Viral video in Minnesota bar causes trouble for Kansas City bar of the same name
CORRECTION: This story has been updated to reflect that Jake Lang did not reach out to BLVD Tavern in KC, nor tag them in his original post, after updated information was provided to The Star.
Following a viral incident in Minnesota, Kansas City’s BLVD Tavern has been receiving backlash due to a case of mistaken identity.
Derich Carlson, who co-owns the bar and grill at 320 Southwest Blvd. with his wife, Grace, said that the drama began Feb. 3, when people were leaving negative reviews about the establishment on Google. He said some of the comments said that the restaurant had roaches, that customers found hair in their food, and that the bartenders didn’t speak English.
None of these comments were true, according to Carlson.
It turned out that the reviews stemmed from a viral video of conservative influencer Jake Lang posted of him being kicked out of a restaurant named BLVD Tavern — in St. Paul, Minnesota.
The video shows the restaurant removing Lang from the establishment. Lang claimed he was kicked out because he supported U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and President Donald Trump.
A repost of Lang’s video had tagged the Kansas City restaurant of the same name, Carlson said, which encouraged the harassment. This ultimately led to the BLVD Tavern in Kansas City getting swarmed with calls, emails and negative reviews. He said that they were receiving calls from people who supported ICE, but also from people who opposed ICE.
“We were worried about the safety of our staff, just because in the climate that we’re in today, who knows if someone takes such offense to that, then they come in here with a gun or something,” Carlson told The Star. He said that many of the callers were threatening to harm the staff that were in the video.
Carlson said that nobody has come into his establishment to cause trouble, but he was worried how much of their business would be impacted by this mistake.
“This potentially could have had lasting ramifications for us. We were worried that people weren’t even going to come in this week, just because of all this taking place,” he said. “We’ve had numerous people come in here this week, so we’re definitely happy to see that.”
Carlson said that Yelp and Google helped take down the negative reviews on his restaurant.
The Minnesota incident comes during an increase in federal agents patrolling the state, which led to the the killing of Renée Good, who was previously a Kansas City resident.
Carlson hopes that this incident is simply a “flash in the pan type of thing.” Though the business would not allow someone to be threatening patrons as is shown in the video, he insisted that his establishment is not a political environment.
“We’re just trying to provide a place that people can come in, have some food, some drinks, and enjoy each other’s company. That’s our main goal,” he said. “We’re a mom-and-pop location, we’re just trying to provide for our family, and we’re not trying to get into political space, we’re trying to stay away from that.”
Carlson also asks people to “do a little bit of research before reaching out and trying to harass businesses,” especially local ones.
This story was originally published February 5, 2026 at 7:34 PM.
