Neil Glausier, left, and Fiore Moletz, co-owners of Burgh’ers in Zelienople, stand outside their restaurant greeting people as they come in Sunday afternoon during the drag brunch event. Shane Potter/Butler Eagle 5/21/23

ZELIENOPLE — A sold-out drag brunch event Sunday at Burgh’ers saw even more community support than the restaurant’s owners anticipated.

As additional customers wandered into the patio area throughout the event, Fiore Moletz, co-owner of Burgh’ers, said he was struck by the overall good community feedback.

“From Zelienople as a whole the support has been overwhelming,” Moletz said. “Zelienople is not home to as many bigoted people.”

Neil Glausier, co-owner of Burgh’ers, said the event had sold out of its 120 tickets prior to it even being announced on the business’ social media pages. The restaurant hired S&S Productions, a drag-event promotional company based in Pittsburgh, to perform at the brunch Sunday. The brunch began at noon.

Glausier and Moletz said the announcement of the event had been met with some negative comments, especially on social media. The Zelienople police had a car stationed across the street from the restaurant, with police Chief James Miller saying the department had been notified of potential protest of the drag brunch.

A memorandum from Zelienople, dated May 11, from Bonnie Brimmeier, the borough’s solicitor, said she reviewed the event and the borough’s ordinance on lewd or offensive materials and found that the brunch did not fall under the definition of obscene, and can proceed as planned.

“The event as presented involves singing, dancing and costumes; not nudity or sexual acts,” the memorandum said. “The ordinance and case law specifically state that it is not intended to prohibit any matter, when considered as a whole and in the context in which it is used, which possesses artistic value.”

According to the memorandum, the review was prompted by a letter sent to the borough May 11 by James Hulings, of Harmony, a former borough council member.

However, the brunch carried on throughout the afternoon without incident.

Glausier said the borough’s reaction to the event also gave the restaurant’s owners confidence.

“We’re proud of our borough and police department, it really energized us,” Glausier said. “Overwhelmingly it shows that there are a lot of people in Butler County who are good people.”