Famed Tadich Grill restaurant entangled in racial controversy

WASHINGTON - A controversy involving a longtime family-run restaurant in San Francisco is having an impact here in Washington D.C. as well.

If you search Tadich Grill on Yelp, you will find comment after comment about allegations of racism in the owning family's history. The opinions on it vary from post to post, but there are so many that the website is asking users to stick to reviewing the food or their comments will be removed.

It all started when Terri Upshaw told the Washington Post that her family, the owners of Tadich Grill, cut ties with her when she married late NFL legend Gene Upshaw. She said for more than three decades, her parents and siblings have refused to speak with her or meet her children all because she married an African American man.

"One of the things that she said to me was, 'I wonder if my parents think of me on my birthday,'" San Francisco Chronicle columnist C.W. Nevius told FOX 5.

He spoke with Terri Upshaw in a follow-up article to the Washington Post story and then received a written response from her father, former Tadich Grill owner, Steve Buich.

In it, Buich said the dispute with his daughter has never been an issue of race. However, not everyone is convinced. The allegations have created a firestorm in San Francisco.

According to Nevius, the Tadich Grill restaurant there is the third-oldest continuous running restaurant in the United States.

On Thursday night at the new D.C. restaurant, which opened on Pennsylvania Avenue last month, plenty of customers were heading in and out.

Tadich Grill spokesperson Sam Singer told FOX 5 the restaurants have not seen any decline in business and the new location is doing quite well.

Singer said Tadich Grill does not tolerate discrimination in any way and whatever disagreement exists between Buich and his daughter is a family matter.

He also pointed out that Buich retired from Tadich Grill 20 years ago.

"To be clear, none of the parties involved in this family dispute have anything to do with the operation of the restaurants," said Singer.

But Nevius said, "Steve Buich did retire 20 years ago, but if you look at the website, it consistently talks about how it's a family-owned and run operation."

Nevius went on to say, "(Buich's) son, Mike, who also has not spoken to Terri in 32 years, basically runs the place."