May 2, 2018

"I thought my review was fair and honest, like most of the reviews I leave on Yelp, and I even said I’d give their pizza a chance."

"Apparently that wasn’t good enough for the restaurant’s manager. At 10:05 p.m., I was in bed on the verge of falling asleep when I heard someone knocking on my door. I live alone. People rarely visit without warning me first. So needless to say, I was startled. I am not a white person in a horror flick, so I did not leave my room to walk down a flight of stairs in a house without power to see who was knocking at my door. Then the phone rang. I didn’t answer because I didn’t recognize the phone number. Again, not a white person in a horror movie. I sent the call to voicemail. A few seconds later, the same call came in. I sent it to voicemail again. This time, they actually left a message. 'Hello, this is [inaudible name], the manager of La Porchetta. I am outside your door. I want to speak to you about your Yelp review,' the heavily accented Middle Eastern voice said...."

From "Here’s What Happened After I Left a 3-Star Yelp Review for a Pizza Parlor" by Yesha Callahan at The Root.

33 comments:

Big Mike said...

Based on the description of the food, 3 stars seems generous. That’ll teach you.

Caldwell P. Titcomb IV said...

A local motel had a heavily accented Middle Eastern voice say "I curse you to die alone in a ditch!" because they wouldn't reserve a room without a deposit or credit card during tourist season.

Wince said...

Yelp ✔ @Yelp @YeshaCallahan We're very sorry to hear about this and have escalated the issue with our delivery partner. We've confirmed that they are investigating and taking appropriate action, including terminating the restaurant's contract for violation of their terms of service.

Looks like the original Yelp Tweet said "escalated" even thought the article quotes "elevated".

Gunner said...

The Root complaining about a person of non-European ancestry? I don't believe it!

gspencer said...

"the heavily accented Middle Eastern voice said...."

Com'n, Islam's a religion of peace. Nothing to fear from a Muslim from the Mid-East arriving at your door, at night, with demanding phone calls. Is there? Do you know something I don't know?

Caldwell P. Titcomb IV said...

I am not a white person in a horror flick,

Because she black.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

That's just Middle-Eastern hospitality!

Jeff Weimer said...

I am not a white person in a horror flick

Is that.....racial stereotyping?

Cuz I've been told that's bad.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

She's a black person in a horror flick. Make sure to get the skin tone down, or, you know - racist.

Michael K said...

Watch out for machetes.

The only solution is Indies.

Etienne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
tcrosse said...

Curious that a Middle Easterner would name his joint after a Unclean Animal, Italian or not.

Achilles said...

People so love to post their address and phone number on the internet.

Smart.

Mike Sylwester said...

I never have had pizza topped with mayonnaise, bit have had it topped with ranch dressing, and it was delicious.

Mike Sylwester said...

If I ordered pizza topped with ranch dressing but it tasted like mayonnaise, I would not give the restaurant a better rating than three stars.

Caldwell P. Titcomb IV said...

"The first La Porchetta Restaurant was opened in 1985, when Italian born Rocky Pantaleo and Felice Nania took over a run-down pizza shop in Melbourne’s Italian hub."

You can't spell "diversity" without some of the letters in "Australian Middle Eastern Mafia".

FullMoon said...

The manager takes the trouble to cook up some fresh, delicious food to make up for the soggy goodies. Then personally deliver it, for free, and the bitch complains?

Two sides to every story.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

FullMoon said...
The manager takes the trouble to cook up some fresh, delicious food to make up for the soggy goodies. Then personally deliver it, for free, and the bitch complains?

Well... yeah... that makes it hard to get a good hate-bonding going with your readers!

MikeD said...

Saw it was from The Root and passed. After all, The Root joined Mad Maxine, and others of the ilk, demanding Kayne get his black ass back on the plantation or else!

rcocean said...

"The manager takes the trouble to cook up some fresh, delicious food to make up for the soggy goodies. Then personally deliver it, for free, and the bitch complains?"

Yep. Amazing.

When I was waiting tables, the two most entitled groups and the worst tippers were Yuppies and black people. No idea why. Its no different today. If I go to Starbucks and someone's giving the barista problem its either a black person or some upper-class twit.

Freeman Hunt said...

