Let ’em NOT eat cake.
An embattled Jersey Shore pizzeria launched a Snooki-level tirade on social media — as they defended their eatery over a viral video showing the owner berating a group of customers who brought in their own cake for a kid’s party.
Joey Tomato’s cast themselves as the victims, saying the footage was misleading and that their Point Pleasant boardwalk slice shop has a firm no outside dessert policy.
“We don’t do cake. We do Pizza,” the joint said Thursday.
The staunch statement came after owner Doreen Sullivan-Karcich was filmed dressing down customer Tom Jurkowski and his family during a Saturday visit – supposedly all for requesting a knife to cut their 5-year-old’s birthday cake, which they’d brought along.
Jurkowski claimed he’d called ahead and gotten permission from staff to bring the cake to the lunch – which he said they spent $250 on – but when they finished eating and tried to borrow a knife, Sullivan-Karcich exploded at them.
In their new statement, Joey Tomato’s said the clip was misleading.
“No context. No beginning. Just a clip, built for outrage, and a comment section full of opinions,” the statement read. “We are a pizza restaurant. Not a party venue, not a bakery, not a rental hall.”
They also added: “The internet has decided it knows everything about our restaurant based on thirty seconds of footage that started after the real conversation was already underway.”
The clip has led to a heated debate online, as some felt that the shore eatery blew the situation out of proportion and was unfair to the family, especially with how angry Sullivan-Karcich got.
“You don’t just walk into a restaurant and do whatever you want,” she was seen saying on the video as she fumed and flailed about the half-empty dining room. “How about if I just come to your house with a cake?”
“Okay so when I come to your house with my candles and my cake, am I going to be able to do whatever I want there now?’” she went on screaming, calling the Jurkowski’s request for a knife “inappropriate” and declaring “I don’t owe you anything, have a good day!”
Jurkowski – who runs the popular social media account Vintage New Jersey – said he didn’t want to “be that guy” who posted a public meltdown, but that the altercation was “the craziest thing I’ve ever experienced.”
The video went quickly viral, sparking countless comments from people weighing in on the situation – with viewers overwhelmingly condemning the owner’s behavior.
Nevertheless, Joey Tomato’s stood its ground — and appeared to insist its refusal to lend the knife was a simple matter of restaurant safety.
“Every restaurant on this boardwalk has policies that exist for real reasons – food safety, liability, order in a kitchen running full speed on a summer night,” the restaurant wrote.
“Those policies aren’t up for public vote just because one moment enforcing them got recorded,” it added.
But that didn’t stop the debate from raging on – with readers offering some solutions to work around liability issues that didn’t involve turning red as a tomato.
“’I’m sorry’ would have worked, and no one would be pissed,” another person wrote. “This was a great way to fan the flames instead of putting them out.”
“Here is the correct answer…from someone who worked 20+ years in restaurants,” another said. “‘I’m sorry, we don’t give knives to customers. But I’ll be happy to cut it for you.’ End of story.”
