A family celebration at a Jersey Shore boardwalk pizzeria took an ugly turn when customers say an employee reacted angrily after they asked for a knife to cut a birthday cake brought in for a child’s party, according to a video that has since gone viral.
The tense exchange unfolded Saturday at Joey Tomato’s on the Jenkinson’s Boardwalk in Point Pleasant Beach. The group said they believed they were permitted to bring the outside cake for the birthday gathering.
In the middle of the confrontation, a restaurant staffer appeared to lose patience after the party requested a knife for the dessert. “You don’t just walk into a restaurant and do whatever you want,” the employee said, before asking, “How about if I just come to your house with a cake?”
The moment was recorded in a heated TikTok video shared by Tom Jurkowski, founder of the New Jersey nostalgia social media account @Vintage.NewJersey. Jurkowski was among those celebrating his nephew’s fifth birthday at the boardwalk restaurant.
Patch identified the pizzeria owner and staff member who denied the request as Doreen Sullivan-Karcich.
Karcich described the request for a knife as “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, visibly upset.
“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 caption of the TikTok clip.
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.