Seems like you'd make sure the guy had bad intentions before defaming him on the Internet. Sounds like he didn't have a full grasp of American social norms, but that is nice to personally bring a replacement. An Indian restaurant near me once made a mistake on our order, and the manager wanted to drive over a replacement. My husband had already left to get the correct order, so the manager included a bunch of extra desserts instead. Nice!

langford peel said...

"The manager takes the trouble to cook up some fresh, delicious food to make up for the soggy goodies. Then personally deliver it, for free, and the bitch complains?"

Black people, hipsters and Germans are the worst if you own a food service establishment. It is because they all have an extreme unearned sense of entitlement.

When I ran a restaurant the waitresses would fight to not serve blacks or Germans. It was in Midtown and we had tons of tourists.

Yelp is a cancer in any event. It gives every scumbag beer muscles. This bitch should have her photo posted so people could refuse her service. That's what would happen if she has a Trump hat. So you can do the same thing if she has a pussy hat. Right?

Quaestor said...

I wonder what Yesha thought the cop could do or should do. The accented guy wasn't there to be questioned. Nor would he have answered even if he were. Not if he was smart. Knocking on someone's door at 10 PM isn't a crime. Nor is calling. If it were the telemarketers who get by my call blocker by spoofing an innocent local number would be doin' time this minute.

I note that she referred to a generic white person in a horror movie twice, implying that white people aren't very smart, and then goes on to describe her call to the police about a non-crime perpetrated by someone who wasn't there to be questioned or charged. Before she implies that whites people are stupid she should consider what white people make of someone who tries to create a stalking case out of one incident. Man, the coming Judgment won't be by water or fire, it'll be a deluge of bullshit. Get your high waders at Amazon via Althouse.

Michael K said...

When I ran a restaurant the waitresses would fight to not serve blacks

Larry Elder has had multiple programs on why blacks don't tip and get crappy service.

You'd think they would be conscious of waitresses but nope.

Anonymous said...

I can't believe all the people here defending the restaurant! If somebody responded in person to a Yelp review *I* had just written -- and not only rang the bell, but phoned me, twice -- I'd call the cops, too.

Sure, *now* he says he was just there to replace the food, but funny, that's not what he said in his phone message. And if he was really doing that, wouldn't he call *first* (if only to find out if she was home) before coming over? I call BS.

P.S. She didn't post her address and phone number on the internet. The food was delivered via GrubHub, so gave her address and phone number when she placed the order.

P.P.S. "Make sure he had bad intentions before defaming him on the internet"? He behaved badly. Period. If he had bad intentions, that just makes it worse.

cacimbo said...

Agree with openid.. That is not normal behavior. She was completely correct to phone the police.

Ambrose said...

Do you have to use your real name on yelp? I never do anything on line with my real name.

stlcdr said...

With regards to the rating, it reminds me of a Black Mirror episode where people’s social status, housing, job, and dimply everything you are allowed to do or go, is based on your rating received by others.

Yelp, google, etc. puts things into that category; a lot of companies can suffer because of potentially negative reviews by anonymous users. As this little story in the post shows, people are assholes.

Rick said...

I am not a white person in a horror flick,

Apparently yesterday's theme was "examples of mental illness".

Marek said...

She's right that only people from New York and New Jersey like good pizza made by Italians. I'm not from either of those places and I like terrible pizza made by South Americans.

Joking aside, I've been to Italy and had bad Italian made pizza. I've had amazing Italian style pizza in Japan made by Japanese.

Unfortunately I'm not at all surprised how a post littered with claims of racial victimhood can be so blind to what it is doing to others.

mikee said...

My Yelp story: A family friend opened a small motel in south Texas during the oil boom a few years back. On opening day, several negative reviews by supposed "guests" had been written, stating that maids stole from the rooms. It seems the local motels did not like having new competition. Despite the obvious impossibility of these being valid, Yelp did not remove them, because my friend did not have a Yelp account.

Fortunately, most smart people ignore Yelp, for the useless self-indulgent virtue signalling tool which it is.

donald said...

She made exactly no mention that he was there in a ham fisted effort to make things right.

Also, her glamour shot on the website is not even close to her actual appearance.

langford peel said...

The best solution would be blacks only restaurants. Then they could get the service they want and deserve and the rest of the service industry would not have to deal with their poor tipping and surly ways.

Win, win.