A Brooklyn Coffee Shop Told a Jewish Congressman ‘Don’t Ever Come Back’ — and the Justice Department Opened a Civil-Rights File.

On the weekend of June 21, 2026, Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY-10) walked into a Brooklyn location of Poetica Coffee with his seven-year-old daughter, let her use the bathroom, and bought a coffee to thank the barista. Hours later, the shop posted his photo and a refund receipt to its branded social accounts with a taunt: “Do you see how it doesn’t taste like genocide juice?”

The shop said it would have refused him service if staff had recognized him, told him to never come back, and declared it does not serve “racists, fascists, homophobes, genocide enablers, or anyone in between.” The trigger was Goldman’s support for Israel during the war in Gaza.

By Monday, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division had opened an investigation into whether a public accommodation in New York refused service based on religion or national origin. This page lays out what happened, who owns the shop, what the law actually requires, and the wrinkle that the congressman himself does not want the case brought — source by source.

• Civil Rights Division — the DOJ unit, led by Assistant AG Harmeet Dhillon, that opened the probe over alleged public-accommodations discrimination · Source: DOJ via Fox News; Epoch Times
• 8 locations — Poetica Coffee branches across Brooklyn and the East Village owned by Parviz Mukhamadkulov, who opened the first in 2020 · Source: Washington Free Beacon; Reuters/U.S. News
• “Worst than Hitler” [sic] — how owner Parviz Mukhamadkulov described Israel in an August 2022 post (his wording), per a review of his social-media history · Source: Washington Free Beacon
• $397,166.58 — in unpaid New York State sales tax owed by the shop's owner as of June 20, 2026, per state records · Source: Washington Free Beacon
• “Don’t ever come back” — what Poetica's now-deleted post told Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY-10), a day before his NY-10 primary against Brad Lander · Source: RedState; amNewYork

By Goldman’s own account, the visit itself was uneventful and even warm. He and his young daughter stopped at a Poetica Coffee location over the weekend; the barista, he later said, “couldn’t have been nicer,” letting his daughter use the bathroom even before they bought anything, so he purchased a coffee in return. What followed came from the company’s social-media account, not the counter. Poetica posted a photo of Goldman alongside a refund receipt and wrote: “Hey Congressman Dan Goldman, we see that you stopped by our shop today for a coffee. Do you see how it doesn’t taste like genocide juice? Or are you still having a hard time telling the difference?”

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The post continued: “See, here at Poetica, we don’t serve racists, fascists, homophobes, genocide enablers, or anyone in between.” It added that the shop did not need his money — “it’s probably coming from AIPAC anyways” — and signed off with “Don’t ever come to Poetica.” The company said it issued Goldman a refund after learning he had been there with his daughter, and that it would simply have turned him away had staff recognized him in the moment. The post was later deleted, but not before it was screenshotted, reported, and amplified nationally.

“Do you see how it doesn't taste like genocide juice? See, here at Poetica, we don't serve racists, fascists, homophobes, genocide enablers, or anyone in between.”

Poetica Coffee, now-deleted social-media post addressed to Rep. Dan Goldman (June 2026)

Poetica Coffee is an Uzbek-inspired chain that has grown to roughly eight locations across Brooklyn and the East Village since its founder, Parviz Mukhamadkulov, opened the first shop in 2020. The post addressed to Goldman was not, reporting found, an out-of-character lapse. A review of Mukhamadkulov’s social-media history by the Washington Free Beacon documented a long record of anti-Israel statements: in August 2022 he described Israel as “a terrorist state” and “worst than Hitler” (sic); elsewhere he called it a “nazi nation” and, the Beacon reported, claimed Israel was “behind Sept. 11.”

The same reporting surfaced the kind of detail that complicates a tidy morality play. Mukhamadkulov is a federal donor to Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner and a supporter of New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, per the account. His business carries its own troubles: a Brooklyn location at 240 Prospect Park West was cited June 18, 2026 for “filth flies” and sanitation problems; state records show the owner owing New York more than $397,166.58 in unpaid sales tax as of June 20, 2026; and a court ordered him to pay a landlord over $39,000 in unpaid rent and ADA-suit costs. None of that is the federal question — but it is the fuller picture of the operator at the center of it.

The federal hook is the public-accommodations rule. Trump-administration Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet K. Dhillon announced the Civil Rights Division had opened an investigation, saying the department was aware of the “denial of service taunts” aimed at Goldman and that “federal law prohibits public accommodations such as coffee shops from discriminating against patrons based on their race, religion, or national origin.” The authority she invoked is the one the Civil Rights Division has long used against restaurants, hotels, and shops — Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

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Dhillon did not hedge on the framing. “These actions are not only reprehensible, they’re potentially illegal,” she said. “The Civil Rights Division has opened an investigation, and will bring an enforcement action if warranted.” Two caveats matter for accuracy. First, an opened investigation is not a charge or a finding; no court has held Poetica liable for anything. Second, the harder legal question is whether refusing service over a customer’s political support for a foreign country maps cleanly onto “religion or national origin” — the protected categories Title II actually names. That is the live issue any enforcement action would have to clear, and it is the reason this case is being watched as a test of how far public-accommodations law reaches.

The most unusual feature of the story is that the congressman at its center asked the government to stand down. Speaking on CNN, Goldman said he did not believe the chain should be investigated at all. “I would rather they spend their time and resources investigating antisemitism against people who do not have a platform that I do, who are not elected officials,” he said. He reiterated that his actual interaction at the shop — with a hijab-wearing barista who was kind to his daughter — had been entirely positive, and that the online attack came after the fact.

Timing sharpened the politics. The incident broke as Goldman headed into a closely watched June 23 Democratic primary in NY-10 against former city comptroller Brad Lander, turning a refund receipt into a campaign-week flashpoint. Goldman, the first Jewish member to represent his district, used the moment to redirect attention to broader antisemitism rather than his own treatment — a posture that puts him crosswise with a Trump-administration DOJ eager to make an example of the shop. The result is a genuinely odd alignment: a Republican-led Justice Department pressing a discrimination case on behalf of a Democratic congressman who is publicly asking it not to.

An honest account names the soft spots. The shop has a First Amendment right to political speech, however ugly; criticizing a politician’s foreign-policy votes is protected, and the “genocide” framing of Israel’s conduct in Gaza is a contested political claim, not a settled fact. Whether posting a hostile message — versus actually refusing service at the counter — amounts to a Title II violation is exactly what the investigation has to sort out, and Poetica has not been charged with, much less found liable for, anything. Goldman’s own discomfort with the probe is a fair point against treating this as a clean case of unlawful denial.

But the load-bearing facts are not in dispute. The post existed; the company published it under its own name; it told a sitting Jewish congressman he would have been turned away and to never return; the owner has a documented history of describing Israel as “worst than Hitler” and a “nazi nation.” And the Civil Rights Division has, on the record, opened a file. One can think the federal response is overreach — as the victim apparently does — and still recognize that a business publicly boasting about which citizens it would refuse is the kind of conduct public-accommodations law was written to reach.

A Brooklyn coffee chain turned a routine cup of coffee into a federal civil-rights matter by bragging that it would have refused a Jewish congressman over his support for Israel. The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division has opened an investigation; the shop’s owner has a long anti-Israel posting record and a stack of unrelated tax and health problems; and the congressman himself says the government should focus its energy elsewhere. The case will turn on a narrow legal question — whether a denial framed in political terms reaches protected categories under Title II — and on whether the division actually brings the enforcement action it has threatened. We’ll track the investigation, any charging decision, and the shop’s response.

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Last updated June 23, 2026