Viral “Day Of Kindness” Restaurant Owner And Manager Describe Global Support

When Apt Cape Cod’s Regina and Brandi Felt-Castellano made the decision to close their Brewster restaurant for a day in support of staff who’d been facing an uptick in aggressive customers, they weren’t expecting the rest of the country — or world, for that matter — to take notice.

Over the past week, though, news of the restaurant’s “day of kindness” has been published by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Fox News, and countless others. On Wednesday’s Boston Public Radio, Brandi Felt-Castellano and Apt Cape Cod's front of house manager Emilia Povero Zoomed in to talk about their experience dealing with unruly patrons, and the outpouring of support they’ve seen in the wake of their stand for well-being.

“It’s crazy,” Felt-Castellano told hosts Jim Braude and Margery Eagan. “We have heard from restaurant workers, flight attendants, doctors… [saying], ‘thank you guys for saying it. It’s happening to us here. It’s happening in Australia, it’s happening in the United Kingdom, Canada, Alaska.”

She continued, “we’re getting cards in the mail from people from all over the country and the world, just being like, ‘tell your staff there’s great people out there, we stand behind you, I wish my boss would do that,’ or ‘it means a lot to know that owners care about their employees.’”

“And a lot of ‘em do,” she added.

According to Felt-Castellano, while they had been seeing an spike in rude customers for several weeks, the idea came about spontaneously after a particularly stressful morning. Staff were welcome to stay if they pleased, or go out and enjoy summertime on Cape Cod.

So long as they made an effort to be kind themselves.

“I was like, ‘Don’t go out and be these people that you’re getting a day off of work from!’” she joked.

Povero said the move to give staff a day off falls in line with her experience working for the Felt-Castellanos at the farm-to-table restaurant, where she’s been an employee since 2017.

“I’ve moved to New York, I’ve moved to California, and I keep coming back because I love working for them so much,” she said. “I’ve had so many different employment experiences that… Brandi and ‘Gina basically are my family now because I can’t leave, I keep coming back to home base.”

“I grew up loving Mr. Rogers,” Felt-Castellano said. “I just kind of like to put that out there. I want everyone to be my neighbor.”