A Memphis pizza restaurant owner is standing by his decision to turn away four uniformed members of the Tennessee National Guard, a move that has ignited a boycott campaign and drawn a rebuke from a member of Congress.
Miles Tamboli, owner of Tamboli’s Pasta & Pizza in the city’s Midtown neighborhood, confirmed this week that his staff declined to serve the Guardsmen on a recent Saturday night. Mr. Tamboli said the decision reflects both his opposition to the Memphis Safe Task Force, a federally led initiative combining Memphis police, state troopers, National Guard soldiers and various federal agencies, and a broader objection to using military personnel in a domestic policing role, which he has said runs counter to the Founders’ wariness of standing armies among civilians.
Mr. Tamboli pointed to Memphis Police Department data showing that violent and property crime had already fallen to a 25-year low across most major categories in the first eight months of last year, before the task force arrived. He argued that the drop undercuts the rationale for the deployment.
Mr. Tamboli said the task force’s own arrest records, as he has described them, show that most stops originate from routine traffic enforcement rather than responses to violent crime — a characterization that reflects his account and could not be independently verified against task force data. He also cited the case of Tyrin Johnson, a 20-year-old fatally shot by two Guardsmen during a foot chase in downtown Memphis this month, as evidence the deployment has made residents less safe.
“I am not willing to abandon it because it became inconvenient,” Mr. Tamboli told Action News 5 in a statement.
The backlash was swift. Rep. Tim Burchett, a Tennessee Republican, posted on social media that “when I get home I’m driving to Memphis and not eating there.” Users on X circulated the hashtag #BoycottTamboli, and one account known for amplifying conservative causes urged followers to make sure the restaurant felt the financial consequences.
Not all the response has been hostile. Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy offered public support for the restaurant on social media, even as state Rep. John Gillespie, a Memphis Republican, publicly criticized the decision to turn away the Guardsmen. Mr. Tamboli’s restaurant is not the first Memphis business to refuse service to task force members — the Sammich Spot drew similar headlines earlier this year for the same stance.
Mr. Tamboli acknowledged in a separate interview with a local Memphis station that the controversy has hurt business, including a wave of calls and emails he described as hostile. He said the fallout has not changed his position.
Occupation, including active military status, is generally not a protected class under federal civil rights law, so private businesses may generally decline service on that basis; state and local rules can vary, and other civil rights protections — covering race, religion, disability or age, for instance — still apply regardless of occupation.
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