Cat Deeley, Emmy-nominated host of So You Think You Can Dance, went to brunch Sunday afternoon and had a terrible time, so she tweeted about the experience and asked her 357,000 followers to “avoid” the two-dollar-sign establishment “at all costs.”
Before long, essential celebrity publications like People, Us Weekly, and Busy Philipps’s Instagram picked up the story, where it was discovered by readers like me.
It’s a wild ride, and I’d love to take you on it.
1) Cat Deeley went to a Los Angeles restaurant called TOMGEORGE on Sunday afternoon
While in Los Angeles “for [So You Think You Can Dance’s] season 14 auditions,” Deeley, 40, went to brunch at TOMGEORGE, an Italian restaurant described by Eater as “seriously beautiful.”
But as we all know, beauty is in the eye of the beholder...
2) She then complained about her experience on Twitter
After leaving the restaurant, Deeley spent the next two hours complaining about TOMGEORGE on Twitter. She began by commenting on a screenshot of the restaurant’s Google overview, which included 4.5-star rating she obviously found both inaccurate and troubling.
Four minutes later, she expanded on her initial comments with a photograph of the restaurant (presumably one she took herself) that she captioned with more details regarding her displeasure. “The most disgusting restaurant,” she wrote with a vaguely Trumpian tone. “Terribly run, by a manager - who can only be described as an amateur. Avoid at all costs.”
As followers began asking more questions about her experience, she was happy to answer them. When asked why the restaurant should be avoided, Deeley responded, “Terrible food. Disaster.” When asked again by someone else, she once again ignored the details and responded with blind passion, writing, “Absolutely awful! Worst restaurant in LA.”
Immediately following that brief and unsatisfying AMA, Deeley quoted a month-old tweet from @FoursquareCityGuide (presumably one she searched for in the heat of the moment) and added, “This place is awful! Avoid at all costs!” She then predicted TOMGEORGE would last no more than three months, and added an emoji of a startled tabby cat to more effectively express her rage.
3) Her server, Joseph, provided receipts that showed Deeley’s entire meal (drinks not included) was comped by the restaurant
In a stunning turn of events, Joseph Vasko-Bezenek, the server who waited on Deeley during her disastrous experience at TOMGEORGE, found her complaints on Twitter and responded with receipts (yes, literal receipts) that appeared to show that Deeley both received her meal (sans drinks) for free, and refused to tip.
“I am hurt by your response to free food,” he wrote. “I gave you respect, and I served you with love.”
4) Deeley was not impressed by the receipts, and eventually ended her rant without conceding
Though Vasko-Bezenek’s outed Deeley as an ungrateful patron with no value for the time of others, she refused to apologize for her behavior. She not only retweeted the server’s gentle owning, but verified claims that he treated her with respect and was deserving of a fair tip.
“The catalogue of errors were not your fault,” she wrote. “However the mistakes were repeatedly not correctly rectified.” In a subsequent tweet, she continued:
The food was terrible and your manager was unhelpful and rude. Respect and love should be shown to all, attention to detail is necessary too!
5) Deeley is called out by the media, after which she finally offers more details about the restaurant’s “catalogue of errors” while simultaneously attempting to rewrite history
After People picked up the tale of Cat Deeley and her bad brunch (more on that phrase later) the following day, she quoted their tweet and added, “Just to be clear. Our order arrived at the table incorrectly FIVE times! Then one of my guests dishes was inedible. There was zero service.”
While the amount of comped food shown in the receipt provided by Vasko-Bezenek suggests TOMGEORGE’s food was not, as Deeley alleges, as appetizing as it should have been, her claim that “there was zero service” directly refutes earlier tweets in which she said her server was not at fault.
6) Busy Philipps took to Instagram to applaud Deeley (whom she “loves”) for “speaking out against her bad brunch”
Actress and national treasure Busy Philipps took to Instagram to express her delight at both Deeley’s shameless rant and People’s subsequent (and predictable) coverage. “I love her,” she admitted before wondering aloud whether or not Deeley “forgot she was famous.”
7) This story became the subject of People Food’s four most popular stories on Tuesday afternoon
This happened because the story deserved it.
This has been a Jezebel explainer.