ORANGE PARK – As the election season heats up, so does the tension between the candidates and their supporters.

A popular local hangout, the Urban Bean Coffeehouse Café, on Park Avenue is facing undue backlash from Donald Trump supporters following a national news story about a coffeehouse of the same name.

Another “Urban Bean” coffee shop – not affiliated with the Orange Park establishment of the same name – located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, made headlines for instituting a “Trump ban,” in which the shop has vowed to refuse service to anyone who supports the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

“If you support this moron, do not ‘like’ ‘follow’ or spend money in our stores. At the very least, consider what your support of ‘this moron’ means to the future of our country,” the Minnesota Urban Bean said in their initial Facebook posting.

“Urban Bean recently found themselves in the middle of America’s conversation about the series of hateful and bigoted statements from presidential hopeful, Donald Trump. Months after banning ‘The Donald’ from its Minneapolis stores, Urban Bean instructed supporters not to like or follow the shop on social media. Urban Bean has always focused on the community,” an official statement from the Urban Bean of Minnesota said. “Urban Bean seeks to create a community free from the hate and bigotry that has been a mainstay in the media through this election. The backlash that created this controversy has come almost exclusively through online threats and one star ratings from out of state Trump supporters. The response from Trump’s street team reinforces the original message from Urban Bean that coffee and community should trump hate.”

Those sentiments have created a whirlwind of anger among Trump supporters, anger which has found its way, 1,500 miles down south, to Clay County.

“It started by getting emails to our account, they were pretty nasty emails,” said DuWayne Hegel, co-owner of the Orange Park Urban Bean. “People created a fake email address, one of them was from adolf.hitler@gmail.com, condemning us for our beliefs; which it wasn’t us, it’s a different coffeehouse.”

Almost overnight, the Orange Park Urban Bean was flooded with emails, phone calls and negative reviews on the Internet, all from actions that didn’t even come from them.

“Once we figured out what was going on, we started reaching out, one comment at a time and one bad review at time,” said Pam Hegel, co-owner. “This is not us, you’re looking for a coffeehouse in Minneapolis, not our coffeehouse.”

DuWayne and Pam Hegel spent hours going through the complaints, but they continued to pour in at alarming rates. At that point, the Orange Park Urban Bean posted a message on its website and Facebook page, about the issue.

“If you are here because of reports about political statements made as reported in the news, that is not us. We are an independently owned and operated coffeehouse and restaurant in Orange Park, Florida,” their message said. “The politically charged statements were made by a coffee shop in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We are not associated with them in any way and do not agree with the way they conduct their business.”

The Orange Park coffeehouse wasn’t the only “Urban Bean” affected. The Urban Bean Company of Detroit, was also targeted by angry Trump supporters. When reached for comment, employees quickly disassociated themselves with the Minnesota Urban Bean.

This recent case of mistaken identity is one that is noteworthy, because it was completely avoidable.

“If you are going to write a bad review about a place, especially a bad one, it would really behoove you to investigate who it really is,” DuWayne Hegel said. “It says on anybody’s Facebook page what city you are from, don’t slam a place before you know if it’s the right place. It can be damaging for a small, up start business like ourselves.”

Fortunately, the Orange Park Urban Bean did not suffer lasting negative impacts from the Trump debacle. They instead received an outpouring of support from customers and even some former critics.

“Most of our costumers know us, we would never say anything like that or do anything like that,” Pam Hegel said. “It prompted our amazing customers to come on and review our site, all of the people had never given us a review before.”

Over time, complaints subsided and negative comments were taken down. As people began to realize their mistakes, apologies and good reviews began to flood in to Orange Park from across the country.

“I actually had one message from someone in Minneapolis who apologized for the mix up,” DuWayne Hegel said. “He said ‘I’m going to be in your area sometime in the near future, and I plan to stop in and support your business, because I’m not supporting that one [Urban Bean Minnesota].”

Even as the situation appears to be resolving itself, the owners of the Orange Park Urban Bean want to reassure the public that their establishment won’t join the other “Urban Bean” in a similar ban.

“We have our own beliefs, spiritually, and our own political beliefs,” Pam Hegel said. “We built this place for our community, we built it to be a gathering place, and we welcome people with all different kinds of thoughts and views on life, and a coffeehouse, especially should be a place where you can come and have a great discussion, and share your beliefs and disagree with each other. We would never ever refuse service to anyone.”