This Restaurant Was Forced To Rebrand Because It Was Named After A Communist Dictator

Because, y'know, it was named after a communist dictator.

A restaurant has been forced to rebrand completely, just two weeks after it opened, because it was named after communist dictator Ho Chi Minh.

Instagram: @unclebiahoi

The Australian establishment was a Vietnamese beer café in the Queensland city of Brisbane that caused controversy for both its name and its advertising, which featured heavily militarised imagery.

abc.net.au

The restuarant was forced to close its doors on Sunday after more than 100 people, including Vietnam veterans, protested outside.

Channel 7 / brisbanetimes.com.au

After the restaurant had been open for a little over two weeks, its director Anna Demirbek posted on Instagram about threats of violence towards both the staff and the business.

Instagram: @unclebiahoi

"UNCLE HO CLOSES FOR THE DAY DUE TO DEATH THREATS," wrote Demirbek.

"We are, and have always been, fully conscious that the brand Uncle Ho would be sensitive. It is not, for the record, the first or only business in Australia bearing such a name.

"We are not a communist money laundering operation set up by Vietnamese Accountants, as one agitator has suggested. We are not communist sympathisers.

We have no position on the political or historical landscape of Vietnam. We do however, celebrate the Bia Hoi which emanated from the North of Vietnam – Hanoi.

"Our company is an Australian company, the Business name approved and registered with the Australian Government as a legal trading name without question or query. Here we are simply creating good times and in the process creating jobs. We employ many Australians. We have employed many Vietnamese nationals as well, who find no offence in the brandname. Some are from the North. Some of these staff are from the South.

"Similarly we have had many Vietnamese Immigrants dine at the venue already, who have loved everything about our quality of food, beer and the venue. They too have commented that the brandname is inoffensive to them.

"It is these people we are today having to protect. Despite the organisers of the protest maintaining that this is a ‘peaceful protest’, over the past 24 hours management have received death threats and threats of burning down the building our business is housed in. This is unacceptable, bullying behaviour."

Today, it was announced the restuarant will change its name from Unclo Ho's to Uncle Bia Hoi, but not before people had already flooded the establishment's Facebook page with negative reviews.

Facebook: Uncle

Facebook: Uncle

Facebook: Uncle

BuzzFeed News has contacted Uncle Bia Hoi for further comment.