HopCat Calls Detroit "The D", Fan Calls That Disrespect

Craft beer bar HopCat is opening a Detroit location in August, and people are super excited about that, but that didn't stop one Facebook fan from calling out their use of "the D" as a nickname for the city.

The post in question seemed harmless enough [all emphasis added]:

"Hellllllooooooo Deeeeeeeetroitttttt! Thanks for "liking" our new Facebook page! We're so excited to be coming to The D in August this year that we can hardly contain ourselves. Lots of work to do between now and then, but a little hard work never hurt anyone."

However, one Facebook fan was not a fan of their friendly tone, responding:

"Please call the city by its full name. She's 300 years old, and deserves some respect. Besides, "the D" sounds so douchey."

HopCat responded that they disagreed, calling the commenter the "douchey" one:

"We're lifelong Michigan residents, many of our employees and senior people grew up around there, and we're about to invest a lot of our money in the city. To claim we have "no respect" for the city because of a grammatical convention you don't like seems...pretty "douchey" to us."

But they didn't stop there, asserting that their love for the city will come through in the design of the new bar:

"We have huge respect for this city and plan to incorporate a lot of local elements in our interior design of the space, among other things."

Other fans jumped to HopCat's defense, saying that as residents they didn't take offense to the term and that they were excited about the opportunities the bar would bring. The disgruntled fan conceded that maybe he'd been a bit harsh:

"I didn't say anything about companies investing in the city (which I think is awesome). Maybe I strongly worded my opinion about people using "The D", which apparently isn't a popular opinion. Oh well."

HopCat conceded that maybe they should rethink the nickname, and they offered an olive branch too:

"Well let's just drop it - we will think about our usage of that term. We'll poll all our friends and employees who live there or are from there and get their opinion on the usage of the term "The D." No harm - hopefully we can be friends?"

Seems like there's always a hater, but this brief online dispute seems to be settled for now.
· HopCat Detroit Official Page [Facebook]
· HopCat Announces Detroit Arrival, Media Frenzy Ensues [-ED-]
· All HopCat Detroit Coverage [-ED-]