I live in his town and it is not a liberal area at all. The liberal NY/NJ newspapers made a commotion about it, but locally it was not a big deal. I’ve lived here for 30 years and didn’t know the place existed. He didn’t advertise or run specials or participate in promotion of any kind that I can find.
Think his business died for the usual reason; he didn’t know what he was doing.
it begs the question, if you didn’t know the business and you’ve lived there for 30 yrs... how’d the media find it?