Inside the bitter entitlement that California cafes bake into their business

A neighborhood cafe should be a refuge from the world — including politics.Sure, some people like to talk politics around a soy latte, but everyone else should be able to walk in, order a coffee, and get on with their morning without being asked to take a position on the Middle East, the police or immigration.Lately, however, cafes across California seem to think they are party headquarters in service of some cause or another.The biggest news, opinion and culture shaping California right now.

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Never miss a story Whether it’s “Abolish ICE” stickers in windows, or Palestinian flags above doorways, some cafes have decided to brew protest along with espresso.In Berkeley, Nabalom Bakery & Pizzeria famously put its politics on display along with its baked goods — and then blamed the backlash when the business shut down.Nabalom took an anti-Israel stance; it also featured a “Defund the Police” mural.Sales fell, the bakery said, after Instagram removed the bakery’s account after it reposted an anti-ICE image.The bakery also said it faced a separate boycott over its opposition to upzoning in the area, which the owners felt would change the character of the neighborhood.It ended badly.

Nabolom closed Sunday, Oct.18, after decades of serving Berkeley’s Elmwood neighborhood. No one can honestly say a poster alone closed Nabolom.

The owners described a business under pressure from several directions.But the bakery’s story makes one thing plain: If a business makes its politics part of the customer experience, it cannot demand that customers pretend not to notice.Sometimes the customers are the problem — or, rather, activists who interfere with other customers by organizing boycotts.

Boycotts mean that even when cafes try to stay politically neutral, they may be targeted because of the race, religio...