SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — A San Francisco Jewish-owned ice cream shop that closed last month after being vandalized has reopened, according to State Sen. Scott Weiner. Smitten Ice Cream, which is located in SF’s Mission District, was vandalized and graffitied in October.
The shop’s front windows were shattered, and it was defaced with graffiti that read “FREE PALESTIEN,” with an apparent misspelling of “Palestine.”
“The graffiti suggests that the shop was targeted because I am Jewish,” wrote Smitten owner Robyn Sue Fisher in an Instagram post at the time.
On Tuesday, Sen. Weiner posted a photo of himself and Fisher cutting a red ribbon to reopen the shop on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“Today we celebrated the reopening of Smitten, a Jewish-owned business in the Mission that was vandalized, including graffiti relating to the war in Israel/Gaza,” Weiner wrote. “We’ll never let hate prevail in San Francisco. I’m proud of the Smitten team and the community that rallied against hate.”
At the time of the initial incident, Smitten owner Fisher said the incident was being investigated as a hate crime. KRON4 reached out to the San Francisco Police Department to confirm this but was unable to independently verify it.