As I’ve mentioned one or two or a trillion times, I had a lovely beach interlude at the Jersey Shore last week. Not gonna lie, the reentry to “reality” has been a bit of an emotional crash landing — much like the physical ass-whooping I got from the ocean herself each and every time I attempted a graceful exit, only to be slapped down on the sand over and over again until the lifeguard sidled up to hoist me back to standing. It really was a wonderful trip! Anyway, I was in Asbury Park, where the boardwalk is fun, the restaurants are fab, and the Bruce worship is real. But if I’d traveled a little further south, I could’ve popped into Seaside Park, a shore town now living in infamy thanks to a controversial bagel shop. How controversial could a bagel joint called Bella’s really be? Well, earlier this month TikToker Valentina posted photographic evidence of two bagels purchased from Bella’s in which there is a shocking lack of cream cheese spreadage. The situation devolved from there.
“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.
…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.
…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.
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.”
I don’t know, sounds to me like Valentina can schmear it out but can’t take getting schmeared back! She called out Bella’s Bagels for a double case of improper cream cheese spreading; I don’t think it’s “snide” or “passive aggressive” for Bella’s Bagels to respond in kind with their own vernacular correction. Valentina opened the door — very publicly! — and to me it seemed like Bella’s was just volleying back. But then again, I am a word nerd, and Valentina saying “Bella’s Bagels IN Jersey Shore” hit me like nails on a chalkboard. And I’m from San Francisco! (Though an honorary Jersey Girl through family lineage.) That’s just my two cents.
As for the crime at issue, the spreading of the cream cheese or lack thereof. I have watched both TikToks, the initial complaint and the rebuttal, and have rendered judgment as follows: the schmear spreading policy as laid out in the restaurant’s video is more than satisfactory, it’s exemplary (soft schmear spread to the outer rim). It’s also totally not the bagel(s) Valentina received! Someone definitely fell down on Valentina’s order. But is it worth Bella’s getting toasted by hordes of internet people who’ve never been there? That seems like an overly-charred response.
