Restaurant owned by C.J. Gardner-Johnson's mother bombarded with negative reviews after safety trash talked Travis Kelce
Published in Football
PHILADELPHIA — On Sunday morning, Del Johnson probably had only two things on her mind: the opening of her second restaurant and watching her son play in Super Bowl LIX. But after witnessing her son C.J. Gardner-Johnson become a Super Bowl champion, things took a slight turn.
Following the game, which she watched from her newly opened second establishment, Village Bier Garten in Cocoa Village, Fla., negative reviews poured into the Yelp page for Johnson’s first restaurant, Kings Grill in Rockledge, Fla. The reviews came flooding in from both Kansas City Chiefs and Taylor Swift fans after Gardner-Johnson sparked controversy with postgame comments on social media directed toward Swifties after the Chiefs’ 40-22 loss to the Eagles.
“Should’ve stayed with that thick [expletive],” the Eagles safety posted on Instagram, over a photo of him staring down Kelce during the Super Bowl. It was a reference to Travis Kelce’s ex-girlfriend Kayla Nicole, who was in attendance during Sunday’s game and celebrated the Eagles' win on the field.
Swifties soon began posting bad reviews on the Google reviews and Yelp page for Kings Grill, which Johnson opened two years ago.
As of Tuesday, the negative reviews have been deleted, and Yelp posted an unusual activity alert on the Kings Grill home page.
“This business recently received increased public attention, which often means people come to this page to post their views on news. While we don’t take a stand one way or the other when it comes to this incident, we’ve temporarily disabled the posting of content to this page as we work to investigate whether the content you see here reflects actual consumer experiences rather than the recent events,” the post read.
A Yelp spokesperson made a statement on the issue Tuesday.
“For Yelp to remain a useful resource to the community, reviews must be based on a genuine, firsthand experience with the business,” the spokesperson said. “Due to the increased activity we detected on the business page, Yelp’s User Operations team worked quickly to temporarily disable the posting of content to the page and placed an Unusual Activity Alert on Tuesday, February 11. When we see the activity dramatically decrease or stop, our moderators will clean up the page so that it reflects firsthand consumer experiences.”
Attempts to contact Johnson have not been returned.
Earlier this week, Swift fans blitzed the New Heights social media accounts after they posted a message congratulating the Eagles on winning the Super Bowl. The popular podcast deleted the posts, but Jason Kelce said on X overnight Monday into Tuesday that it was actually his call to take them down.
As for Johnson’s restaurant, when Eagles fans caught wind of what was happening, they rushed to her support — leaving hundreds of positive reviews for the Florida establishment. Some of the posts included nice sentiments about Gardner-Johnson himself, a lot of Eagles love, and some hate toward the Chiefs and Swifties.
— “Everything was AMAZING! #GoBirds #CJGJ Congrats to him & his family & most importantly this amazing food establishment. They hate us ‘cause they ain’t us,” Ethan D. wrote.
— “A friend of mine had recommended Kings Grill. So I had to pay a visit. As soon as I walked in Mama CJGJ greeted me herself. I ordered one of everything from the menu. It was all delicious and the wait time was not long at all. Go birds. [Expletive] the Chiefs. I’ll make sure I come here every single week now,” Giovanni A. wrote.
— “CJ Gardner-Johnson owns the Chiefs and absolutely amazing food. No better way to eat a DUB,” Kathy H. wrote.
— “This place slaps! From someone who’s actually been here, the shrimp and grits was like home and you gotta try the sidewinder fries. LIX CHAMPS. E.A.G.L.E.S. EAGLES!,” Ramo K. wrote.
— “This place was great. Hope to come back when I visit again. Please no one listen to the recent negative reviews. Swifties trying their best to ruin someone’s livelihood because something didn’t go their way,” Michele D. wrote.
And a few fans from different NFL franchises also hopped in to support Johnson’s restaurant, including New Orleans Saints fans — a team Gardner-Johnson previously played for.
— “Saints fan here, thank y’all for getting CJ a ring. Kinda sad that people are trying to attack this place because the Chiefs are sorry. I’m sure the food and service here are great though so gonna easy 5 star. Go birds I guess,” Cole T. wrote.
— “Service was on point thank you! Food was on point thank you! Ambiance was on point thank you! #RAAAIIIDERSSSS,” Seekr L. wrote.
It appears Eagles fans now have rallied together to post their second win of the week over the Chiefs.
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