Why Is One of Miami's Top Chefs Wearing Anti-Immigrant, Neo-Fascist Proud Boys' Apparel?

[TexasTowelie]

Will Crandall, who heads Michael Mina's Stripsteak in the Fontainebleau Miami Beach, was seen this past Sunday wearing a black-and-yellow-trimmed polo bearing the logo of the alt-right Proud Boys at Duck Duck Goose, an annual celebration of fowl that wrapped up at the Anderson.

Proud Boys, the subject of a New Times profile last year, were founded in 2016 by Vice Media cofounder-turned-far-right-provocateur Gavin McInnes. The group rose to fame thanks to its fervent support of Donald Trump and its celebration by political boogeyman Roger Stone. Its members have brawled with anti-fascist protestors, encouraged political violence, and for a short time were labeled by the FBI as an extremist group with ties to white nationalists. The Proud Boys say they're right-leaning libertarians who support free speech, gun rights, and traditional gender roles — a men's club of "Proud Western chauvinists who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world," according to their tag line.

While several of Crandall's colleagues and friends interviewed by New Times said they've never seen any kind of chauvinist, racist, or bigoted behavior from the chef, who first rose to prominence in Miami during his time at Azul at the Mandarin Oriental, he has been criticized by members of the (very liberal) culinary community for his conservative and anti-Hillary leanings.

A hospitality worker who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal sent New Times a screenshot of a now-deleted Instagram post of Crandall holding his infant son while wearing a camouflage trucker hat with a Proud Boys logo embedded in an American flag. Further complicating the matter: Crandall's wife is a Mexican immigrant, making his family an object of scorn for the group whose apparel he's been wearing.

Read more: https://www.miaminewtimes.com/restaurants/why-is-one-of-miamis-top-chefs-wearing-neo-fascist-proud-boys-apparel-11184179

Update 6/1/19: William Crandall has resigned from his position as chef de cuisine of Stripsteak, according to hotel spokesman Larry Carrino.

[SharonClark]

1. Trump lover who doesn't support all the nasty thing Trump stands for?

"I thought it was a Trump group, and I thought it would be more discreet than wearing a [Make America Great Again] hat so I don't get beat up in public," Crandall said. "I'm not a hateful person, and I've never said a hateful thing about anybody in this business. I'm not and I would never support anything homophobic, Islamophobic, xenophobic, or anything that promotes hate."

Glad he resigned.