After facing overwhelming backlash from the local Colombian community, the Embassy of Colombia in Singapore, and the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB), the proprietor of a Pablo Escobar-themed bistro bar has finally relented.
Not in the way you’d expect though. Escobar (the bar) will change its logo — a silhouette of the infamous Colombian drug lord — but the name will remain.
An apology was posted on the Escobar Singapore Facebook page, reiterating that “it was never (its) intention to glorify or condone the actions of Pablo Escobar”. Which is odd, because the murals painted as the bar’s decor (such as inserting the drug kingpin into The Last Supper, and a portrait of the narcoterrorist sitting on a throne of cash) does exactly that.
After having a little chat with officers from the CNB and the Singapore Police Force, Escobar’s owner Stan Sri Ganesh agreed to change the branding of his venue, according to Yahoo News. After spending S$20,000 on the decor, murals, mugs and other paraphernalia revolving around Pablo Escobar, Stan will have to spend another S$10,000 to implement the changes. Some folks stood in solidarity with the man, expressing disappointment that the authorities intervened in the first place.
Stan remains adamant that the name of his bar stays, noting that “Escobar” is a “common Latin surname”. It remains unclear if the Colombian embassy is cool with his official decision, considering it condemned everything to do with the bar’s decision to glorify a Colombian drug lord responsible for about 20,000 deaths.
But ironically, Stan has also been at the receiving end of menacing threats that aren’t far from Escobar’s modus operandi — the F&B veteran has lodged a police report over death threats against him and his family, as well as emails about people wanting to bomb his bar, Yahoo News reported.
“When they start sending us messages like ‘I should burn, kill your family, hang you’, isn’t that going against what they have been preaching to us?” said Stan about the threats he’s been receiving from the Colombian community here.
Nonetheless, the week-long controversy over Escobar had a bit of silver lining — Stan claims that he’s seen a 50 percent increase in customers since the joint launched on Jan 26.
