August 16, 2025
The owner said calls started to overflow in addition to messages and negative reviews having nothing to do with service.
The owner of the Cherokee Rose restaurant in Stone Mountain, Georgia, is firing back after a visit from the U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sparked controversy, Atlanta News First reported.
When Jonathan Hartnett received a call that Kennedy would be making a stop at his restaurant, he didn’t think anything of it other than it being an honor to serve a United States cabinet member. However, his bartender, Ann Wolfskill, posted a picture she took with the secretary to her Facebook page, and things got out of hand.
“We can’t control who walks through that door. All we can do is do what we do best, focus on the food, the ambiance and the service,” Hartnett said.
The owner reported that calls started to overflow, alongside messages and negative reviews unrelated to service.
“What a ridiculous, horrible choice you’ve made,” one angry viewer said via the restaurant’s voicemail. “I’m less than five miles away, and I’m going to make sure everybody I know boycotts.”
According to WABE, Wolfskill also received calls, urging her to proceed with caution.
“I had a friend call me up and say, ‘Hey, I’d get security if I were you,’” she said. Hartnett says the restaurant has always straddled the fence of politics, and Wolfskill doesn’t follow politics, so she was shocked by the backlash. “Cherokee Rose is not affiliated with any political party or position,” Hartnett was forced to post on the restaurant’s Facebook page.
“We are a restaurant, dedicated to providing excellent food, service, and atmosphere for all guests. Our focus is solely on creating an enjoyable dining experience for everyone in our community.”
The owner was forced to put the Stone Mountain Police Department on notice and is considering security upgrades due to the nature of some of the backlash.“We have mothers and high schoolers and young adults in college that work here, and they don’t deserve that kind of thing,” he said. “This is something that is a complete outlier for our business, and it’s damaging.”
Kennedy was in the area after touring the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters following a gunman opening fire on the building, killing DeKalb Police Officer David Rose before taking his own life. The shooter, identified as Patrick White, believed the COVID-19 vaccine gave him violent and negative thoughts. A known vaccine skeptic, Kennedy, who once projected on a podcast that “there’s no vaccine that is safe and effective,” condemned the attack. “We know how shaken our public health colleagues feel today. No one should face violence while working to protect the health of others,” he said.
However, fans of Cherokee don’t feel a visit from any elected official should cause an issue. “It’s sad that people have become so polarized that your political affiliation (or lack thereof) has to be disclosed. This is a definite problem with our society today…people are so focused on their “party” that they believe the other is the devil (both sides),” Lisa Ross French wrote under the post. “Cherokee Rose is an amazing establishment all around.”
Hartnett seemingly agrees. “People are completely up in arms about the link there with RFK Jr., which is completely irrelevant to our business,” he said. “This thing has spun out of control, and I understand the climate is very sticky right now, but we’re always going to do what we do best, which is running a restaurant.”
Luckily, it seems the Stone Mountain community has come together to save the space for the restaurant in a temporary situation, going back to leaving five-star reviews.
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