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From its Southeast food truck to owner Justin Hintze’s social media presence to its bustling new location in the Pearl, Jojo is a quintessential Portland restaurant. Unless you happen to be the mayor of the Portland.
Soon after the restaurant opened in September, Hintze put up a flyer with a black-and-white photocopy of Ted Wheeler’s smiley avatar and, in plain block letters, “BANNED FOR LIFE.”
“To our dipshit mayor, you can’t eat here,” Hintze wrote when he put the pic on Instagram, while thoughtfully including “@tedwheelerpdx” in the post.
What exactly did the mayor do to be the first person barred from the potato-wedge restaurant?
“Ted Wheeler is banned from Jojo because he’s a nasty ghoul that criminalizes poverty, tear gasses his citizens, and shields [the Portland Police Bureau] from any real accountability,” Hintze told WW via, what else, Twitter direct message. (Wheeler’s office did not reply to a request for comment.)
Despite his reputation for shitposting, Hintze is sincere in his politics—and his morality isn’t empty, having also leveraged his social media following to help raise more than $50,000 for the National Network of Abortion Funds around the time of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision. Early last month, he also called attention to the fact that comedian and accused sexual predator Chris D’Elia was performing at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. (D’Elia gets no chicken either: “BANNED EW GROSS,” read the IG post.)
Asked if there was anything Wheeler could do to freely experience the wonder of Jojo’s over-the-top sandwiches and fried potatoes in person, Hintze switches back to his jokey side.
“He could only get unbanned from Jojo if he lets me have Lloyd Center. Not sure how this works, but he can do it. I will demolish the ice rink because I’m jealous of people that can ice skate. I’m too clumsy and scared of ice.”