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It was a cold and rainy weekend here in New England, so I did what most people do when the weather outside is frightful – saw a movie on Saturday (I recommend Ocean’s 8) and watched 8 hours of SVU from my bed on Sunday. So while the weather was crappy, my weekend wasn’t – or, at the very least, it was better than these people’s.
Ayesha Curry
It’s pretty hard to feel bad for Ayesha Curry, with her celebrity chef career and her NBA champion husband. But it’s also not fair that her Houston restaurant is getting savage reviews online before it even opens.
It’s pretty ballsy of Curry to open the 2nd location of her International Smoke restaurant after Steph and co. beat the Rockets in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals, but one has to assume the eatery was in the works long before the playoffs. That kind of logistic isn’t stopping Houston fans from attacking the restaurant on Yelp!, despite it not opening until July.
Among the 683 reviews include “facts” about the food, kitchen and service (again, the place isn’t open yet) and then some gems as:
In the event they happen to make a good meal, the servers shimmy and shake right in your face and taunt you like you’re lucky to be at their restaurant…I don’t believe in luck. The staff is overqualified and obviously stacked the deck just to win an award. They could care less about your meal and experience. I won’t be back!
While Yelp usually does not interfere in the review process, they are intervening in this case. When you visit the page, this message pops up:
Active Cleanup Alert
This business recently made waves in the news, which often means that people come to this page to post their views on the news.
While we don’t take a stand one way or the other when it comes to these news events, we do work to remove both positive and negative posts that appear to be motivated more by the news coverage itself than the reviewer’s personal consumer experience with the business.
As a result, your posts to this page may be removed as part of our cleanup process beginning Wednesday, June 20, 2018, but you should feel free to post your thoughts about the recent media coverage for this business on Yelp Talk at any time.
Here’s hoping Mrs. Curry’s food is better than her reviews. [via Bleacher Report]
The Jiamener Hotpot Restaurant
While Ayesha’s restaurant isn’t even open yet, another one is being forced to close after offering a deal that was too good to be true.
The Jiamener Hotpot Restaurant, in Chengdu, China, has been struggling to get customers since opening in last December. So the restaurant, which specializes in chili hotpot, decided to offer an amazing deal to get people in the door: for a few of 120 yuan (around $18), guests could enjoy a month of limitless hotpot meals.
Unfortunately for the eatery’s owners, the deal was too successful, with more than 500 customers coming in every day and diners were lining up more than three hours before the restaurant opened. Plus, those that purchased the memberships shared with cards with others (despite a non-transferable clause) and not only ate a ton in the restaurant, but packed up more food to take home. As such, the owners racked up more than $76,000 in costs and had to close. A notice posted on the door informed diners of the closing and offered a discount when/if the restaurant reopens or a small refund. I’m pretty sure they’d rather get the unlimited food, but what are you gonna do? [via CNN]
Elon Musk
Mr. Musk is another person it’s hard to feel sorry for, so maybe this should instead be “all of the people waiting for their Tesla Model 3,” because it looks like they may need to wait a bit longer.
In an email to employees, Musk stated that, right as Telsa aimed to ramp up production of its Model 3 sedan to 5,000 a week by early July, the company had been hit by corporate sabotage – at the hands of one of their colleagues at the company’s Freemont, California plant.
According to CNNMoney,
Musk said the Tesla employee had confessed to “quite extensive and damaging sabotage to our operations.” The email said the employee made changes to the computer code of the company’s manufacturing operating system. The employee also exported large amounts of highly sensitive company data to unknown third parties.
“His motivation is that he wanted a promotion that he did not receive. In light of these actions, not promoting him was definitely the right move,” Musk wrote. The email did not say whether the employee had been fired.
While Musk insists that the Model 3 remains on track, some critics say that Tesla could run into a cash flow problem later this year if the company doesn’t hit the Model 3’s production target. Yet it’s still pretty hard to feel bad for the guy. [via CNNMoney]
Whiskey Lovers
A building collapse in Kentucky may mean a shortage of everyone’s favorite Kentucky libation.
A warehouse at the Barton 1792 Distillery in Bardstown, which held about 18,000 barrels, collapsed on Friday, and it appears that about half of the barrels inside were damaged.
Amy Preske, a spokeswoman for Sazerac, a Louisiana-based spirits company that owns the distillery, said, “We are assessing how many of the impacted barrels can be recovered. A mix of various distilled products at various ages were stored in that warehouse.” Preske added, “At this time, we do not know which Barton 1792 brands or customers will be impacted.”
The silver lining is that no one was hurt in the collapse and that regular operations will resume on Monday. I’ll toast to that. [via New York Daily News]
The Mets
The Mets’ awful season hit a new low point on Sunday when their attempt to start a reliever blew up in their faces.
After starter Jason Vargas went to the DL, 34-year-old Jerry Blevin got his first career start on Sunday against the Dodgers and to say it didn’t go well would be an understatement, if the first inning was any indication:
Play ball! Leading off the game, Kiké Hernandez goes YARD!
1-0 good guys!
— Dodgers Nation (@DodgersNation) June 24, 2018
Two Dodger at-bats. Two Dodger home runs. That's Max Muncy's 15th of the year.
— Dodger Insider (@DodgerInsider) June 24, 2018
All in all, the Dodgers hit seven homers to win the game 8-7, setting a record at Citi Field and adding to the Mets’ losing streak with a sixth loss in a row. Ouch. [via New York Post] .
Image via Sterling Munksgard / Shutterstock.com
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Jenna Crowley
Jenna used to be known as 2NOTBrokeGirls, but then one of the girls actually went broke, so she's struck out on her own. Jenna spends her free time saving the world, one sorority girl at a time (usually while wearing yoga pants), questioning why she decided to get a doctorate, documenting her love of all things cheese related, and hosting the new PGP podcast Don't Take It From Us. You can ask her anything you want about football, using your boobs to get what you want, and pizza at @JennaLCrowley on Twitter or via email at JennaLCrowley@gmail.com.
@JennaLCrowley
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I actually think that the negative publicity is a win for Ayesha. Because of the news coverage, a lot of people who didn’t even know she had a restaurant in Houston now know and they’ll want to go and try it in person to see how the food is.
Sweden taking the L with 30 sec left in stoppage time
Was wondering how long it would take my Mets to be mentioned here. Also, Ayesha Curry is a low key snacc.
Wow it really is steph curry with the shot/chef curry with the pot, huh?