Overview

#Buttholegate refers to the discussion about how a vegan restaurant in Memphis, Tennessee poorly handled a negative online review in which the reviewer stated that the owner's child ran around naked and showed the patron her anus.

Background

In early July of 2017, Google Plus user Chelsea Bartley posted a 2-star review of Imagine Vegan Cafe to the site.^[1] In her review, she mentioned how the owners' infant child ran around the establishment, bent over, and showed Bartley its butthole. Following that, one of the owners' children walked next to her and started yodeling at her (story shown below).

Developments

The owners of Imagine Vegan Cafe took exception to Bartley's review. One of them presumably the mother of the children, took to Facebook to address it in two deleted posts (shown below).^[2]

While some commenters were supportive of the Cafe's attitude, others found it reasonable that a patron would complain about seeing a child's anus while eating. Meanwhile, the posts began to go viral: on July 6th, one was posted to /r/insanepeoplefacebook^[4] where it gained over 4,800 points. On Twitter, user @curtofranklin^[5] posted screenshots of Bartley's review, the restaurant's response, and the ensuing comments in a tweet that gained over 9,700 retweets. After the posts began to go viral, Wonkette^[2] posted about the story on the 6th. Bartley responded in the comments to one thread, but since the posts have been deleted, she reposted the text of her response on the 6th^[3] (shown below).

As the story drew media attention, the restaurant's Yelp^[6] page became inundated with reviewers commenting on the scandal. One review by Sam M. parodied John Lennon's "Imagine" (shown below). The story has been covered by Cracked,^[7] Vice,^[8] Complex,^[9] Washington Post,^[10] and more.

Search Interest

External References