PHOENIX – Everybody’s a critic and, these days, more people are posting their opinions online.
One Valley man did just that after dining at a local restaurant but he never imagined the response he would get to his bad review.
It is the case of the pizza that sparked thousands of words.
Joel Latondress, an IT worker who writes a recipe blog and likes to dine out, ordered a margherita pizza at Amy's Baking Company in Scottsdale on Saturday night.
Latondress says, “I don’t think the pizza was the worst pizza by any means, it was just how unwelcome I felt at the restaurant.” He says he was "immediately underwhelmed" and wrote as much publicly on the open-review website yelp.com.
What happened after can only be described as a war of words and it played out online.
Amy says, “I’m not going to lay down and let people write what they want to write about me.” She posted her own response on yelp in which she likened Joel to a tramp and a loser writing, “Do us a favor and keep your ugly face and your ugly opinions to yourself."
Amy tells 3TV, “If someone comes here and tries to attack me or harass us I’m going to stand up and fight for what I believe in 100% in my company.”
Latondress, on the other hand, says, “To lash out at me personally is not the right way to go about it at all.”
Amy and her husband Samy opened their restaurant three years ago and created a menu based on organic ingredients that, up until now, had garnered mostly positive reviews but when Amy shot back online, accusing Joel of working for a competitor, people took note.
The New Times picked up the story and more than 100 people chimed in, many of them critical of Amy's response.
Now she says, “I put my heart and soul into every piece of food that goes out to a customer. I can’t say that I would do anything differently.”
Although many have now vowed to never eat at Amy’s Baking Company, Amy and Samy say those people will not be missed.
Read Yelp's tips on how to respond to reviews OR Original Yelp Reviews.
