Lake in the Hills' UpRising Bakery & Café subjected to threats, vandalism, protest plans over drag show
LAKE IN THE HILLS, Ill. (CBS) -- A café in Chicago's far northwest suburbs is getting threats after an advertisement for a drag show.
As CBS 2's Marissa Perlman reported, worried staffers at UpRising Bakery & Café in Lake in the Hills met with police Wednesday night.
Threatening notes and human feces have been left at the door of the café, and now protests are planned for outside the business on Saturday – when the drag show is set to take place.
The staff are now preparing for potential violence.
The phone has been ringing off the hook at UpRising Bakery & Café. Some of the callers are angry.
"That one was bad," Jenny Carbajal of UpRising said after taking a hostile call from a woman. "She started questioning us on why we're doing what we're doing."
What UpRising is doing is hosting a Starry Night Drag Brunch for this Saturday. Owner Corinna Sac posted an advertisement online.
She spoke to performers about keeping their acts kid-friendly, in hopes families could come together.
"That is where people are going to the extreme - and saying that we're grooming children and we're pedophiles," Sac said.
The next day, Sac woke up to hundreds of hateful comments and fake negative reviews online. And that was just the beginning.
"We've had people spit on our bakery case. We've had feces left outside our door. We've had notes that 'pedophiles work here' outside," she said.
And even Wednesday, police had to escort a woman out from the business after causing a scene and disrupting business.
"I have never seen this kind of hate in the community," Sac said.
Sac created the event in hopes of bringing in more customers. Inflation has been hurting her bottom line.
Instead, some of her longest-standing customers have said they will never support her business again.
"As we all keep telling each other here, if we lose a few bad apples to gain a whole apple tree, we'll do it - if that's what it takes," Sac said.
And despite the hate, Sac said customers are calling and coming in just to buy a cookie or two – so as to show support.
For Sac, she said making a statement is living up to the name of her business – UpRising.
"I hope this is not the end," she said. "But if it is, then it feels right – because we're doing what we feel is right."
The Lake in the Hills Police Department said in a statement that they started receiving messages in early July from neighbors concerned about the performance. Police also say they found no violations for the event in the Lake in the Hills Municipal Code.