Yelpers Drop Dozens of One-Star Reviews on Sweet Dixie Kitchen After #PopeyesGate

Yesterday, national news outlets picked up on the story about Sweet Dixie Kitchen, the brunch spot that (unbeknown to customers) bought and resold Popeyes Louisiana Chicken on their menu. Unfortunately, the internet revenge for #PopeyesGate was swift, and the embattled Long Beach restaurant has been the target of one-star reviews on their Yelp page.

In less than one day, over 80 Yelpers wrote angry one or two star reviews on Sweet Dixie Kitchen’s Yelp page. The outrage went beyond the limits of Los Angeles and Long Beach, with many reviews coming from out of state.

Yelp tries to mitigate these circumstances when a restaurant becomes targeted because of a negatively perceived news story. In the wake of such events, the user-generated review site initiates an “active cleanup alert,” designed to weed out the inundation of poor reviews. Although it’s likely that these negative reviews will be deleted, though as of Wednesday afternoon many of them still remain.

Sweet Dixie Kitchen also removed the review option from their Facebook page. There are almost 300 comments in response to their public apology.

• Long Beach Brunch Spot Unabashedly Reheats and Serves Popeyes Fried Chicken [ELA]
• PBJ.LA Wants to Know Why Their Five-Star Yelp Ratings Keep Getting Filtered Out [ELA]