Taqueria La Ventana on Cedar Springs Road and, inset, Firebird Restaurant Group owner Mike Karn
A report published online Thursday morning, Oct. 11, by the Dallas Business Journal detailing donations by North Texas business and community leaders to Donald Trump has prompted calls for a boycott against restaurants in the Firebird Restaurant Groups.
Mike Karns is the owner and CEO of Firebird Restaurant Group, which includes more than 50 locations for El Fenix, Snuffers, Village Burger Bar, Meso Maya, Tortaco and Taqueria La Ventana — including the Taqueria La Ventana that recently opened on Cedar Springs Road, in the heart of the gayborhood. Firebird also owns Sunrise Mexican Foods.
According to the DBJ report, based on data from the Federal Election Commission detailing on all contributions to Donald J. Trump For President Inc. made between July 1, 2017 and June 30, 2018, Karns donated $2, 700 to the campaign. In a phone call with me at Dallas Voice Friday evening about 5:30 p.m., however, Karns said that while he had once paid to hear Trump speak he does not consider that a political donation, and that he has not made any political donations to Trump.
Karns also said he doesn’t “even know if the amount they reported is accurate.”
After I had spoken with Karns, someone sent me a link to the Federal Election Commission’s website that indicates Karns donated $2,700 to Donald J. Trump Inc., based in New York, on Oct. 24, 2017, and that he made a second donation, also for $2,700 and also on Oct. 24, 2017, to Trump Victory, a political action committee based in Massachusetts.
(I readily acknowledge that I am not well versed on the technicalities of reporting political donations, so if it turns out this is, in fact, the same donation, I’m sorry. Also, full disclosure here, Taqueria La Ventana on Cedar Springs Road has advertised in Dallas Voice.)
Karns said that “some time ago” Trump was speaking at an event taking place near one of his restaurants in downtown Dallas, and that he went to hear the president speak. “I did pay a fee to go watch him speak,” Karns said, “but that was not a political donation. I have not made any political donations to Donald Trump.”
Karns described himself as a “proud Republican,” but added that while he is “financially conservative,” he is also “socially very liberal. I don’t believe in subscribing to a certain set of rules and picking out a box based on those rules, then staying strictly in that box.
Karns said that he and his wife Valerie, a designer, live in the Turtle Creek area and are “very big supporters” of Oak Lawn and the LGBT community, which is one of the main reasons he chose to open Taqueria La Ventana on Cedar Springs Road. He said he and his wife contribute to a number of LGBT and HIV/AIDS organizations and events, including DIFFA/Dallas.
In addition, he pointed out that the Cedar Springs location of Taqueria La Ventana is a member of the North Texas GLBT Chamber of Commerce, and that the restaurant, as part of its grand opening, hosted a fundraising event for Lambda Legal.
— Tammye Nash
Then he should come out publicly and speak at an event. Any event, will do. Take his wife to one of the many gala events or just come out to a fundraiser and speak. In the bigger picture $2,700 is not much more than a mid class rent payment in Oaklawn or the Cheetos tab at dinner. A organization can spend more than that on a float in the parade.
ANY amount that supports D Trumps campaign of hate and inequality is too much, especially when their business is on the strip that was just dedicated as an historic area for the Gay community. They can have their own views, but they can’t expect the support of the gay community on our own strip… The should consider closing.
Actually, $2,700 is the maximum donation from an individual. He literally gave as much as he was legally allowed to.
I commend him, it’s a start.
Financially conservative but socially liberal is like saying you’re a little bit pregnant. If you stand for Republican values, then you are a Republican. That includes privatization of health care, which negatively effects LGBTQ and all Americans for that matter. Increased cost of living with stagnant wages while the rich get richer…he has to own that too. Low unemployment is great however, low paying jobs that keep families overworked and underpaid leaving kids to raise themselves while Mom and Dad have to hustle.
He’s the owner and CEO of a successful corporation and doesn’t know where that kind of money was going???? I say this makes him either a liar or an idiot. Either way he’s not getting my money. I don’t care if does “have gay friends.” Oh….and this will be the easiest boycott ever for me since I think his restaurants are pure garbage and never go to them anyway.
This sounds like the beginning of a “Trump doesn’t hate gay people” conversation.
Well, all his businesses just lost my patronage.
So it is wrong to shun homosexuals or businesses they own but it is great to do the same to others who happen to hold different political opinions from you?
Yep. He made his bed now he can lie in it.
No. These two things are not the same.
It’s about giving money to groups who actively work and legislate against our own interests.
So much “tolerance and acceptance” from the very people that demand it.
So he can fund efforts to take away our rights, but we’re not allow to respond? That’s not “tolerance and acceptance.” That’s stupidity.
Nobody is trying to take away your “rights”. Quit believing everything you read in the Voice and watch on MSLSD.
This is a free country – he world does not revolve around gay people.