Dine & Cook | Alternative food journalism

A day later, the owners of Amy's Baking Company posted a response to the review by LaTondress:

Dear Joel,L. It is blatantly obvious to me why you were ALONE on a Saturday night!
Read any of the reviews that have been written about us and you will see that EVERYONE loves us!! The only people that don't  is our "Competition". We knew you had been sent by another restaurant before you even ordered your $14.00 Pizza.

The Pizza was fresh and amazing. The reason the tomatoes had different texture was because I use three different heirloom tomatoes and some of them are sundried. So of course they are going to have a different texture from the fresh ones!!!
But perhaps you are only accustomed to tasting the ones that come "fresh from the can!"

Moving on to the "Store bought Dough" Comment. PLEASE!! My dough is made fresh every day from 100% organic ingredients. Perhaps your palate is not sophisticated enough to tell the difference.

As for you having the Patio all to yourself unless you have been living on another PLANET it is summertime in ARIZONA MORON!!! Only TRAMPS and LOSERS want to sit outside in 110 temperatures!!!!
We are hiring because we are so busy that we need to hire more people. You just so happened to come right after a huge rush. And the people did not change their mind for the Margarita Pizza they ordered. They were still enjoying their amazing Caesar salad and I thought perhaps you would appreciate not having to wait so long for your pizza.  Which was just coming out of the OVEN.

I am the CHEF and the owner, and I am the one that made your Pizza.

As for the no smoking comment everyone knows that it is against the LAW to smoke within 20 feet of a public place. But perhaps you think you are above the LAW. Have a little respect not everyone wants to subject themselves to being around second hand smoke.

And as for the overpriced menu items if you think that $12.00 is too much for an ENTRÉE sized ORGANIC Salad or $14.00 is too much for an AMAZING Pizza then perhaps you should go to the PITA JUNGLE that is just a stone's throw away. And if you get lucky maybe you can even dig up someone up to take with you so you can share a $5.00 Falafel.
Do US a favor and keep your ugly face and you ugly opinions to yourself and go back to the restaurant that you really work at!!

I would LOVE for anyone who reads this review to come to ABC and try our Pizza. If you don't like it then I guarantee you don't have to pay for it.

Dine & Cook reached out to both parties involved to present in their words what happened.  We have not edited their words or tried to influence them in any way.  Both were unaware that the other side was writing about their experience until just before publication.  Our editorial team determined that LaTondress should present his side first since it was his comments that sparked the incident.

In his words: Joel LaTondress

I think that within the realm of “foodies” (a term I loathe, but I’ll save that rant), I fall within two standard deviations from the mean.  I love experimenting in the kitchen at home, re-creating classics, tinkering with new recipes, and occasionally planning a meal around something cooked sous vide.  I have an entire cabinet dedicated to cookbooks, with everything from fondue recipes to an autographed copy of Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc. I’ve never cooked professionally, unless you count a six hour stage at an acclaimed fine dining restaurant where I picked herbs, made beurre blanc and cooked crab cakes and escargot on the line.  I also dine out a lot, so inevitably, when I talk to someone that I haven’t seen in a while, the question is asked, “Been to any new places lately?”