pretend to be a woman.”
The leftists went nuts. Several started a social media campaign to destroy the bar: “Allies, time to do your thing,” wrote one, and included the F Street Station phone number.
Another wrote, “…if y’all work there I’d fuckin quit asap…unless of course you’re racist and transphobic too.” It appears the words “transphobic” and “racist” have been the most popular among the haters on Twitter, referring to the popular saying about kids, Indians, and men-as-women that has been making the rounds.
The Mudflats (a former leftist blog with a Twitter account) wrote more civilly than most and with less acidity than usual: “This is F Street Station in Anchorage. Time to learn to make your own French onion soup, people.”
One person suggested that the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce expel the business, and a local nonprofit dedicated to LGBTQ people used the occasion to start a fundraising drive to raise money for its cause of “Celebrating Queer Alaskans.”
The hate came fast and furious over the past few days, with dozens of nasty comments on Twitter and so many negative reviews from fake customers on Yelp that the review website had to shut down the comment section for the bar. It was being bombarded by people who have probably never been to Anchorage and their reviews of reuben sandwiches and French onion soup were smothered with a smearing of fakery.
TripAdvisor also suspended comments on its page for F Street Station. Although the establishment has a four-star rating from nearly 1,000 reviewers, TripAdvisor said that “Due to a recent event that has attracted media attention and has caused an influx of review submissions that do not describe a first-hand experience, we have temporarily suspended publishing new reviews for this listing. If you’ve had a firsthand experience at this property, please check back soon – we’re looking forward to receiving your review.”
Even former gubernatorial candidate Les Gara got in on the Twitter action, calling on the bar to sincerely apologize.
But whether that will dissuade longtime customers is another matter. In 2015, now-Rep. Zack Fields wrote glowingly about F Street Station’s food and ambiance in a long review for the Anchorage Press:
“F Street Station has been serving food and drinks in the same downtown Anchorage location since before statehood. With brass rails at the double bars, honey-toned wood paneling, and white smocked line cooks, it is a space that suspends time for those who enter. The food is unpretentious and impeccable, served straight from the kitchen for patrons who sit at the bar,” Fields wrote.
“Eating a meal at this often-packed establishment is a privilege; in a city full of mediocre and overpriced restaurants, F Street Station is consistently flawless,” Fields wrote, and then proceeded to wax poetic about the thin-sliced roast beef cooked to perfection for the roast beef sandwiches, and the exquisite Friday French dip lunches: “This French dip ($11) is the best I’ve eaten in Anchorage or anywhere else. It is certainly the finest lunch available in Anchorage for less than $20. After countless Friday French dip lunches, I’ve never encountered dry, overdone, or underdone meat. The French bread roll has never been under or over toasted. The cheese has always been perfectly melted, broiled briefly on the rolls until it bubbles slightly. The fries are always cooked correctly, and are real fries from potatoes-a surprisingly rare phenomenon. No wonder, then, that they sell out so quickly. Most Fridays, the line cooks call out ‘last dip’ right around noon.”
Fields went on to exclaim profusely about the buttered clams and calamari, the shrimp, and the pasta. Anyone who knows Rep. Fields knows he does not hand out compliments to conservatives, or to anyone for that matter, but he closed his review by writing:
“In some ways, it isn’t surprising F St has been around for more than a half century. It serves a very limited menu with unpretentious and expertly prepared food. The reason that certain dishes run out is because the food is sourced in limited supplies for maximum freshness. F St doesn’t have or need such trivialities as a website or Facebook page: Judging by the crowds, a significant percentage of Anchorage residents know it continues to be one of the best places to eat in town.”
F Street Station: Where the food is excellent and free speech is still a thing. For now.
