A bagel shop is getting smeared online over its cream cheese placement on one woman’s bagel — and an employee’s response after she complained about it.
On Aug. 8, TikTok user Valentina, who posts as @the.art.of, posted a video regarding the bagel she received from Bella’s Bagels in Seaside Park, New Jersey, and it has really riled people up — to the tune of over 21 million views.
“Bella’s Bagels in Jersey Shore, what is this?” she says as she holds a bagel with a thick block of cream cheese centered between the two halves, which appears to not have been spread. “Did you just cut Philadelphia cream cheese and put the freaking block?”
“And I know it’s not a mistake, because what is this?” she says, showing off a second bagel with cream cheese, even worse than the first. There’s so much cream cheese plopped on one side of the bagel that there is a visible cavernous space on the other side.
“This is not OK, guys, you have to spread your cream cheese,” she says.
In response, Valentina received over 12,000 mostly supportive comments.
“I thought that was a baked potato,” wrote one TikTok user.
“I thought it was mozzarella,” wrote another.
“That’s an appropriate amount of cream cheese for a bagel schmear, but a downright diabolical distribution of it,” said someone else.
Bella’s Bagels did not immediately respond to a request for comment from TODAY.com, and Valentina declined a request for comment.
Bella’s Bagels Posts — Then Deletes — a Response
Bella’s Bagels, which also has a TikTok account, posted an indirect response video but later deleted it after receiving backlash. And because the internet is forever, it was reposted by another TikToker.
“This is how we actually make bagels with cream cheese,” an employee says in the now-deleted video.
She shows the process: cutting the bagel, toasting it and, finally, spreading the cream cheese.
“We put a little glob in the middle and then we spread, cover all the edges, and then we cut it,” the worker says. “This is how it should look — nice and soft, nice and spread, a nice Jersey schmear. If your bagel does not look like this, please come back or give us a call and we will fix it.”
And if it wasn’t clear that the video was directed at Valentina, the closing line really seals the deal.
“And just to be clear, it’s at the Jersey Shore, not in the Jersey Shore,” the employee says, referencing the opening line of Valentina’s TikTok.
The video didn’t go over well, with many calling it “rude” and “passive aggressive.”
“Well hers didn’t look like this soooo,” noted one TikTok user.
Bella’s Bagels Gets Review Bombed
Now, Bella’s Bagels’ TikTok account is being inundated with negative comments, many of them photos of the offending bagel, and its Yelp page has been frozen due to review bombing.
Valentina posted an update on Aug. 11 asking people to stop tagging the bagel spot.
She also said some of the employees reached out through their personal TikTok accounts, offering to remedy the situation, which she “appreciated” but “left it alone” until she saw the now-deleted video from Bella’s Bagels.
“Now I see that the company is actually posting a video, and they’re throwing shade at the end, which is so unnecessary,” she says in the video. “Like, if you are trying to fix bad PR, you should probably respond to me and not like, make a snide comment — that’s just my two cents.”
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
