A situation at a Jersey pizzeria got so crazy that Yelp had to step in to shield it from a flood of bad reviews intended to nuke its reputation. You know how these incidents occur at these locations. Anything can happen at any time, though you’d never suspect an innocent question at a kid’s birthday party could lead to a level-15 meltdown, but alas, here we are. The incident occurred at Joey Tomato’s in Point Pleasant, NJ.
The customers were trying to celebrate a youngster’s fifth birthday. They reportedly called ahead to ask for permission to bring a cake into the pizzeria. They were given the green light. When a man went to the counter to ask for a knife to cut the cake, all hell broke loose (via The Star-Ledger):
We were celebrating a birthday at Joey Tomatoes in Point Pleasant Beach (my 5 year old nephew) Mind you we bought 4 large pies (different toppings) and 5 large drinks. It cost around $250. We called them ahead of time and ask if it was ok to bring a cake. The person on the phone… pic.twitter.com/Ss4A9w4VxT
— Vintage.NewJersey (@VintageNJ1) August 2, 2026
The video was posted to X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday by Tom Jurkowski, the founder of the popular Vintage New Jersey brand — a social media account that highlights Garden State nostalgia and has nearly 300,000 followers on Instagram. The incident occurred Saturday, according to Jurkowski.
In the video, an employee is shown telling the guests they cannot use one of the eatery’s knives to cut the cake. She was offended that they even asked.
“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?” the woman said in the video. “You didn’t call, you didn’t make an arrangement or anything. You just don’t walk into a restaurant and do whatever you want. It’s inappropriate. And you owe us an apology. I don’t owe you anything.”
In the initial video post, Jurkowski said his party did call ahead and get permission to bring a birthday cake into the restaurant.
Joey Tomato’s did not respond to multiple calls and messages for comment from NJ.com. The restaurant opened in 1990, has been a mainstay of the family-friendly Jenkinson’s boardwalk, situated near Jenkinson’s Aquarium and Jenkinson’s Amusement Park.
The post has garnered thousands of interactions and more than one million views, leading the pizzeria to receive a slew of negative business reviews — a practice commonly referred to as “review-bombing.”
Joey Tomato’s Yelp reviews got so bad that the review website posted a statement to note the restaurant’s profile is being monitored “by Yelp’s Support team for content related to media reports.”
Jurkowski is still baffled by the situation.
“Honestly, a few days later, I still don’t understand why the situation became so hostile,” Jurkowski told NJ.com on Monday. “It’s not like we walked in off the beach demanding something for free. We spent around $250 on food and simply asked if we could borrow a knife to cut our birthday cake. We were even willing to pay any additional fee if there was one.”
[…]
The owner did not take kindly to the request.
“I don’t care what it is, it’s inappropriate,” the owner responds. “How about if I just come to your house with a cake and just come in and do whatever I want?”
A member of Jurkowski’s party then told the woman “you’re embarrassing yourself.”
Based on the video, it does look like the owner went from zero to 15,000 for no reason. The pizzeria wasn’t packed; everyone was eating and minding their business, and she blew her stack.
The sad part is that this place probably has great pizza. Also, nice job keeping your cool, Jurkowski.
