Busboys and Poets' 'Free Palestine' cocktail draws complaints from Jewish patrons

Busboys and Poets, the Washington-area restaurant and bookstore chain founded by Iraqi American activist Andy Shallal, has added a $14 cocktail called “Free Palestine” - made with Tito's vodka and watermelon - to its menu, drawing complaints from Jewish patrons, Jewish Insider reported on October 14, 2026.

According to the report by Haley Cohen, the chain offered the drink free earlier this month to the first 100 customers who filmed and posted a promotional video of themselves saying the slogan. The chain's 14th Street location also features a mural whose painted table legs carry the phrases “Long Live the Intifada” and “From the River to the Sea, free Palestine.”

Jewish patrons told the outlet the drink makes them feel unwelcome, noting the slogan carries particular weight in Washington, where federal prosecutors allege the man accused of killing two Israeli Embassy staffers outside the Capital Jewish Museum in May 2025 shouted the phrase after the shooting.

Shallal defended the cocktail in a Facebook post replying to a longtime customer who asked him to remove it. He said the name was meant as a gesture of solidarity with Palestinians, comparing it to the Black Lives Matter movement and arguing that highlighting one group's suffering does not diminish another's, and pointed to his decades of Arab-Jewish dialogue work, including co-founding the Peace Cafe. He did not specifically address the request to remove the drink from the menu.