A San Luis Obispo County restaurateur found himself in hot water after his social media team posted a TikTok where he cursed about local customers.

“F—k the locals,” Roger Sharp said in a now-deleted TikTok video, with the profanity bleeped out. “That’s the way I feel in my heart. I mean, because they’re not going to be the ones that make us money, right? They’re not who this place is designed for.”

Sharp owns almost a dozen San Luis Obispo County restaurants, including Tortilla Town in Paso Robles and San Luis Obispo, Blue Sky Bistro in Morro Bay and Tito’s Red Tacos in Pismo Beach. The video was initially posted on his TikTok account @restaurantmillionaire, where he chronicles his restaurant ownership and gives business advice. 

“I just popped off and said that,” Sharp told SFGATE. “And then I continued on with this conversation, which is the part that nobody sees is that … I even say it’s not that I don’t like them. But, you know, if they’re going to bitch about everything that we’re doing … and that doesn’t mean if a person doesn’t like what we’re doing, I completely understand. But to sit there and just hammer us on, on social media and specifically me personally, when they’ve never met me, and they have no idea what I’m actually about is kind of disturbing.”

Although his social media team deleted the video from his account, controversy swirled once again after the video was reshared on platforms like Nextdoor, Facebook and other TikTok pages. Candice Patterson, a San Luis Obispo County local, reshared the video on her TikTok account after she saw the video on Facebook.

“What Roger said and posted with pride is disheartening and shameful. Locals are what made him and kept his businesses afloat during the pandemic lockdowns,” Patterson told SFGATE via direct message. “After a quick dive into who he is and what businesses he owns locally, I was saddened! We loved Tortilla Town and would always tell people to stop there.”

On Sept. 15, Sharp released an apology video on his TikTok account where he said the video was part of a “larger conversation,” but some people keep “reposting the hatred.”

“I [apologized] because I run my life in the form of I don’t want to be offensive to anybody, right? And so, if I am offensive, then I should step up and apologize for it. And that would go for anything, right? Like, that’s just the way that I live,” Sharp told SFGATE. 

Sharp said that he’s rarely involved in what the social media team posts, but he saw the video after it was up. He didn’t tell them to take it down immediately because he “knew the bigger message.”

“I know what the intent is, right? The intent is that we’re here for everybody. So the way that that came out and after relooking at it and actually listening to people and my friends and family, I go, ‘OK, please take it down,’” Sharp said. 

However, Patterson said the damage is done.

“As a local business owner, I’m offended and appalled that someone would say these things as a business owner, record it, and post it for everyone to see as if it was a good thing. Roger is out of touch!” Patterson said. “Locals are what kept his businesses afloat during the pandemic. Many people were commenting about how they made sure to go to his restaurants during lockdown, in hopes to save them.”

Sharp, who has been in the restaurant industry for over 40 years, said that he doesn’t feel the criticism he sees online about his restaurant is constructive and that there was a time when businesses received “respect and compassion from their community.”

“Who cares what my opinion was on something in Chicago? But if it’s in my community, and I’m dissatisfied … I just think there needs to be just a little bit more compassion for the business owners,” Sharp said. “And if for some reason you don’t care to go back, then just don’t go back.”