{"id":805840,"date":"2026-08-07T15:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T15:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/805840\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T15:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T15:20:09","slug":"nj-pizzeria-joey-tomatos-owner-speaks-out-after-ripping-family-who-brought-own-cake-to-birthday-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/805840\/","title":{"rendered":"NJ pizzeria Joey Tomatos owner speaks out after ripping family who brought own cake to birthday party"},"content":{"rendered":"

The embattled New Jersey pizzeria owner who berated a group of customers <\/a>for bringing a birthday cake into her restaurant and asked to use a knife to slice it defended her actions over the viral confrontation.<\/p>\n

Doreen Sullivan-Karcich, the owner of Joey Tomato\u2019s, stood firm in her decision not to accommodate the groups\u2019 \u201cinnappropriate\u201d request during a child\u2019s fifth birthday celebration as a matter of customer safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s talk about that video,\u201d said the 30-year-old family-run pizza joint, located on the Jenkinson\u2019s boardwalk in Point Pleasant Beach, referencing the social media post. <\/p>\n

Doreen Sullivan-Karcich, the owner of Joey Tomato\u2019s, was recorded confronting a group of customers inside her shop on Aug. 2, 2026. @vintage.newjersey \/ TikTok<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a few days now, the internet has decided it knows everything about our restaurant based on thirty seconds of footage that started after the real conversation was already underway. 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,\u201d the family said on Facebook.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cSo let\u2019s 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 \u2014 the kind the Jersey Shore is known for,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

Sullivan-Karcich said her actions towards the group were in line with the protocols the business must follow.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are also Jersey Strong! Protecting our customers, employees, reputation, and brand is important. Every restaurant on this boardwalk has policies that exist for real reasons \u2014 food safety, liability, order in a kitchen running full speed on a summer night,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n

Sullivan-Karcich was captured on video scolding the large group when they asked for the common kitchen item to cut their own birthday cake inside the pizzeria. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t just walk into a restaurant and do whatever you want,\u201d Sullivan-Karcich said, asking them, \u201cHow about if I just come to your house with a cake?\u201d<\/p>\n

Doreen Sullivan-Karcich stood by her actions saying the business\u2019 policy was for customer safety. @vintage.newjersey \/ TikTok<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old family-run pizza joint is located on the Jenkinson\u2019s boardwalk in Point Pleasant Beach. Google Street View<\/p>\n

\u201cOkay 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?\u201d she questioned.<\/p>\n

The clip went viral after Tom Jurkowski, the owner of the Jersey Coast Emergency News account, who was there celebrating his nephew\u2019s milestone, shared it across social media.<\/a> <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t owe you anything, have a good day!\u201d\u00a0Sullivan-Karcich exclaimed to the partygoers who were insistent on getting what they wanted.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Despite facing backlash over the video, the restaurant owners said they were not budging from their ruling made against supplying the utensil to the revelers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose policies aren\u2019t up for a public vote just because one moment of enforcing them got recorded,\u201d the statement said. \u201cWe have persevered, one pie at a time, long before this video and long after it\u2019s forgotten. That\u2019s not going to change.\u201d<\/p>\n

The business released the statement on social media days after the viral video was posted. Joey Tomato’s\/Facebook<\/p>\n

Joey Tomato\u2019s, who Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy famously reviewed and prides themselves as having \u201cthe Best Gourmet Pizza on the Jersey Shore\u201d suggested changing its motto to remember the viral incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough we are considering a new tagline: We don\u2019t do cake. We do pizza,\u201d the store said in jest.<\/p>\n

The pizzeria\u2019s response did not win over social media users who continued to bash the business after releasing the statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t believe you thought this was a good idea,\u201d one person wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry\u201d would have worked, and no one would be pissed. This was a great way to fan the flames instead of putting them out,\u201d another said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis message was a whole bunch of nothing,\u201d a third said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The embattled New Jersey pizzeria owner who berated a group of customers for bringing a birthday cake into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":805841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[17756,88,44595,5871,1997,97937,194,2600],"class_list":["post-805840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-beaches","tag-entertainment","tag-jersey-shore","tag-metro","tag-new-jersey","tag-pizza","tag-us-news","tag-viral-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=805840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/805841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}