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ASPartOfMe
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24 May 2021, 1:20 am

‘It’s a sensitive subject’: Owner insists 9/11-themed bar isn’t in poor taste

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Bar 9Eleven, a bar in Texas named after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, has shocked and outraged Twitter after a traveler snapped a photo of the Forth Worth pub’s exterior featuring cheery bubble letters.

“Drove by this bar and thought ‘Huh I wonder what that’s about’. Turns out it’s about exactly what you think,” Missouri resident Jesse Tyler wrote on Twitter alongside images taken at the bar named after one of the most galvanizing tragedies in American history.

“I get it, it’s a sensitive subject,” Bar 9Eleven owner Brent Thompson told The Post, insisting the name — yes, after that 9/11 — was never intended to offend.

“If you don’t have all the facts, you probably going to have a negative reaction.”

Bar 9Eleven, he explained, actually serves as the “lounge” area of Tex-Mex restaurant Rio Mambo in the City View area of Fort Worth and got its name nearly 15 years after the tragedy. The establishment’s relatively understated interior features a gallery-like wall with four picture boards, featuring images taken in the aftermath of the attack.

Thompson said the story behind the bar’s name is not a ploy for publicity. He told The Post he had been preparing for the soft opening of his first restaurant on that tragic day in 2001, which took the lives of nearly 3,000 innocent people.

“At the time we opened, 9/11 was just another day of the week,” Thompson said. “But that morning is when my wife called me at the restaurant and told me a plane hit the towers.”

Undeterred, the 62-year-old restaurateur told his wife, “Sweetheart, we’re opening in two and a half hours,” he said. “I didn’t know what it was.”

But it wasn’t until the bar’s 13th anniversary in 2014 that Thompson felt compelled to pay special tribute to their somber opening day, after he heard a sobering statistic on the news that a “high percentage” of Americans would wake up 15 years to the day of the attacks and not remember the tragedy.

Bar 9Eleven also includes decor with a narrative timeline of Sept. 11 that compares Rio Mambo’s opening morning with the events in New York, Pennsylvania and in DC.

While Thompson said his establishment does not make merry of a national tragedy, he hopes the name serves to provide observance of that day.

“I may lose a few customers on this,” Thompson said of the decision to rename the bar area 9Eleven. “But what will not happen to people who come in my restaurant — this restaurant that opened that day — what will not happen is they won’t forget.”

Despite his explanation, it’s no surprise those outside of the Fort Worth, Texas area are scandalized by the name.

On Google, there’s a slew of one-star reviews, though its Yelp page seems to have mediocre three-star reviews — for now.

While the moniker seems to draw criticism from out-of-towners, Thompson said it has a loyal fanbase of locals.


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kitesandtrainsandcats
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24 May 2021, 1:42 am

Knowing nothing about it & being curious I went Googling.
Found this 2016 article in a publication titled Fort Worth Weekly,

https://www.fwweekly.com/2016/05/11/bar ... -disgrace/

Article concludes with,

Quote:
If it’s possible to tastefully theme a bar after a national catastrophe, Bar9Eleven’s owners have done it.

Of course, plenty of others probably think tastefully theming a bar around a national catastrophe is impossible. Apparently, a lot of these folks see the sign from the parking lot and stop what they’re doing to march into the bar and complain. I get it, because that day still triggers strong emotions in many people. But as it happens, Bar9Eleven’s name isn’t without antecedent, because Rio Mambo opened its doors for the very first time on September 11, 2001. Is that a good reason to commemorate your restaurant’s remodel with a touchy subject? I’m the wrong person to ask, because I wasn’t offended. If you are, On the Border is just up the road. –– Steve Steward


That I find quite interesting,
Quote:
after he heard a sobering statistic on the news that a “high percentage” of Americans would wake up 15 years to the day of the attacks and not remember the tragedy.


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cyberdad
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24 May 2021, 3:34 am

I'm assuming the two most popular drinks ordered at this bar are "twin towers" and "boom crash"



BeaArthur
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24 May 2021, 12:28 pm

That makes me sad. I don't think the owners should capitalize on a national tragedy for commercial gain, even though he says the point is to keep people from forgetting. I wouldn't be able to drink there and enjoy myself.


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24 May 2021, 12:32 pm

Tacky tacky tacky.


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Fnord
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24 May 2021, 12:49 pm

Texas Texas Texas.


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24 May 2021, 12:50 pm

There might be a few people who wouldn't mind drinking to the sight of the Twin Towers burning-----but I doubt very many would care to do that.



Fnord
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24 May 2021, 12:53 pm

I would not mind having a few drinks while watching videos of the Al-Yamama Palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia burn.  15 of the 19 terrorists who attacked America on 9/11 were citizens of Saudi Arabia.

Image
The sprawling Al-Yamama Palace in the Saudi capital of Riyadh is the official
residence of the current Saudi monarch King Salman bin Abdulaziz, who has been
king and prime minister of the kingdom since January 2015. A working palace, the
building also serves as the headquarters for the royal court.


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naturalplastic
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24 May 2021, 2:00 pm

It's a dead heat.

In the race to the bottom of taste.

Between this, and that fashion designer I read about some years ago who had runway models dressed in outfits inspired by the Holocaust ( black vertical strips, and shaved heads, and other visuals associated with concentration camp prisoners).



Last edited by naturalplastic on 24 May 2021, 2:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Aspiegaming
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24 May 2021, 2:11 pm

It's Texas. They hate New York, don't they?


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Fnord
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24 May 2021, 4:21 pm

Aspiegaming wrote:
It's Texas. They hate New York, don't they?
They basically have contempt for anything that is not Texan -- New Yorkers, Californians, Mexicans, et cetera.


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Barchan
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24 May 2021, 4:29 pm

If they don't call their house beer "Osama Bin Lager" then that is wasted potential.



cyberdad
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24 May 2021, 4:51 pm

Barchan wrote:
If they don't call their house beer "Osama Bin Lager" then that is wasted potential.


Or Al Qaeda light for those who have to drive :lol:



shlaifu
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24 May 2021, 6:34 pm

Rrading the topic on the index page I felt certain it would be somewhere in Malaysia, next to one of the Hitler-themed bars, and they would be forgiven for not caring an awful lot about the details of historical atrocities that happened far, far away....


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cyberdad
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25 May 2021, 3:07 am

shlaifu wrote:
Rrading the topic on the index page I felt certain it would be somewhere in Malaysia, next to one of the Hitler-themed bars, and they would be forgiven for not caring an awful lot about the details of historical atrocities that happened far, far away....


Ignorance is bliss when it comes to bars.

While we ponrificate on the ethics of a 9-11 bar there's plenty of bars in the US that have a "selective clientele" shall we say

Image

Now how are these not offensive?



naturalplastic
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25 May 2021, 3:22 am

cyberdad wrote:
Barchan wrote:
If they don't call their house beer "Osama Bin Lager" then that is wasted potential.


Or Al Qaeda light for those who have to drive :lol:

Light beer gets you just as drunk. It just has less calories. Its for folks who wanna avoid a beer gut, not for designated drivers.