Primanti Bros., JD Vance explain incident at Pa. stop as social media calls for boycott

If you took a spin through social media on Saturday you probably saw Primanti Brothers trending, and if you took the time to investigate that you probably know it was a rough day for the restaurant.

Turns out, JD Vance tried to stop in at one of its locations in North Vesailles, Pa., and that got spun into a story that he was denied entry, that Primanti Brothers threatened to call police on him, and booted all of his supporters out.

There's video out there, and many MAGA and right-wing personalities on social media ran with it. Roger Stone was among those calling for a boycott of Primanti.

But the restaurant says that is not what happened at all.

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"Primanti's prides itself on being a staple of the Pittsburgh community and a proud American business that has hosted sitting presidents, politicians and political candidates from across the spectrum for over 90 years," the restaurant said in a statement on X. "Our doors are open to all patrons who wish to dine with us.

"Without any advance notice, today's campaign stop caused some momentary confusion for our staff," the statement continued. "However, Senator Vance and his team were welcomed into our restaurant shortly after and engaged with our guests inside and on the property. Senator Vance's supportive comments that our manager got a little nervous given the secret service, police and crowd accurately reflect the nature of what occurred, and we are glad that it was resolved quickly."

TribLive.com reported that Vance, in fact, interacted with a "small crowd" outside of Primanti's.

"We paid for everybody's food, we gave them a nice tip and of course, when I gave a nice tip, I said, 'No taxes on tips,'" Vance said per TribLive.com "It's all right. Don't hold it against (the worker). She just got a little nervous, but it's a great local business. Let's keep on supporting it."

Sadly, restaurant's explanation and Vance's words seemingly backing that account, seem to have been widely ignored on social media. A talking point among those folks was an August event that the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz campaigned reserved at a Primanti in Moon Township. That event, unlike Vance's drop-in, however, was reportedly coordinated in advance.