A New Jersey pizzeria has doubled down on its policy after a video went viral depicting an employee berating a family after they asked for a knife to cut a five-year-old’s birthday cake, warning their customers: ‘We don’t do cake. We do pizza.’
Doreen Sullivan-Karcich, who works at Joey Tomato’s on the Jersey Shore, was filmed laying into customers after they brought a cake for the five-year-old’s birthday.
Joey Tomato’s has now spoken out about the viral video, hailing their establishment as a family-owned restaurant that has watched customers grow from having their birthday parties there to being parents themselves.
‘For a few days now, the internet has decided it knows everything about our restaurant based on thirty seconds of footage that started after a real conversation was already underway,’ the restaurant said in a statement.
‘No context. No beginning. Just a clip, built for outrage, and a comment section full of opinions. Thank you to the people who supported us.
‘Let’s be clear about who we are. We are a pizza restaurant. Not a party venue, not a bakery, not a rental hall. We built our name on pizza — the kind the Jersey Shore is known for,’ the restaurant added.
The statement went on to say that the restaurant was committed to serving its customers and had established policies for a reason.
‘Those policies aren’t up for a public vote just because one moment of enforcing them got recorded,’ they added.
Doreen Sullivan-Karcich was filmed yelling at customers at a New Jersey pizzeria after they asked for a knife to cut a five-year-old’s birthday cake
Tom Jurkowski filmed the video after the altercation broke out over his nephew’s birthday cake. He later took it down and explained that he did not want to keep rehashing the conflict
The viral interaction unfolded at Joey Tomato’s on Jenkinson’s boardwalk in New Jersey
The statement cheekily concluded: ‘Although we are considering a new tagline: We don’t do cake. We do pizza.’
The video, which has now been deleted, was shared by Tom Jurkowski, the content creator behind the popular Instagram page, Vintage New Jersey.
‘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? Is that appropriate?’ Karcich was filmed yelling at the family.
She then turned her attention to the rest of the restaurant and sarcastically instructed them to go to the customer’s house with a birthday cake.
‘You didn’t call. You don’t just walk into a restaurant and do whatever you want. It’s inappropriate. You owe us an apology. I don’t owe you anything. Have a good day.’
As the customers backed away, Karcich continued, saying she has been with Joey Tomato’s since 1990 and no one has ever asked for a knife to cut a birthday cake they brought in.
Jurkowski, who was filming the encounter, then hit back at Karcich. ‘It’s a five-year-old’s birthday party! We just want to cut the cake!’
Doreen Sullivan-Karcich was identified as the viral employee who yelled at customers for their ‘inappropriate’ behavior
Another customer in Jurkowski’s party told Karcich that she was embarrassing herself, to which Karcich replied fiercely that the other customers at the pizzeria have been loyal to them for years.
In a now-deleted Instagram post, Jurkowski said he and his family spent around $250 at the establishment and called beforehand to ask whether they could bring a cake, and an employee said yes.
He told the Daily Mail he deleted the video because the damage had been done and he did not want to rehash the conflict.
In a separate video on his account, Jurkowski said he could never have imagined that a story about asking for a knife to cut a birthday cake would have gone viral.
‘It wasn’t staged. I didn’t plan this and I certainly didn’t expect it to spread the way it did,’ Jurkowski told his followers.
He acknowledged that he understood videos can go viral when shared online, but confessed that the reaction to the pizzeria altercation was ‘insane.’
‘Looking back, I’m still surprised at how this situation unfolded. We wanted to just spend a day at the beach, boardwalk, rides, arcade and get some pizza,’ Jurkowski continued.
‘We spent money at this place. We just wanted to borrow a knife to cut the cake and the response caught us off guard.’
He said he did not want to continue speaking about the incident and its impact on others’ livelihoods, adding that he just hoped everyone involved had learned a lesson.
Jurkowski then vowed to continue using his popular Instagram page to focus on New Jersey rather than address the viral awkward confrontation.
The Daily Mail has reached out to Karcich for comment.
