Obviously naming a restaurant after a debilitating insect bite is not something that is palatable to our taste buds. But this week, Whole Foods, an American Supermarkets Chain, opened its 365 outlet in California and for partnering with an Asian Restaurant named Yellow Fever.
For many, who have suffered from Yellow Fever or lost a love one found any reference to this totally unsavory. They found the name both “unappetizing and racist.”
Yellow Fever for an Asian restaurant? That’s both unappetizing and racist. https://t.co/uzRDnaMrEt
— Sam Ro (@bySamRo) April 27, 2018
“Yellow Fever” for an “asian” restaurant.
A disease reference *and* a racist af sounding reference.
Who came up with this idea, Richard Spencer? https://t.co/NlZWHfzu0v— S.A. “Hey You Buy My Books” Barton (@Tao23) April 27, 2018
And an oblique reference on Trump
@WholeFoods opened an asian restaurant called “Yellow Fever”, which is seemingly named after a disease which has symptoms including nausea and loss of appetite. Oh, and it has racist overtones, too.
With instinct like that, I imagine those marketers will be serving Trump soon. pic.twitter.com/0l8V3oWE3v
— The Big Shtick™ (@BShtick) April 27, 2018
Netizens found that they were surprised that the management did not find it a problem to call a restaurant Yellow Fever.
This is not a joke. Nobody @WholeFoods or @amazon noticed the problem with calling an Asian restaurant “Yellow Fever.” This was okayed all the way up the chain & actually got built. https://t.co/KMgR0Ck3Ga
— Laura Seay (@texasinafrica) April 28, 2018
But Korean-American co-founder and executive chef, Kelly Kim said that she bears no ill will for the community. “I think it’s been silly, and I think it’s a bit funny that it’s all of a sudden a big deal,” co-founder Kelly Kim told the Daily News.
And in an interview with Next Shark, she said:
“One night, we just said ‘Yellow Fever!’ and it worked. It’s tongue-in-cheek, kind of shocking, and it’s not exclusive — you can fit all Asian cultures under one roof with a name like this. We just decided to go for it.”
Yellow Fever: Try our Asian bowls to feed your soul, except if you’re African or South American because we don’t want your diseased dying asses in our restaurants. Asians totally welcome if they’re DTF.
— Allison Robicelli (@robicellis) April 27, 2018