‘Buy-cott’ boosts Memphis pizza shop after owner refuses to serve national guard

The city rallied behind Tamboli’s despite online boycott calls, as frustration grows over the Trump administration’s federal taskforce following multiple deaths You can measure the disconnect between angry internet commentariat and real life Memphis residents by the length of the wait for a table at Tamboli’s Pasta & Pizza. In early July, Miles Tamboli, the owner of the midtown pizza spot, made a decision: he would not serve the national guard deployed to the city by the Trump administration, which the US president claimed would reduce the city’s crime rate. Tamboli’s video announcement came days after troops killed two city residents, bringing the total to four since the initiative started in September. After a post by local activist Hunter Demster highlighted Tamboli’s post , with links to a wider “buy-cott” of businesses refusing service to the taskforce, the radioactive rightwing accounts Libs of TikTok and Fox News Radio host Todd Starnes called for a boycott. But a few days later , the Italian “junt” (in Memphis parlance) opened with a full house and had a line waiting by 5.30pm. Waitstaff said the shop was never that crowded that early; extra crew was bro

Jul 21, 2026 → Jul 21, 2026