There’s Going to Be Another “Eat In” at Joe’s Steaks on Saturday

If you can ignore the detour the Joe’s Steaks saga has taken into a PR pissing match, you’ll remember what the whole to-do was about in the first place: Whether the old name—”Chink’s”—was racist, and whether Joe Groh was right to change the the name of his store to stop being so offensive. It was. And he was. We held an “Eat In” at his shop Saturday to offer support, and frankly thought that might be the last of it.

It’s not.

The Asian American activist group 18 Million Rising (which, errr, might overstate the group’s actual numbers) is now planning its own “Eat In” at Joe’s, 1 p.m. Saturday.

“We support Joe and his right to name his business what he wants—especially after himself!” the group says on its website. “We also support (and commend!) Joe in his decision to carry on the awesome cheesesteak and milkshake tradition that Sam Sherman started but without the racial slur.”

Twitter user Samala, who is helping organize the event, is flying in from San Francisco to participate. (She previously lived in Philadelphia for five years, she says.) She said she’s already received commitments from 20 people, and “making calls/emails nonstop” to raise an even bigger crowd.

Hopefully, there will be a day soon when Joe’s Steaks doesn’t have to be judged by this controversy, but by the content of his delicious cheesesteaks instead. Until then, it’s good to see people who affirm Joe’s decision putting their money where their mouth is.