Locals call for boycott of Wichita restaurant after commissioner receives lewd e-mail
Calls to boycott a Wichita restaurant spread across social media on Thursday after Sedgwick County Commissioner Lacey Cruse posted a lewd late-night e-mail she received from the account of a man who founded the business and still works there.
By late Thursday afternoon, the man — Tyson Tompkins — had called to apologize to Cruse, saying that a friend had taken his phone and sent the e-mail without his knowledge. That explanation was repeated on the business page for Sweet Allie B’s, the business at 707 N. Waco that Tompkins started in 2016 with his domestic partner, owner Allie Tylski. The explanation disappeared on Thursday, though, along with the businesses’ Facebook page.
On Friday, both Cruse and Beckie Jenek, the Wichita woman who launched the online call to boycott the restaurant, said that they decided to call him out publicly because they want to stop such behavior from continuing.
Both said they did not buy Tompkins’ explanation about a friend taking his phone.
“When does it stop if we don’t ever call it out?” Cruse said on Friday. “When does it stop if we don’t point these kinds of things out? I think we should put these people out there, and maybe then they’ll quit sending stuff like this.”
Late-night message
The buzz started early Thursday when Cruse shared a screen shot of the e-mail message on her personal Facebook page. It landed in her public e-mail inbox at 12:25 a.m. on Thursday and said it came from Tyson Tompkins.
“Your an idiot” and “Nasty dumb” are the only parts of the vulgar email that are printable in a family publication.
In the text of her post sharing the e-mail, Cruse wrote:
“This is an email I received and although I don’t know for certain, I have a pretty good idea the reason behind it. My colleague feels it’s necessary to spread a false message about me and this is the aftermath.
“What purpose does it serve to spread a rumor that isn’t even true? When will this type of behavior stop?”
Reaction was swift, and by Friday morning, the post had 444 comments and had been shared 68 times. Many of the posts were supportive of Cruse. A few said Cruse shouldn’t have shared the message publicly.
Many commenters suggested visiting the Sweet Allie B’s Facebook page and posting objections in the reviews section, and several people did.
A few hours later, a post on the Sweet Allie B’s Facebook page said that Tompkins was not an owner in the business and that he had not been responsible for the e-mail.
“There was an email sent from Tyson Tompkin’s email address containing disgusting language toward a woman named Lacey Cruise,” it said. “Last night a friend of his was using his phone and emailed lacy on his own behalf thinking it was funny. Tyson just found out about this situation this morning via phone call as he does not use social media.”
Tyson was sorry about the comments and would never speak to a woman like that, the post said, adding that he has four daughters. It concluded by saying that he had called Cruse to apologize.
On Friday, Cruse shared the voicemail she received from Tompkins with The Eagle. He described the situation as a “huge misunderstanding.”
“I am so sorry,” he said. “I did not do that. I don’t know why my friend thought that was funny. It was not funny and it was very gross. I’m very sorry.”
Cruse, who said she frequently dined at Sweet Allie B’s before Thursday and believes Tompkins served her a sandwich recently, said she did not call Tompkins back and does not plan to.
“I’m not buying the apology one bit,” she said. “That’s the oldest ‘I got caught’ excuse in the history of excuses.”
The Eagle was not able to connect with Tompkins or Tylski. Messages were left at the business, and Tompkins returned one call from a reporter, who missed that call. But he did not return the follow-up call. He texted later indicating he would not have time to talk, saying “I can’t talk right now. Have too much fun bn me.”
‘She’s just one vote’
Cruse, who was elected to the Sedgwick County Commission’s District 4 seat in 2018 and is the only Democrat and only female on the commission, has been frequently at odds with the rest of the commission, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Shortly after she was elected, she took a seven-day excursion to Ghana, which she called a trade mission and paid for with $2,900 in county money. She was criticized by fellow commissioner Michael O’ Donnell for wasting money. She has since paid the money back.
She’s been the only commissioner to consistently back COVID-19 restrictions in Wichita during the pandemic, which has drawn the ire of some local bar owners who have twice been required to temporarily close their businesses.
She and O’Donnell have been engaged in a new war of words of late. This week, he called her out for not wearing a mask at an outdoor family function and shared a photo as proof. He also called her the “least kind” person on the commission.
Beckie Janke, a friend of Cruse’s, said she called for the boycott of the restaurant on Thursday because she was fed up with the way Cruse has been treated.
“When it comes to Commissioner Cruse, we’ve seen this happen over and over and over again, where men keep ganging up on her,” she said. “She’s just one vote on that commission, but men keep ganging up on her, and lots of us get that in our daily lives as well.”
She said that she reflected on Thursday night about the idea that her boycott would hurt a local business, which goes against her instincts.
But people have to make up their own minds, she said.
“I was struggling with that last night. Does somebody deserve to lose their business over their actions?” she said. “I don’t know. But I believe the public has the right to be informed about who the people are that they are supporting with their dollars, and the public has the right to make a decision from there.”
Sweet Allie B’s also has an attached brewery called Limestone Beer Co.. Tompkins’ name is on the paperwork filed with the state in 2016 establishing the business. The annual report from 2018 lists Tylski as the owner. Records also show that the corporation is delinquent, which means the business did not file its annual report and pay the fee by the due date.
This story was originally published August 14, 2020 at 3:25 PM.
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