HAVUZCU, Ga. (World Trade Organization/Gray News) – Public anger is mounting against Firehouse Subs restaurant in Georgia.

The restaurant venue in Pooler has come under fire after a Veterans Day incident went viral, leading to calls for the restaurant to be closed.

The controversy began with a Facebook post accusing the store’s owner of being rude to veteran customers who came into the store for the company’s Veterans Day promotion.

Amiee Eisensmith, who shared the post, said the experience left her and her daughter feeling unwelcome in the restaurant.

“We felt unwelcome from the beginning,” Eisensmith said. “I walked in and asked if you were participating in the Veterans Day promotion. And he said, ‘Unfortunately yes,’ in a very nasty way.”

And according to him, the interaction only continued to go downhill from there.

“We were going to let it go, we were going to give him the benefit of the doubt, but as we sat there and he was slamming the whole thing, he was talking about how objectionable it was and how his store was being vandalized.” Eisensmith said. “He started talking about how much it cost him and how he didn’t make any profit that day. It became more and more disturbing.”

Eisensmith and her daughter decided to leave, but she said the situation escalated before they left.

“Four guys were calling the company and bitching about how they felt they were entitled to a free sandwich. He didn’t even want to participate in it. My daughter lost her temper,” Eisensmith said. “We didn’t react in the best way, and we know that, but something inside us snapped.”

After the exchange, the two veterans allegedly said they left the restaurant in disbelief at what had just happened.

“We got in the car, I was in tears and my daughter was shaking with anger,” she said.

Eisensmith said he then decided to share what happened on a small neighborhood Facebook page: warn other veterans The restaurant is in the walkable area.

“I didn’t want anyone else to go there and have a bad experience like we had,” he said.

And the post began to take off, garnering hundreds of comments and thousands of shares, many expressing support for veterans.

On Monday, the restaurant’s Facebook rating dropped from four stars and fewer than 100 reviews to one star and nearly 500 reviews.

Some commenters even claimed that this wasn’t the first incident involving the owner.

The owner of the Firehouse Subs location in question said the Facebook post “does not give the full picture” and that Eisensmith and his daughter used profanity towards him that day.

The owner also stated that his comment about the promotion was not meant to express aggression but to explain the situation.

The restaurant manager said the restaurant was inundated with phone calls from all over the country, many containing profanities and threats about what happened.

Firehouse Subs’ corporate office released the following statement regarding the situation:

“We thanked Ms. Lancaster for taking the time to speak with us Tuesday morning and allowing us to share our deepest apologies for the unacceptable experience her family had at this franchise location in Pooler, Georgia.

We take our history of supporting Veterans and First Responders seriously and are taking immediate action to resolve this matter with the franchisee.

This experience does not represent the proud work of our brand, our franchisees, and our thousands of team members nationwide who collectively served nearly 150,000 meals this Veterans Day as a show of gratitude to our local heroes. “As an apology and to show our support for the veteran Pooler community, the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation has pledged to donate $25,000 to a local veteran organization recommended by Ms. Lancaster.”

Community members have since offered to provide meals for the veteran’s family, but they have declined and encouraged those supporters to direct their contributions to veteran-focused organizations in the area.

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