Local pizza chain &Pizza is facing heavy backlash and calls for a boycott after introducing new sugar-dusted marionberry pizza knots with a marketing campaign referencing former DC mayor Marion Barry’s drug arrest for possession of crack cocaine.
&Pizza announced the new icing-drizzled dessert yesterday with a press release reading: “&PIZZA CRACKS OPEN NEW THRESHOLD FOR DESSERT WITH KNOTS SO GOOD IT’S LIKELY A FELONY.” The limited-edition menu item was described as having enough powdered sugar to “force the DEA to look twice.” Promotional images further depicted powdered sugar like cocaine, wrapped in little baggies and piled on a mirror with a sign that said “our classic knots got a bump.”
“I just think it’s racist. In this city, it is outrageously racist. You can print that. It’s racist and disrespectful,” Cora Masters Barry, Barry’s wife, told DC News Now.
Several public officials are also speaking out. DC Council member Christina Henderson called it “tone deaf and hella disrespectful,” while Trayon White called for a boycott in light of the “shameless and tasteless exploitation of Marion S. Barry’s legacy.” Ronald Moten, cofounder of Don’t Mute DC, likewise called for a boycott: “You can’t spit on Marion Barry’s grave and think their[sic] won’t be consequences.”
In response to backlash, &Pizza CEO Mike Burns tried to play off the criticism yesterday. “We’re talking about a marionberry, that’s spelled with an ‘e’. We stuff that into a knot, drizzle it with icing and then top it with powdered sugar. It’s delicious – we can’t wait for D.C. to try it,” he said in a statement.
Asked by Washingtonian if &Pizza planned to remove the menu items or change the marketing amid growing backlash, a spokesperson repeated Burns’s statement.
&Pizza, which brands itself as the “anti-establishment establishment,” likes to tout its edgy marketing and often veers into politics. Burns took over the company’s leadership role from cofounder Michael Lastoria earlier this year, vowing to return the brand to its punk roots. Recently, &Pizza poked fun at JD Vance’s comments about “childless cat ladies” by offering free cat toys to customers who showed a photo of their cat. But jokes about Barry’s drug issues did not land at all in a city where the “Mayor for Life” is still hugely popular, particularly among Black Washingtonians.
Crossing the line was its own joke to Burns. In the original press release for the marionberry knots, he says, “Whether or not our new Marion Berry Knots cross the lines of having too much fun, is something we’ll leave to the customers to decide.”
Jessica Sidman covers the people and trends behind D.C.’s food and drink scene. Before joining Washingtonian in July 2016, she was Food Editor and Young & Hungry columnist at Washington City Paper. She is a Colorado native and University of Pennsylvania grad.
