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Pelligrino Restaurant was vandalized on Tuesday night. COURTESY PAMELA BLACKBURN
Pellegrino's Restaurant was vandalized on Tuesday night. COURTESY PAMELA BLACKBURN
Pellegrino's Restaurant was vandalized on Tuesday night. COURTESY PAMELA BLACKBURN
Brian and Pamela Blackburn planned to spend Tuesday prepping the dining room at their Noyac restaurant, Pellegrino’s Pizza Bar and Restaurant, for the long-awaited reopening of phase three indoor dining.
Instead, they spent the day power washing racial slurs and profanity from the front of their Noyac Road eatery. Vandals spray painted the N-word and a common four-letter obscenity, as well as “white matters,” and “slaves are white,” and more, across the building. Green painted letters, over 2 feet high in some places, marked the white soffit and filled three picture windows. The front door and the right side of the building were tagged with racist language.
The couple learned of the defacing Tuesday morning.
“I was alerted to it by a phone call from my aunt and a cousin who were driving by,” Ms. Blackburn said. “Honestly, my first reaction was shock, then anger and just really disbelief … you don’t expect something like that to happen to you.”
When she and Mr. Blackburn arrived at the restaurant, she recalled, was even more upsetting.
“Seeing it in person was a little bit more intense,” she said.
Her feelings shifted from anger to sadness.
She took to social media and crafted a Facebook post reporting that she and Mr. Blackburn, “spent the day scrubbing and power washing this person’s anger away.”
Some of what she described as “disgusting words and phrases and racial slurs” were hidden behind a hedge on the site. The couple washed shingles and windows, easily removing the graffiti.
“We wanted to get rid of the words as quickly as possible,” Ms. Blackburn said.
On Wednesday morning, a professional cleaning company removed the remainder of the spray paint.
Feelings of anger and hurt morphed into being thankful the damage could be washed away, she continued.
“No windows were broken, nothing stolen, and thank God nobody was injured,” Ms. Blackburn said.
“The main feeling we are left with, however, after all of the visible evidence is gone is one of sadness,” Ms. Blackburn’s post continues. “We feel so sad that this is the state of our world, our country, our community. And this is not a new situation by any means but we need for all of you to really think about what is happening right now in this country. In the year 2020. This kind of hate and racism and pure ignorance is STILL HAPPENING. And so many people are STILL IGNORING it or worse, taking part in it.”
As soon as the couple arrived at their restaurant Tuesday morning, Ms. Blackburn called the Southampton Town Police. A patrol officer arrived and took pictures, and, the couple was asked to delay cleaning until after a detective was able to view the scene.
Ms. Blackburn was told the case would be investigated and camera footage from the North Sea Fire Department substation next door would be viewed. Security camera at the restaurant caught a grainy image of a gloved hand and the top of what looked like a head covered by a bandanna. Their camera set the time of the vandalism as 12:52 a.m. about an hour after the restaurant closed.
Police are actively investigating the matter, according to Lieutenant Susan Ralph, the department’s spokeswoman. Right now, it’s labeled as making graffiti. The lieutenant noted that in order to be classified as a hate crime, it would need to target a specific person or group.
“I don't think we were personally targeted,” Ms. Blackburn said, calling the family establishment “a convenient canvas.”
Describing herself as a “very strong supporter of equality,” she said she has no tolerance or patience for bigotry. In her social media post, Ms. Blackburn told friends, “Don’t be upset this happened to us, to Pellegrino’s. Be upset that this is happening. Period.”
