Tamboli’s Pizza refuses Tennessee National Guard service, faces boycott

A Memphis pizza restaurant is facing backlash after refusing service to four members of the Tennessee National Guard last weekend, with the owner telling Fox News Digital he stands by the decision and would “make the same decision tomorrow.”

Miles Tamboli, owner of Tamboli’s Pasta & Pizza, said he refused to serve the Guardsmen on Saturday night because he opposes the federally led Memphis Safe Task Force, arguing the use of National Guard troops in local law enforcement has made the city less safe rather than more secure.

“I love this country and I love this city, and that is exactly why I made this call,” Tamboli told Fox News Digital in a statement. “I want Memphis to be safe. Every business owner does. And the honest truth is that Memphis was already getting safer before this Task Force ever arrived. Crime was at a 25-year low through the first eight months of 2025, according to the Memphis Police Department’s own data, later confirmed by an independent Tennessee Bureau of Investigation audit. That progress was earned by the people of this city. It was not delivered by soldiers.”

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National Guard members began patrolling Memphis, Tenn., in October as part of a federal task force established by President Donald Trump to combat what the administration says is violent crime in the city. (Brett Carlsen/Getty Images)

The Memphis Safe Task Force is a federally led initiative established in September 2025 by President Donald Trump to stop violent crime in the city. The task force combines local police with agents from various federal agencies, the Tennessee National Guard, and state troopers to enforce public safety laws.

“What the Task Force has actually done is make this city harder to live in,” Tamboli continued. “Its own records show that the overwhelming majority of its arrests began with routine traffic stops, not violent crime. Families in this city are now afraid to drive to work, afraid to take their kids to school, afraid to be seen. Our own schools reported that fear drove children to stop showing up to class. And this month, a 20-year-old Memphian named Tyrin Johnson was shot and killed by National Guard troops during a foot chase, with no body camera footage and no answers for his family. None of that makes us safer. It makes us less safe, and it does the most damage to the people who were already struggling.”

Tamboli said he believes that the approach being taken to address public safety isn’t correct.

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Members of the 117th Military Police Battalion of the National Guard and a Memphis Police Department officer conduct a community safety patrol at Tom Lee Park, Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

“Being pro-safety means telling the truth about what actually protects a community, and it is not soldiers trained for combat doing the work of police officers,” Tamboli said. “That mismatch is dangerous for the people of Memphis and dangerous for the troops themselves, who were sent here to do a job they were never trained for. The founders wrote their objection to standing armies among the people into the Declaration of Independence itself, because they understood that a free country does not let the military police its own citizens. That principle is older than any political party, and I am not willing to abandon it because it became inconvenient.”

On his restaurant’s website, Tamboli said that his family came to the mid-South in 1909 and were part of a group of people who eventually were called the Delta Italians.

“Months ago I joined dozens of other local businesses in a public commitment to stand against the military policing our streets, an act of patriotism and conscience both, and I would make the same decision tomorrow,” Tamboli said.

Tamboli admitted in an interview with News Channel 3 in Memphis that it had been bad for business.

“None of it changes my position. If anything, it confirms why this matters,” Tamboli told the outlet.

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Federal law enforcement officers stand at the intersection of Beale Street and North Second Street, Oct. 8, 2025, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Users on X shared outrage over the incident, with one person writing, “I’m from Memphis. Tamboli’s Pasta & Pizza refused to serve uninformed Tennessee National Guard members who were just trying to eat. Their owner turned them away. That’s unacceptable. I stand with the National Guard. Businesses that disrespect the men and women protecting our city don’t deserve our support,” and included the hashtag, #BoycottTamboli.

Another person wrote, “I hope every patriotic pizza lover in Memphis knows that @nicktamboli owner of Taboli’s Pizza is a leftist scumbag, who refuses to serve members of the Tennessee National Guard. It would be a shame if his business suffered a boycott, because ‘in this classroom we believe’… patriotism is real.”

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Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., also took to X to comment on the situation, writing, “When I get home I’m driving to Memphis and not eating there.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the Tennessee Military Department and Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee for comment.