sf wrote:
> On Sat, 11 May 2013 09:11:02 -0700, gtr > wrote:
>
>> Okay, it's a guilty pleasure. And I never see the topic come up
>> here, so that says good things about rfc.
>>
>> Last night the season finale took place at Amy's Baking Company in
>> Scottsdal and it was the most astounding thing I've ever seen on one
>> of this "restaurant saving" programs. Ramsey actually gave up and
>> left. He says it's the first time he has given up in 200 such
>> ventures.
>>
>> It is absolutely fascinating to see if you get the chance.
>>
>> One seminal element of the show is Amy & Husband's feuding with
>> Yelpers about their reviews. So I wen to Yelp and ran it down. The
>> first couple of hundred seem to relate more to the Ramsey show. But
>> the first few hundred (from a few years ago), are fascinating.
>>
>> http://tinyurl.com/d8vsc4v
>>
>> Apparently if you gave a bad review to what appears to be an INSANELY
>> bad restaurant, the paranoid nuts that run the place
>> responded--repeatedly--to your review, calling you a liar, demanding
>> to see the receipt to prove you were actually there. All kinds of
>> funny stuff.
>>
>> I must say that after seeing the show and going to bed last night I
>> felt kind of disturbed by the thing. And when I woke up I was having
>> a dream about the place, also rather disturbing. You wouldn't think
>> restaurant reviews and restaurateurs would be that scary.
>>
>> They are!
>
> Kitchen Nightmares is not appointment television for me, so you know
> it was a bad TV night if I found it.
>
> What a kooky couple! He must be rich because normal people would be
> long out of business with their poor attitude and service. It also
> seems like the negative back & forth on Yelp has gone on long enough
> that Yelpers would be prepared with "evidence" if their true purpose
> was to inform instead of inflame.

Used to be a pizza place in Lynnwood in the 80's. Didn't last too long.
The owner had a reputation of yelling at people, especially if they ordered
the "white" pizza. He would tell them that it was terrible and they
wouldn't like it! Now why he put it on the menu is beyond me. At that
point in time, there was no other place around here that offered it.

My husband (we weren't married then) and I went in to see just how bad he
was. And indeed he did yell at people a lot. I had intended to try to
order the white pizza just to see what happened, but then when I saw the
cheese pizza available by the slice (again something uncommon here in those
years), just ordered that. My husband asked him if he could do Strombli?
All of a suddent the owner got very nice and struck up a long conversation
with him. Again, back then Stromboli was unheard of here and I don't know
know if it can be had here although some places do Calzones now. The owner
was so pleased that my husband had not only heard of Stromboli but that his
female relatives made it at home.

So while we did witness his very bad and seemingly uncalled for bad
attitude, he was very nice to us.