Bear-Hugging Pizzeria Owner Feel Boycott After Obama Visit

Pizza and politics may not mix, at least a restaurant owner photographed bear-hugging President Obama.

Scott Van Duzer, the owner of the Florida pizza shop, struck fame for a photograph of him lifting President Barack Obama off the floor with a bear hug at his Big Apple Pizza & Pasta Restaurant in Fort Pierce in Sunday during a last-minute visit from the Commander-in-Chief.

The photograph made the front pages of newspapers around the country and the image was an Internet sensation at warp speed.

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The good will was short-lived for Van Duzer though. He told Politico that people are boycotting his business because of the famous presidential hug.

“People are saying a lot of bad things and boycotting my restaurant,” Scott Van Duzer, 46, told Politico. “There’s no middle line anymore, and that’s exactly what’s wrong with our country right now.”

And on Monday, Van Duzer found that the Yelp profile page for his pizza place was inundated with hundreds of reviews, “making it perhaps the most politically charged pizza review board around,” according to the New York Times.

“Politics aside. I hate this place is gonna get any kind of publicity. The pizza is terrible and greasy. NOTHING like NY,” wrote Smith K. of Knoxville, Tenn., according to the Times.

Some came to his defense and said pizza and politics should not mix.

“Pizza is Pizza and one should be judged on how good the crust is and not your political stance,” wrote Rob S. of San Francisco, the Times reported.

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