A group of customers visiting a Jersey Shore boardwalk pizzeria was met with intense hostility from an employee after they asked for a knife to slice a birthday cake they had brought for a child’s party, according to a viral video of the incident.
This controversial altercation occurred on Saturday at Joey Tomato’s, located on the Jenkinson’s boardwalk in Point Pleasant Beach, where the group had visited under the impression that they were allowed to bring the outside cake to their celebration.
During the brouhaha, a restaurant staffer seemed to loose it when the revelers asked for a knife to cut the dessert, demanding, “You don’t just walk into a restaurant and do whatever you want,” and asking them, “How about if I just come to your house with a cake?”
The footage of the incident was captured in an explosive TikTok clip posted by Tom Jurkowski, founder of the New Jersey nostalgia social media page @Vintage.NewJersey, who was with the group celebrating his nephew’s fifth birthday.
Doreen Sullivan-Karcich was identified by Patch as the owner of the pizzeria and the staff member refusing the request.
Karcich went on to label the knife request “inappropriate.”
“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?’” she asked, incensed.
“After eating, we asked for a knife to cut the cake (we offered to pay any additional fees) and this was the owner’s reaction… this was the craziest thing I’ve ever experienced,” Jurkowski wrote in the TikTok video’s caption.
Karcich, giving up on pleasing the table, turned to Jurkowski and company, exclaiming: “I don’t owe you anything, have a good day!”
Jurkowski says that his table sought permission to bring the cake beforehand, and they spent around $250 on four large pizzas and beverages.
“I hate to be that guy, but I just had to take a video of this because this was the craziest thing I’ve ever experienced,” Jurkowski wrote.
The video has gained enormous traction on social media, where Vintage New Jersey has upwards of 500,000 followers on TikTok, Instagram, X and Facebook.
On Tuesday, Jurkowski posted an update saying he was “still surprised how the situation unfolded” and that the response caught his group “completely off-guard.”
Neither Jurkowski nor Joey Tomato’s immediately responded to requests for comment.
Social media for the pizza place was swamped with people arguing over the incident, with many ripping them for the decision to yell at the partiers. Their Yelp page was even blocked by the site for unusual activity.
