A waitress at a Capitol Hill bar filed a defamation suit after she was fired for going public with her anti-Republican views.
Suzannah van Rooy worked at Beuchert’s Saloon from 2022 to 2024. The bar went out of business in June 2025.
Van Rooy responded on her personal Instagram account to a question from The Washingtonian food editor “asking servers in the District if they would feel comfortable serving officials in the new Trump administration that had committed criminal offenses.”
The Washingtonian interviewed her for an article called, “Clashes Are Coming for Trump Officials Dining Out in DC.”
“This time around, there is kind of a sense of defeat and acceptance, but I hope people still do stand up to this administration and tell them their thoughts on their misbehavior,” she said in the article. “I personally would refuse to serve any person in office who I know of as being a sex trafficker or trying to deport millions of people.
“It’s not, Oh, we hate Republicans,” van Rooy added. “It’s that this person has moral convictions that are strongly opposed to mine, and I don’t feel comfortable serving them.’
At the time, van Rooy was Beuchert’s social media manager. Her comments led to backlash from the public, and she responded on the company’s social media.
One post asked, “Has this staff member been disciplined for their statement??”
Van Rooy replied, “You’re safe, unless you’re a sex trafficker. Are you a sex trafficker?”
After the online conflict, Beuchert’s issued the following statement:
“Recent comments made by a member of staff who had no authority to speak on behalf of the entire restaurant have been, quite rightly, flagged as inappropriate, hostile, intolerant, and unacceptable. This staff member does NOT speak for us as a restaurant. After the inauguration in January, we will begin serving our fourth administration as a neighborhood restaurant on Capitol Hill open to all and welcoming to all.”
After receiving suggestions to fire van Rooy, the saloon took that action one day later.
While announcing van Rooy’s firing, Beuchert’s expressed “the sheer dismay and disgust we feel at her unforgivable behavior.”
Van Rooy was also doxed, receiving threats and unwanted messages at her home, like “go drink a gallon of bleach.”
She was also fired from her full-time job as a communications specialist for Potomac Wave Consulting.
Van Rooy sued Beuchler’s for defamation, and Judge Amy Berman Jackson partially denied the saloon’s motion to dismiss.
“Plaintiff alleges that she never had an employment contract, that Beuchert’s did not have a zero-tolerance policy on discrimination,
and that it did not have a ‘conduct and protocol’ to breach, and further that she was a manager at the restaurant and did have authority to speak on Beuchert’s behalf as the social media manager,” Jackson wrote.
The judge noted that Van Rooy received the bar’s social media credentials and when asked how to be the social media manager, was told to “figure it out.”
“This all supports an inference that defendants had a high degree of awareness that plaintiff had authority and discretion over Beuchert’s social media pages and to speak on its behalf through those tools,” Jackson wrote.
The saloon went out of business in June 2025.
