UNM student ‘doused’ by Deli owner

Times Square Deli, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, is normally known for its cuisine and coffee, but recently it took after its famous New York namesake to play host to a theatrical scene that has captured the attention of many American media entities. And at the heart of the story is a cup of coffee.

According to University of New Mexico student Kyton Blair, the owner of the well-known eatery doused him in coffee.

What is it with people throwing coffee around? It’s there to be enjoyed!

But this isn’t an open and shut case – far from it.

“As I’m walking out, I drop the food on the floor and say ‘hey, I don’t want your nasty food anyway,” Blair told the local New Mexico press.

The heated confrontation between diner and owner all started over some food and ended with a cup of coffee being used as a projectile.

“And [then] he comes around and throws hot coffee on me,” Blair added.

But to get the full story, we need to take a few steps backwards and rewind the scene frame by frame and remember that, as always, there are two sides to every story.

Times Square Deli’s owner Manny Nesheiwat says that Blair got confrontational about a recent order and started sullying his floor, acting up and using foul and abusive language in front of other customers.

This episode came after Nesheiwat made the customer a second sandwich and then politely asked the UNM enrollee to leave.

“I [said] please don’t come here no more because you accuse my food…Have a good day,” Nesheiwat said

Somewhat predictably, Blair’s versions of events are diametrically opposed to those laid out by Mr Nesheiwat.

“He says don’t ever say that my food is past due again, get the **** out of there,” Blair recalls, stating that he felt threatened. As a reaction, he admits throwing his sandwich on the floor as he began to leave the premises.

Then came the coffee.

“It was not right, but he messed up my floor…I had coffee, but cold coffee [and] I [threw] it at him,” the deli owner admitted.

So, who to believe?

Well, the police have apparently responded to the incident but haven’t deemed it necessary to file charges against Mr Nesheiwat. 

We’ll let you draw your own conclusions.

Albuquerque aerial by Ron Reiring – Licensed under CC BY 2.0