The owners of an Italian restaurant in County Durham have responded after locals took offence to a joke on social media.

Residents of Stanley didn’t take too kindly to a controversial joke on Facebook made by Tina Ion, who co-owns Osteria Antonio, when she referred to Stanley as ‘Afghanistanley.’

The 46-year-old, who took over the restaurant in September with her partner, Antonio Grandieri, said it was a term she had not heard before and it came about after a light-hearted conversation with customers on Friday evening.

Ms Ion has now responded with a statement.

Read more: Italian restauranteur explains after calling County Durham town 'Afghanistanley'

The statement in full reads: “I thought that spending the last four months of our lives serving Stanley, I could use an inside joke like “Afghanistanley”,  but I see now that I was wrong.

“A number of local people have made it clear as day for everyone to see, with comments and reactions on social media and under the article in The Northern Echo, that we are referred to as “the Italians” or “the outsiders”.  This is not all people - attention, not all - don’t try to put words in my mouth again! But it’s not just a few either.

“I am profoundly worried at the levels of racism those specific commenters have displayed so openly. It seems to me that in their mentality, the term “Afghanistanley is racist because in THEIR mentality being compared to or associated with other ethnicities is offensive. Some of the comments go as far as distinguishing between "the white people of Stanley” as opposed to “Italians” and “Romanians” in a demonstration of abhorrent ignorance.

“Who will give the news to them that England, Italy and Romania are all geographically in Europe at only 2-3 hours of flight one from another?

“And that most people in Europe are white, therefore nothing special about being white or any other colour for that matter.

“And someone please  update them that in 2023 all colours and ethnicities should be well passed over the use of  terms of “us” versus “them”.

“Those few individuals dare call me racist because to THEM the term “Afghan”  is offensive. Shame, shame, shame on them!

“Me a Romanian, my Italian partner, our Italo-Romanian son, my Italian father-in-law and our Japanese dog, we are an international family, citizens of the world, we have lived in Romania, Italy and the UK, each of us speak more than one language.

“I used the term ironically as it resonated with the struggle and the war me and my partner have carried with some members of the town since day one of our coming to Stanley and it was used precisely in the context of one of the many debates on Stanley Facebook community groups, in this case ‘Stanley Shitterbox’ where a bunch of people who hardly know where our restaurant is located, would diss our food and staff and encourage others to keep away from our restaurant.

“For whoever, might care to know, we have PURCHASED the business for £13,500 from the former holder of the lease and we also pay the beauty of £2700 monthly rent and utilities to the landlord. So let me repeat. WE OWN THE BUSINESS! We rent the premises, but we own the business called Osteria Antonio.

“We are not just a “managing team”.

“And if One Collection Group wanted to make a statement, they should have done so from their own social pages under their own names!

“I do not need to apologise to anyone. I have not insulted the town. Like I said in my previous statements, my genuine  customers are people of Stanley, they are kind and love our food; they return regularly and leave stellar reviews that you can see on our google page and our Facebook page, before the 1* attack that is.

“However, I am saddened to see how easily some of them lend an ear to social media interpretations against their own positive experience of our enthusiasm to accommodate and serve them and with the quality of our food.

“I tried to seize any opportunity to reach out a friendly hand to the community by offering more than value for money to children at Christmas when, voluntarily  bearingthe business losses it entailed, we created a magical Santa’s Grotto, bought toys and sweets, prepared generousbreakfasts and paid waiting staff in money and Italian wine bottles every shift, even if the hours of work were less than the full hour, and we only charged £9.99 per child which is heavily under the amount we invested.

“I don’t want applause, but nobody is speaking  up for us at this time and I think it is only right and fair that people know the hidden or less obvious parts of the background to our story. Yes, there was financial loss but let me tell you, it made our hearts swell with happiness, and we were glad to display to the publicthe joyful photos of happy children and Santa’s Grotto all through December.

“Another point on which I would like people to bear in mind before they judge us: the wages we pay, how much, how lawfully. Please feel free to ask our staff how much they got from their previous job, how much we offered right away and after how long we spontaneously offered a raise. How we treat them in general. And how we unfortunately had to let two of them go because of the effects of continuous, malicious, unjustified boycotts. We lost customers and therefore our ability to offer jobs and wages to local young people.

“I am not denying I did answer back: oh, how I did! And I did enter into debates with a few specific troglodytes who keep  making derogatory comments in public about our business, our staff, our faces, our nationalities, our food - without ever visiting our venue.

“Following the attacks on social media, I have received a large number of threats from private callers.

“A few have been postedto my own and the restaurant’s Facebook pages.

“I have been kindly invited to get of town; had threats to smash the  restaurant windows (though they are the landlord’s windows, not mine, for the record).

“I have received messages expressing a wish that my car might crash  with my family in it;  that is my 16 year old son, my elderly father-in-law fighting Alzheimer’s disease, and my husband Antonio.

“I have been “reminded” that I come from Romania, “a backward hovel outside of the tourist areas”.

“While I might even understand that these angry mob comments use the excuse that the “community stick together during tough times”, I do not understand why, for almost all the four months since opening Osteria Antonio, we have been facing subtle boycotts initially, and more openly and so aggressively now after we answered back.

“But I am here to shine a light on the on the few spiteful people who enjoy hatred and spreading hatred, however much it damages the real interests of the town they live in.  The majority of the people of this town are good and decent people,  and they will stand up for us.

“We have stopped replying too social media comments as that would be counter-productive:people do enjoy a good witch-hunt. And I don’t deny I can be a witch when I think necessary, I have my partner to remind me of that. But I will not tolerate racist comments and private threats. Be informed that me and my staff are busy collecting screenshots of every actionable racist and derogatory comment and statement, as we have always stood against racism and we will demonstrate that family-run businesses are not as vulnerable as people might like to think.

“Also I would like to state that I do not think that a small percentage of disgraceful individuals that depict Stanley as a racist town represent even slightly the whole population of Stanley. I distance myself from such views and I encourage any public opinion out there to not label an entire town based on the shameful conduct of a few individuals.

“I want to close by saying that I will not be bullied away from this town. On the contrary, we are committed to  serving high-quality Italian food under the new business name of Food Education. We believe food is art and the only way we can put our heart into it is by remaining faithful to our cuisine. If you do not want to eat Italian, don’t walk into an authentic Italian eatery. Save your threats and intimidations because I am not afraid of anyone and I stand by this declaration. And trust me, after all the pineapples you asked for on your pizzas and all the mushy pasta, nothing scares me anymore.”

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