WASHINGTON — A newly opened restaurant that is also a bar and retail store in the nation’s capital has named one of its cocktails the “Pill Cosby.” The drink even features floating pill capsules as an attraction.
Diet Starts Monday is operated by best friends David Gentry and John Geiger, who also founded a clothing brand of the same name. Gentry told the Washingtonian that the cocktail is meant to raise awareness of date rape.
“It lets people be a little more aware,” he told the publication.
Photos of the pill-topped cocktail made their way around social media and ignited a cultural inferno on Twitter on Monday. Coincidentally, Monday was also the day jury selection began for legendary comedian Bill Cosby, who is accused of being a serial sex predator who drugs his victims before taking advantage of them.
Incidentally, Cosby joins other Black influencers with ties to D.C. on the list of namesake cocktails — Taraji P. Henson, Dave Chappelle, Marvin Gaye, and Marion Barry (the former D.C. mayor who had his own set of legal and ethical transgressions) — who also have their own drinks. Of course, the other stars don’t have more than several dozen allegations of rape and sexual assault piled up against them.
On Twitter, the reaction to the drink was furious and quick. People told the men who made up the cocktail name that their sexual assault joke wasn’t funny.
Hi @dietstartsmon__ your “Pill Cosby” drink perpetuates rape culture. It’s gross.
Rape. Is. Not. Funny.
— Sophie Ellman-Golan (@EgSophie) May 22, 2017
may shock you to learn the three geniuses behind the Pill Cosby, an actual drink being actually served, are all men https://t.co/eNXfiGvuNE pic.twitter.com/lPVTfm8VsK
— Caty Green (@catygreen) May 22, 2017
The co-founders — Davin Gentry, John Geiger and Kevin “Scooty” Hallums — pulled the drink off the menu by Monday afternoon and apologized profusely for their faux pas. The men, who refused to answer multiple media inquiries for a rationale behind making the drink, instead issued this statement on Twitter:
This drink was not made with any intent to offend anyone, especially not victims of rape. We take full responsibility.
— Diet Starts Monday (@dietstartsmon__) May 22, 2017
The drink has since been removed from the menu and we apologize to anyone who felt offended by this.
— Diet Starts Monday (@dietstartsmon__) May 22, 2017
Diet Starts Monday’s Yelp reviews are tanking quickly. “Don’t give your money to a place that profits off rape jokes. More importantly, send a message to corporations that if they continue to normalize and poke fun at rape, their businesses will fail. Money talks. Let’s yell.” wrote Eileen C., one representative review.
One photo on Twitter showed a “Rapey Douches” sign added to the business’s front door.
There’s a note up for the Pill Cosby people pic.twitter.com/2Zyz8xpWMb
— Kobayashi Mar-u-Lago (@jackoffkyle) May 22, 2017
The restaurant is around the corner from Ben’s Chili Bowl, which used to hold Cosby in high esteem. Cosby used to take his then-girlfriend (now wife) Camille to the iconic restaurant and they put a mural of Cosby on its wall. That mural was painted over in January, after months of intense pressure from their clientele, although the owners said the decision was made because the facade needed refreshing.
