The Women’s Republican Club of Miami Federated is looking for a new home.
The organization has been meeting monthly at 
Crave Restaurant in Coral Gables for about two years, with speakers like Attorney General Pam Bondi and Sen. Anitere Flores.
But no more. Call it an ideological difference. After being asked to take their meetings — and their messages — to a closed-off room, the club decided to take its business elsewhere altogether.
“We have to be sensitive about everybody’s views,” said Michelle Sabel group sales manager for the restaurant. “If they don’t really want to return then I’m okay with it. I cant have this kind of passion in a business where maybe everybody is not that passionate.”
This came after Monday night’s meeting and a rant by Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen on defunding Planned Parenthood because she doesn’t want her tax dollars going to abortions. While both Sabel and club members admitted this had not been the first complaint, on Tuesday, Sabel sent the email saying they would have to move their event from the open wing next to the bar and right inside the front door.
“Foremost, please know that your group is important to us. Unfortunately, moving forward we will need to change the location of your group to the Gables Room,” Sabel wrote.
“In several occasions, we have received complaints about the Womens Republic cause and ideologies. This change will allow your group to share their views without the concern of other guests in our dining room.”
WRCMF President Marili Cancio apparently took offense.
“I can’t imagine people complaining about our ’cause or ideology.’ Being secluded to a back room is not how a business shows how ‘important’ we are to them,” Cancio wrote back. “It would be interesting to know which patrons were offended by our group as your restaurant is almost empty on Mondays and should have appreciated the business that we have given you through the years.”
Read related story: Ros-Lehtinen, Lopez-Cantera headline Women’s GOP event
She informed Sabel that Monday night’s guests were Ros-Lehtinen and Lieutenant Governor Carlos Lopez-Cantera. 
“Crave should have been delighted and honored by the presence of our influential guests and of our group,” she wrote.
“Is it offensive to want to pay less taxes? Is it offensive to protect human life? Is it offensive to want peace in the middle east? Is it offensive to leave a better tomorrow for our children? Is it offensive to reduce our national debt? Is it offensive to protect our constitution?
“So again thank you for your email. You can count with having not one more WRCMF meeting at Crave,” she said. “I will also share this with my entire board and group of friends that share our ’cause and ideology’ so they can spend their hard earned dollars where they are appreciated.”
Reached Tuesday afternoon, Sabel — who could have worded her email more carefully for sure — told Ladra that it was nothing personal.
“This is not about me. This is not about whether I believe in something or not,” said Sabel, who happens to be Republican and volunteered that information.
“Marili is maybe too passionate about what she believes in. But I am sales manager of a restaurant where lots of people come in. This is not about me. This is not about our management. This is about our guests,” Sabel said.
“We’ve had lots of complaints. We overlooked them but I can’t continue to overlook them because that’s how people feel,” Sabel said. “Ileana Ros-Lehtinen doesn’t impress me. Nobody impresses me.”
It’s one thing to debate the Iran deal or the presidential GOP primary over the dinner table with friends, it’s quite another to preach with a microphone, she explained.
“What if it was the other way and Marili was at a dinner and a Democratic group was having a pro abortion discussion,” Sabel asked.
“Crave stands in the middle. We want to make everybody happy.”
Wrong, said Cancio, who added that the Good Government Initiative and Democratic clubs have had events in the same space at the restaurant without complaints.
“That’s the difference between Republicans and Democrats,” said Cancio, who noted that the Good Government Initiative and Democratic clubs have also had meetings at Crave. “Republicans are much more tolerant than liberals.”
She and other club members are beside themselves. They figure they have brought you tons of business, not just from the meetings themselves but from other events held there because someone came to a meeting and liked it.
And now they’re taking that away.
“I’m not going back there,” said Cancio.
“The place was dead anyway.”
Meow.
Women’s Club ‘ideologies’ cause conflict at Crave Restaurant added by Ladra on
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