Since Dunkeld-based burger bar The Craft Diner opened last August, owner Orkun Cevik, has experienced his fair share of hate and racial abuse.
And that was after a battle to open in the first place.
Despite the objection of 11 individuals in town, with many of them being business owners, Orkun, who was previously a freelance chef at Dunkeld House Hotel, was able to open his burger shack.
But he has since been subjected to inappropriate behaviour from customers and locals.
“A few times people have tested my patience, making strange requests for food that they know I will not be able to make because we are a small business run by myself and my wife,” admits Orkun.
Chef and owner voices his frustrations
After a particular incident on February 19 where a customer verbally abused him for his food being a few minutes late, Orkun took to Facebook to voice his frustration:
“It has been an absolute pleasure to serve to you all and gaining your respect was our main goal.
“But I would like to make one thing clear; sometimes the waiting time stretches for food collection, and we respect and appreciate your patience and passion for our food.
“As all of you know take away collection can’t have a precise timing, it can stretch to little longer. And just because you are waiting a little longer, it doesn’t give any right to abuse our establishment verbally.
“We work under extremely hard conditions! We do respect each and every guest no matter what, and we do appreciate your business.”
Making over 1,000 burgers a month, Orkun has seen how unreasonable customers can be at times, making him feel angry due to how precious his food and business is to him.
Racial abuse since day one
As well as this, Orken spoke of the racial abuse he has encountered over the last six months of being open:
“When we opened this place, we were slandered many times. People wrote on the front of my container ‘Go back to your country’ and ‘This is a waste of space’, and they scratched my doors.
“People are still trying to defame the business, with some of the pubs and business being unhappy with us being, here due to our cheaper prices and quality burgers made with my secret recipe.”
Being from Turkey himself, Orkun explains the difficulty of being foreign, and trying to run a small but growing business with people constantly trying to denounce them.
He commented: “You just have to get used to it until you get a name for yourself, and are untouchable as a brand, then people will stop playing with you. Until then it is not easy.”
Incidents like these remind us that we need to be kind to small business owners, especially during this post-pandemic time.
