(NEXSTAR) — There is a bar in Fort Worth, Texas, with 26 tables, 11 televisions and a patio.
Upon initial appearance, this bar looks like any other: neon lighting, frozen drink machines and the usual trappings of imbibing establishments.
But this bar, as social media discovered recently, is exceptional for one reason: It is 9/11-themed.
That’s right, bar9eleven is a testament to the destruction of the World Trade Centers and stands “forever in memory of that tragic day,” according to its website.
The bar overtook the internet on May 17 when a man named Jesse Tyler posted about it on Twitter.
“Drove by this bar and though ‘huh I wonder what that’s about’. Turns out it’s about exactly what you think,” Tyler said, posting photos of the bar that show its 9/11 memorabilia and photographs.
More than 19,000 people have liked the tweet, and hundreds have replied. Some were outraged by the bar’s theme. Others thought it was “sort of sweet,” as one Twitter user wrote.
The bar did not immediately respond to Nexstar’s request for comment.
Bar owner Brent Johson did speak with Texas Monthly about the unusual theme. He said he opened his restaurant, Rio Mambo, coincidentally on Sept. 11, 2001.
“I don’t want anyone who comes into my restaurant to forget that day,” he told the publication.
Fort Worth Weekly profiled the bar in 2016. They said once you get past the decor, it’s actually not a bad place to imbibe.
“If it’s possible to tastefully theme a bar after a national catastrophe, Bar9Eleven’s owners have done it,” the weekly concluded.
But the question of taste can’t quite be ignored, and judging by the reaction on Twitter, the consensus seems to be a bar memorializing 9/11 is in bad taste.
“So, they put the depressing upsetting stuff up on the walls and makes people want to drink even more? Is that the angle they’re working? Not in my entire lifetime would this be okay. STILL too soon,” one Twitter user wrote.
Another asked, simply, “What in the actual absolute f—k is this nonsense?”