Canna Coffee in Northwest was ordered to shut down by D.C. Health just days before its owner was caught on camera berating a delivery driver who didn’t speak English.
In a joint statement released on Thursday, D.C.’s Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection (DLCP) and D.C. Health said a “notice of infraction” had been issued to the Florida Avenue restaurant on May 13, and another on Aug. 8.
The Adams Morgan restaurant — fully titled “CANNA Coffee Ice Cream Cafe MockTail Bar Lounge,” according to its website — has already been under the local microscope following a racially charged encounter on Monday morning between its owner and an Uber Eats delivery driver hailing from Venezuela. The agencies said the two incidents are not related.
D.C. Health had ordered the restaurant to cease operations as of Wednesday, Sept. 11, and followed up on Sept. 18, only to see the restaurant was still in business.
Earlier this week, video of the restaurant owner telling a delivery driver from Venezuela to “learn English” emerged on social media.
On Monday morning, Uber Eats delivery driver Gregorio José Amundarain Lávate said he went to Canna Coffee on Florida Avenue to pick up an order.
“He told me that the order was ready. When I went to go look for the order, he told me I need to learn English. And I told him I don’t speak English. That’s when he became upset,” Amundarain Lávate said through a translator.
D.C. police are currently investigating owner Greg Harris for Monday’s possible hate crime and a case of simple assault.
The DLCP and D.C. Health said their inspections happened before the recent viral video.
Harris said in a post on social media on Thursday, “They thought that they were gonna come here and serve me some sort of lawsuit. … I’m raising my flag, I will rise up from all this hate.”
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