A man separates meat with a hammer behind Tryyaki, 701 W 23rd St. The restaurant released a statement and said that the meat was not used for customer's food but would be consumed by its staff members.

After a video of a man hammering raw meat on the ground behind a Lawrence restaurant began circulating online, the owner of the business said the meat was not for use in the restaurant but for personal consumption by its cooks.

The video started circulating on Sunday afternoon. It was filmed behind the restaurant Tryyaki, 701 W. 23rd St., a fast food Chinese drive-thru. In the video a man can be seen outside the back door of the restaurant crouched over a pile of raw pork and smashing it with a hammer on the pavement. The man then throws chunks of the meat into a container.

The video was posted by “Lawrence Chapman” on Facebook.

Sunday evening the restaurant posted a response on its Facebook page defending the actions of the man in the video.

“We are aware of a recent video circulating online that misrepresents our restaurant and the food we serve. The video shows an employee handling a pork carcass outside, with a caption suggesting that this is food served to our customers,” the statement, attributed to “Tryyaki Management,” read.

The statement goes on to say that the restaurant has never served pork and that the meat in the video was not for Tryyaki customers.

“It is inexpensive meat that some of our employees prepare and cook separately for their personal consumption. This meat is cooked at the end of the night, in a separate cooking bowl, completely apart from the kitchen equipment and utensils used for customer food,” the statement said.

The statement also claims that the restaurant had a state health inspector at the restaurant the same day and that the restaurant was in compliance with health and safety standards.

“We deeply regret any confusion or concern this misleading video may have caused,” the statement said.

The Journal-World tried to contact the restaurant on Monday, but it was closed.

Tryyaki has had six recorded health code violations in 2024, according to the Kansas Department of Agriculture. Its violations included multiple instances in which food was at the wrong temperature or in the wrong location. All of those violations were corrected at the time of their discovery, according to reports from the Kansas Department of Agriculture.