Pam Panchak, Post-Gazette Bill Balsamico, owner of Casa D'Ice in North Versailles, composes a slogan on his business sign.

By Caitlin Cleary
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette The sign in front of Casa D'Ice Restaurant & Lounge never attracted much attention. The plain white marquee was one small tree in a dense forest of commerce on Route 30 in North Versailles: gas stations, exotic male dance clubs, pet emporiums, glass block installation firms, poultry wholesalers. Its dinner and drink specials were easily missed by commuters cresting the hill, and owner Bill Balsamico changed its message every week in relative obscurity.

But that was before the invasion of Iraq turned into a bloody insurgency, before gas prices jumped and before immigration became a topic of political debate everywhere, from TV, radio and Internet blogs to the U.S. Congress. That was before millions took to the streets of American cities in all manner of protest, and before President Bush deployed thousands of National Guard troops to secure the U.S. border with Mexico against illegal immigrants.

Today, Mr. Balsamico is enjoying fame and fortune as author of the controversial, some might call them offensive, political slogans he posts regularly on his humble sign. The messages, which use ethnic slurs, sexual imagery and barely veiled obscenities in making their points, are meant to stick in your head, or in your craw. In the business of hospitality, they are the opposite of it, yet they have garnered legions of fans. A few examples, with some slurs and profanities omitted:

"American Paying Over 3 For Gas & Strippers at Duke University, Both are Receiving Non Consensual Sex."

"Don't Disrespect This Country ... Push 1 to Proceed in English, Push 2 for Deportation."

In addition to tirades on immigration and high gas prices, Mr. Balsamico's signs occasionally touch on other subjects in the news, from Michael Jackson's child molestation trial to seat belt laws and property taxes. But interest in the signs has surged recently, mostly because of the sudden prominence of immigration in the national consciousness.

Mr. Balsamico is called upon frequently for interviews with talk radio programs from North Carolina to Alaska. He has received thousands of e-mails and phone calls from supporters around the country. The exposure has brought more business into Casa D'Ice, Mr. Balsamico said, and has led to a successful merchandise store on the restaurant's Web site.

There, he sells T-shirts, hats, coffee mugs and plush teddy bears printed with such slogans as, "At the Current Rate of Legal & Illegal Aliens Entering This Country, Aug. 2013 Will Be Designated White History Month." Perfect for dressing up any wall.

And nothing says "Hug me" like a baby bib reading, "This is America: Why Must We Press 1 To Proceed In English?" the most popular and best-selling slogan. The bib is made in China.

Soon after Mr. Balsamico does an interview with a talk radio station, orders start pouring in from that particular area of the country, he said. The Casa D'Ice Web site has crashed several times from the flood of interest.

"It just started getting crazier and crazier," he said.

Some have dismissed Mr. Balsamico's signs as a marketing ploy that alienates a segment of the population and will ultimately backfire on his business. Others have praised him for saying what they say much of the country is thinking.

The North Versailles Police Department has stopped by Casa D'Ice after receiving occasional complaints from offended people, usually mothers with young children, Mr. Balsamico said. "I apologize for that when they call," he said.

Mr. Balsamico, 60, a native Pittsburgher and the grandson of an Italian immigrant, grew up on Larimer Avenue in East Liberty. He began making the signs shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the U.S. air strikes on Afghanistan. When he closes the bar at 2 a.m., it takes him a couple of hours to unwind. That's when he watches cable news and gets "irked" by current events.

"Whenever something in the news makes me mad, I just grab the ladder and go out there," he said. "Amazingly, everybody's in agreement with it and in support of it."

Not everyone is in Mr. Balsamico's camp, however.

The signs are evidence of a certain "smallness of mentality" that is surprising in an area so small, said Victor Diaz, chief executive officer of the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, who heard about the signs in news reports and called them "divisive."

"I'm a Cuban-American, and I'm used to this kind of thing," Mr. Diaz said. "I'm just used to seeing it in bigger venues, bigger cities, where people are more global. This area needs immigration. It needs globalization, period."

Providing an option to serve Spanish-speaking customers in Spanish is just good business, said Mr. Diaz, who is a business owner and a legal immigrant "like 90 percent of the Hispanics in this country." Mr. Balsamico is "excluding a certain percentage of the population."

"We're less than 2 percent of the population here," Mr. Diaz said. "We're not that significant now, but someday, we will be, and he'll be digging his own grave."

Mr. Balsamico said he wanted to jar "passive" people out of their daily commutes, to make them think and act on what they are often afraid to express. He insisted his use of an ethnic slur for Mexicans was directed only at illegal aliens, and defended his use of a derogatory term for Arabs.

"That's just a term because they ride camels," he said. "That's an ethnic slur, I guess, in a sense."

But Mr. Balsamico argues that nobody would get the message "if you just say, 'Don't give the ports to the Arabs, it's not the right thing to do.' ... If you state it in a profound way, it opens a door in somebody's mind, it triggers something, and they remember that. It's a catch phrase."

But it is this catchy T-shirt nature of Casa D'Ice's political slogans that is suspect to Mr. Diaz.

"I question the motivation of this individual," Mr. Diaz said. "Maybe it's a notoriety thing. If there was a large group of Hispanics in the area being a nuisance or a threat, but it's just not the case. ... This has to be a marketing ploy of some sort."

Nevertheless, the signs seem to be having Mr. Balsamico's desired effect on some people. Linda Nestor, of North Huntingdon, who works at the nearby Sunshine & News convenience store, keeps an eye out for new slogans every time she drives by.

"It's like you never really thought about it until you saw them, and it's like, you know, he's right," she said. "Maybe he's a little forward with the way he says it, but I think he puts the point across."

Outside Kmart, which shares a parking lot with Casa D'Ice, Sam Crowder, of West Mifflin, a construction worker, defended Mr. Balsamico's right to speak his mind, right before he suggested all illegal aliens be "shot." He dismissed critics' complaints about ethnic slurs.

"It's just his opinion. He's allowed. This is America, for God's sake. Why should we have to select 1 to speak in English?"

Pictures of Mr. Balsamico's signs have been linked to on blogs such as the counterintuitively named wehategringos.com and generated nearly three weeks of heated back-and-forth on a site totally unrelated to immigration. In the end, a moderator at thenextwave.com had to step in and gently remind irate posters that he had been hoping to solicit comments on Mr. Balsamico's marketing campaign, not multiculturalism, illegal immigration or the relative merits of Canada vs. the USA.

Mr. Balsamico is enjoying his fame, the booming merchandise business, the strangers who know his name, the phone calls from people all over the country who "talk to you like they know you, like you're their friend.

"I hope it goes on a little bit more," he said. "I don't plan on stopping."