Memphis pizza shop says it saw a sales surge after National Guard refusal

A Memphis pizza restaurant that drew national attention after refusing to serve National Guard members says business is booming instead of busting, with supporters flocking to the restaurant in what some have dubbed a “buy-cott” after conservative activists called for a boycott.

Miles Tamboli, owner of Tamboli’s Pasta & Pizza, said he refused to serve the Guardsmen on July 11 because he opposes the federally led Memphis Safe Task Force, arguing the use of National Guard troops in local law enforcement has made the city less safe rather than more secure.

The company faced severe backlash online after refusing service to four uniformed members of the Memphis Safe Task Force. Tamboli told Digital on July 15, “I stand behind that decision completely.” The Guardian reported Tuesday that the response locally has been supportive.

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“The Italian ‘junt’ (in Memphis parlance) opened with a full house and had a line waiting by 5.30pm,” The Guardian reported. “Waitstaff said the shop was never that crowded that early; extra crew was brought in to help. Business is up ‘a great amount,’ Tamboli said. The packed house on Friday was evidence.”

One customer, Sarah Jones, said, “While I do not blame the National Guard for being in Memphis since it was not their choice, I stand by businesses refusing service as a form of resistance and protest.”

Another customer, Carol Bigam, a retired FedEx worker, said, “If you have a business — a small family-owned business — that says, ‘You know what, I’m sorry, I can’t serve you, I just don’t believe you should be here,’ it really should be OK. Is he not allowed free speech? He was very professional about it. Give me a break, man.”

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Members of the National Guard patrol on October 11, 2025, in Memphis, Tennessee. (Brett Carlsen/Getty Images)

Tamboli told Digital on July 15 that he opposes the Memphis Safe Task Force, a federally led initiative established in September 2025 by President Donald Trump to stop violent crime in the city.

The task force combines local police with agents from various federal agencies, the Tennessee National Guard, and state troopers to enforce public safety laws.

“What the Task Force has actually done is make this city harder to live in,” Tamboli said. “Its own records show that the overwhelming majority of its arrests began with routine traffic stops, not violent crime. Families in this city are now afraid to drive to work, afraid to take their kids to school, afraid to be seen. Our own schools reported that fear drove children to stop showing up to class.”

“And this month, a 20-year-old Memphian named Tyrin Johnson was shot and killed by National Guard troops during a foot chase, with no body camera footage and no answers for his family,” he continued. “None of that makes us safer. It makes us less safe, and it does the most damage to the people who were already struggling.”

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A Memphis Police Department officer, right, patrols with members of the National Guard, Friday, Oct. 10, 2025, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

In a statement to Digital, Tamboli said, “Business the week after roughly doubled our normal volume. It was the busiest stretch we’ve had in this building, with a line out front before we opened most nights. I hear the real question in yours, whether this is a blip, and it isn’t. The support hasn’t slowed down, I expect it to last, and I’m running my business like the lasting increase it is. The records exist and I stand behind every word of this, and I’m not going to turn my private sales reports into a public document.”

He said he does not believe conservative customers have stopped coming to his restaurant.

“I see every message, every email, and every phone call that reaches this place, and I have not heard from a single regular customer telling me they won’t be back,” Tambolia said. “Not one. I don’t track anyone’s politics and my register doesn’t record it, and I serve every guest who walks through my door, the way I always have. The one exception is the uniformed deployment, and that was the entire point.”

He continued, “Here is what I’d rather you spend your ink on. Four people are dead at the hands of this task force since it came to Memphis, in a city where violent crime had already fallen to a 25-year low before they arrived. One of them, Tyrin Johnson, was twenty years old. Another, Jonah Neal, was in the middle of a mental health crisis when a federal agent killed him, and I’d bet most of your readers have never heard his name.”

“If a president sent soldiers and federal agents into your town and four of your neighbors ended up dead, you would not be asking a pizza owner about his Friday sales,” Tambolia continued. “You would be asking why it happened, and you would be furious, and you would be right to be. That is the outrage this deserves, and it is missing only because it is happening here and not somewhere the country is used to watching.”

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“A small business owner using his First Amendment right to run his place by his own conscience is about as American as it gets,” he added. “The people trying to punish that speech, the ones review-bombing me and the ones cheering the government on, are the ones who walked away from the Constitution they claim to love. You do not get to wave the flag and boo free speech in the same breath.”