Diner Trashed On Social Media After Owner Posts R. Kelly's Bail

BLUE ISLAND, IL — The owner of a Blue Island restaurant is getting trashed on Facebook and Yelp after word got out that she bailed out singer R. Kelly, who spent three days in Cook County Jail after being charged with aggravated criminal sexual abuse involving four women — three of them minors.

Valencia Love, owner of Love On The Blu, 12454 S. Western Ave., Blue Island, is catching heat on Facebook and Yelp after she posted $100,000 bond for the controversial R&B singer, whom she called a “friend.” A Cook County judge had set Kelly’s bail at $1 million last weekend. Kelly’s attorney, Steven Greenberg, said the singer’s finances are a mess due to mismanagement, bad deals and mooching hangers-on. Greenberg also called his client’s accusers liars.

The 52-year-old singer, whose real name is Robert, was released from jail Monday evening after pleading not guilty to the charges in court earlier in the day. He denied not having the money to bail himself out of jail. It was a far cry from 2002, when Kelly immediately posted $750,000 bond after being accused of child pornography. Kelly eventually beat the rap six years later, when a jury acquitted him for allegedly filming himself having sex with an underage girl, including intercourse, oral sex, urination, and other sexual acts.

>>> Romeoville Woman Who Bailed Out R. Kelly Says She Used His Money

According to the New York Post’s Page Six, Love, 47, was said to be part of the entourage waiting outside of Cook County Jail when Kelly was released. Kelly immediately headed to a River North McDonald's restaurant, where he's allegedly trolled for young girls over the years, and then a cigar bar.

Love, who reportedly lives in Romeoville, worked as a secretary at a Christian day care called Lord and Child prior to opening her restaurant. She’s had her own share of past financial woes. Love told WGN that she’s known Kelly for years, although Kelly’s manager later claimed the two met five months ago on a Spirit of Chicago dinner cruise.

"When you fall to the bottom, no one is there," Love said of Kelly. "I’m just trying to be a friend. Never turn your back on a friend. I help everybody."

Later, Love claimed that the $100,000 she posted to spring Kelly out of the Graybar Hotel was not her own money.

Love On the Blu opened as a breakfast and brunch diner in 2018. Diners alternately praised the diner’s french toast flight and jerk chicken omelets, as well as complained about food arriving cold and poor service. As of Thursday, Yelp was monitoring Love On the Blu’s reviews “for content related to media reports.”

Before the Yelp user comments came down, the celebrity news site The Blast, offered a sampling:

“The owner of this restaurant financially supports child rapists and is responsible for posting bail for R. Kelly despite videos showing him raping several underage girls.”

“This restaurant is run by someone who supports pedophilia. Valencia Love bailed out known pedophile Robert Kelly.”

Love's "magnanimous" gesture also sparked debate on the diner’s Facebook page:

“R Kelly has enablers such as his entourage and clearly this business owner in his back pocket finding it easier to believe they serve drinks to children, and they wake up wherever r Kelly has a bed available times are getting harder now to deceive and simply help out someone guilty as sin.”

“So apparently she also manages a child care center. shes raising these babies up so R Kelly can snatch them away from their parents as soon as they are done with the center. You know he like them 13 year olds.”

“What and where were y'all bloodsuckers before the documentary came out tho. protecting you own city,” another Facebook poster added, referring to the Lifetime document “Surviving R. Kelly.” “Anyway, the new EP is out.”

Oh, and on the second and fourth Sundays of the month, Love On The Blu has live music.