The owner of a Memphis pizza restaurant that sparked national controversy by refusing service to National Guard troops says business is booming, with supporters flocking to the establishment in what some have described as a «buy-cott» in response to calls for a boycott. Miles Tamboli, who runs Tamboli's Pasta & Pizza, told Fox News Digital that the week after the incident was the busiest stretch his business has ever seen, with lines forming outside before opening time on most nights.
Tamboli refused to serve four uniformed members of the Memphis Safe Task Force on July 11, a federally led initiative established in September 2025 by President Donald Trump to combat violent crime in the city. The task force combines local police with agents from various federal agencies, the Tennessee National Guard, and state troopers to enforce public safety laws. Tamboli said he opposes the task force because he believes it has made the city less safe rather than more secure.
«What the Task Force has actually done is make this city harder to live in,» Tamboli said. He pointed to task force records showing that the overwhelming majority of its arrests began with routine traffic stops, not violent crime. «Families in this city are now afraid to drive to work, afraid to take their kids to school, afraid to be seen. Our own schools reported that fear drove children to stop showing up to class.»
The restaurant faced severe backlash online after the incident, with conservative activists calling for a boycott. However, The Guardian reported Tuesday that the local response has been overwhelmingly supportive. «The Italian 'junt' (in Memphis parlance) opened with a full house and had a line waiting by 5:30 p.m.,» the report said. Waitstaff noted the shop was never that crowded that early, and extra crew was brought in to handle the surge.
One customer, Sarah Jones, told The Guardian, «While I do not blame the National Guard for being in Memphis since it was not their choice, I stand by businesses refusing service as a form of resistance and protest.» Another customer, Carol Bigam, a retired FedEx worker, said, «If you have a business — a small family-owned business — that says, 'You know what, I'm sorry, I can't serve you, I just don't believe you should be here,' it really should be OK. Is he not allowed free speech? He was very professional about it. Give me a break, man.»
Tamboli said he does not believe conservative customers have stopped coming to his restaurant. «I see every message, every email, and every phone call that reaches this place, and I have not heard from a single regular customer telling me they won't be back,» he said. «Not one. I don't track anyone's politics and my register doesn't record it, and I serve every guest who walks through my door, the way I always have. The one exception is the uniformed deployment, and that was the entire point.»
Tamboli emphasized that his decision was rooted in the task force's deadly record. He noted that four people have been killed by the task force since it arrived in Memphis, including a 20-year-old named Tyrin Johnson, who was shot and killed by National Guard troops during a foot chase with no body camera footage and no answers for his family. Another victim, Jonah Neal, was in the middle of a mental health crisis when a federal agent killed him.
«If a president sent soldiers and federal agents into your town and four of your neighbors ended up dead, you would not be asking a pizza owner about his Friday sales,» Tamboli said. «You would be asking why it happened, and you would be furious, and you would be right to be. That is the outrage this deserves, and it is missing only because it is happening here and not somewhere the country is used to watching.»
Tamboli defended his actions as a matter of free speech and conscience. «A small business owner using his First Amendment right to run his place by his own conscience is about as American as it gets,» he said. «The people trying to punish that speech, the ones review-bombing me and the ones cheering the government on, are the ones who walked away from the Constitution they claim to love. You do not get to wave the flag and boo free speech in the same breath.»
