By Ayala Ben-Yehuda
The owner of Caffe on the Green publicly apologized Friday to a Chinese woman assaulted in a confrontation with customers at another table who made anti-Asian remarks in the nearly empty restaurant late on the evening of Jan. 3.
The woman filed a report that she was harassed by four men at the restaurant at 201-10 Cross Island Parkway, police said. But City Councilman John Liu (D-Flushing) told the news conference he organized at the restaurant that Connie Coleman of Roslyn Heights, L.I. was assaulted by two men and a woman.
Police said Coleman was assaulted and the assailants directed anti-Asian remarks at her. Liu said Coleman was having dinner at the waterfront eatery with other women when customers at a neighboring table began making the remarks.
No arrests have been made in the incident, which is being investigated by the Police Department’s Hate Crimes Task Force.
Coleman’s husband and sister said Caffe on the Green staff did nothing to stop the assault and appeared unsatisfied by the apology from restaurant owner Joe Franco at the news conference.
Franco said he was not at Caffe on the Green when the incident occurred at about 10:40 p.m., but two of his employees jumped in to stop it.
“It happened so fast,” said Franco. “This thing happened in five seconds.”
Liu said the attack had nothing to do with Caffe on the Green and could have happened anywhere. The Flushing councilman was joined at the news conference by Queens Borough President Helen Marshall, former Borough President Claire Shulman and Michael Nussbaum, a director of the Queens Jewish Community Council and associate publisher of the Queens Tribune. Nussbaum helped Franco answer questions from reporters about the incident.
Franco read a prepared statement that said “a terrible and unfortunate event took place several weeks ago at my restaurant and I am shocked, offended and deeply saddened that our establishment, dedicated to the fine things in life, should have been the location of an ugly act of hate.”
He continued, “As the owner of this restaurant, I sincerely apologize to Mrs. Coleman for the verbal and physical attack she suffered in my restaurant, and will do everything I can to cooperate with the police in bringing the assailants to justice.”
Franco shook hands with Connie Coleman, apologizing “from the bottom of my heart.”
But the apology failed to move Jim Coleman, who called the assault on his wife “unbelievable and not forgivable.”
“What is especially disturbing is the lack of any type of assistance to Connie by the staff at Caffe on the Green while this atrocity was happening,” he said. “The words ‘anger,’ ‘frustration,’ and ‘outrage’ run through our minds.”
Connie Coleman, a former Bayside resident, did not speak at the news conference, later saying it was difficult for her to talk about the incident.
Franco said that according to his staff, a middle-aged couple and a couple in their 30s — both well-dressed — were seated at the table next to Coleman’s. One of the women at that table and Coleman got into a physical fight, which the waiter broke up, the restaurateur said.
The two tables were the only ones occupied late at night in the near-empty restaurant, he said.
“My people did jump in, but these people are waitstaff. I can’t expect them to be referees or bodyguards,” he said, adding that Connie Coleman did not return telephone messages he left with her sister the next day.
Marian Eng, who was with her sister when she was assaulted, said the staff had not intervened.
“If that had happened, my sister would not have gotten beat up so badly and he would not have apologized today,” said Eng, a resident of New Hyde Park.
Marshall extended her sympathies to the Colemans but said she knew Franco did not condone the incident.
Shulman praised the ability of Queens’ diverse residents to live together in harmony and said it was important to address the attack immediately.
Liu was less diplomatic about the people who assaulted Coleman, saying “the a—holes who did this could’ve been anywhere in this community ” The people at the other table left the restaurant before police arrived and they could be identified.
Liu said he could relate to the racial slurs made against Connie Coleman.
“To be called ‘chink’ and ‘gook,’ that’s certainly happened in my lifetime,” said Liu, who commended Franco and Coleman for meeting together publicly.
After the assault, Coleman said returning to the restaurant where she had been a regular customer for several years was “very hard for me.”
Franco, Nussbaum and the public officials vowed to work on improving race relations in the borough, with the restaurateur offering Caffe on the Green as a venue for that purpose.
Connie Coleman said she was considering whether to file a lawsuit, though it was unclear against whom.
Reach reporter Ayala Ben-Yehuda by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 1-718-229-0300, Ext. 146.
