Occupy Misguidedly Protests Small Business Tacolicious

(Source: Mission Local)

A group of Occupyists protesting Mission evictions on Saturday afternoon wrongly accused Tacolicious and its owner, Joe Hargrave, a small-business owner of evildoings. Brimming with Tea Party-like fervor, hope and confusion, "hundreds" of Occupy ilk (some of whom recently re-located to San Francisco and the Mission themselves) converged outside the Valencia Street location take action against evictions in the Mission. The group claimed that Tacolicioius, a noted restaurant serving titular tacos and more, wanted to evict the building at 739-741 Valencia. Problem is that Tacolicious doesn't own the building. They can't evict anyone. They don't want to evict anyone.

"Both diners and staff had no idea what was going on. And you know what, it’s likely that the most protestors didn't, either," reports Inside Scoop. And how. While righteous protesters shouted confused gems like, "The owners of Tacolicious want to evict us" and "A taco shop has been set up under our noses," the restaurant's owner had nothing to do with said evictions allegedly in progress.

Grub Street reports:

Several neighborhood-based, tenants-rights-focused protests happened Saturday in connection with Occupy SF, and the Mission protest landed in front of the new Tacolicious (741 Valencia) where some upstairs tenants claim they are being evicted. As it happens, Tacolicious does not own the building — business owner Joe Hargrave just recently opened in the space which is owned by restaurateur Jack Knowles, who himself plans to open Chapel restaurant and Preservation Hall West next door, sometime next year. Hargrave tells Grub Street that the tenants are upset to have new downstairs neighbors, but that he's confused as to how this protest took shape, especially since he's not aware of any eviction papers having been filed. "The Occupy movement showing up? That was really weird," Hargrave said. "I'm not the landlord. I wanted to be like, I get turned down by banks too, you guys. It was really nonsensical."

A chilling reminder that the road to Hell can be paved with good intentions and a few protest signs.

Mission Local's audio report below: