NJ Pizzeria Owner's Rant Over Birthday Cake Sparks Backlash

POINT PLEASANT BEACH, NJ — A pizzeria owner's rant after a customer asked for a knife to cut a birthday cake at the Point Pleasant Beach restaurant has sparked a significant backlash.

Tom Jurkowski, the creator of the social media accounts Vintage New Jersey, said the incident happened at Joey Tomato's on the boardwalk on Saturday, when he and family members went there to celebrate the birthday of his 5-year-old nephew.

After asking to borrow a knife to cut the cake for the boy, Jurkowski said, the owner of Joey Tomato's, identified as Doreen Sullivan-Karcich, began yelling at the group.

Jurkowski posted video of Karcich's reaction on his social media accounts. In it she can be heard yelling at a woman from the group, saying it was inappropriate for them to have brought a cake to the restaurant.

"You don't just walk into a restaurant and do whatever you want," Karcich says. "How about if I just come to your house with a cake?"

Jurkowski, who said he started filming in the middle of her rant "because this was the craziest thing I’ve ever experienced," said they had called ahead and asked an employee if they could bring a cake and were told it was OK.

He also said they offered to pay any additional fee to borrow the knife.

The video spread like wildfire — Vintage New Jersey has more than 500,000 followers spread across Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and X —and sparked a significant backlash.

Karcich has not responded to media requests for comment, and the voicemail at Joey Tomato's was full and not accepting messages Wednesday morning. The restaurant's Facebook page has been removed and Yelp has placed a block on reviews for the restaurant because of a spike in negative reviews as a result of the video.

Some of the commentary on social media has been directed at the prices at Joey Tomato's; Jurkowski said the group bought four large pizzas with different toppings and five large drinks and paid about $250.

While Joey Tomato's had received the bulk of the blowback, there have been innocent bystanders caught up in the controversy. A South Carolina business has been inundated by negative reviews from people who indiscriminately searched for the place online. Jurkowski urged people to stop the posts.

On Tuesday, Jurkowski posted an update and said he too has been inundated with media requests and said he would not speak further on the matter.

"I'm still surprised how the situation unfolded," he said. "We just wanted to spend a day at the beach, boardwalk, rides arcades and get some pizza. We spent money at this place we just wanted to borrow a knife to cut the cake, and the response caught us completely off-guard."