Article and photography by Fitz
Lead photo of Stella Pomianek (right) and friend Rosa (left) cleaning up the vandalism on the morning of November 15th
On the morning of Sunday, November 15th, between the hours of 2am and 6am, Cafe Stella on Colonial Avenue in Ghent was vandalized. Co-owner Stella Pomianek arrived around 7am, shortly after two of her employees opened the cafe to find both of the large store front windows covered in egg yolks. This incident is likely further fallout from an online thread that went viral involving an online review of the cafe posted on the Cafe Stella Facebook and Yelp by Ashley Aniciete on October 9th, as well as two response comments posted by the Cafe Stella Facebook page a month later. Aniciete’s review posted on October 9th reads as follows:
“I visited this cafe for the first time today, expecting a lovely experience and good food. What I got, was a half way finished Salmon scramble dish. The way it was described on the board was NOT how it was presented. I sent the dish back, and the owner, Stella, sent out three individuals to come talk to me before her herself came out, then proceeded to say, ‘if you don’t like the dish you don’t have to come back to my restaurant” – I have never seen such AWFUL customer service. this cafe is a joke and is ran by UGLY people. the WORST cafe I have ever been too.”
The two Cafe Stella Facebook replies posted on November 10th read as follows: “Ashley, thank you for your review… hopefully one day you’ll be able to meet your real father…Remember, we’re all god’s creatures… peace” “also, please learn some gramar, even basic”
A plethora of comments from Facebook users chastising the two Cafe Stella Facebook responses followed this exchange, along with some supportive comments for Cafe Stella popping up as well. Similar threads and comments emerged concerning the event on other social media sites,- and the story went viral. The Cafe Stella critical comment numbers continued to grow, soon enlisting comments from people out of state, and culminating with a troll user from Texas wishing Pomianek death. As a result of the growing fervor, Channel 13 News produced a short 30-second spot on the incident, briefly interviewing Pomianek.
Some of the vandalism on the right store front window the morning of November the 15th (outside view)
Due to the short nature of said news report, the continued online vitriol, and the recent vandalism of the cafe, we thought it important to attempt to ask some questions of those directly involved in this matter to hopefully get some context into this developing situation. Co-owners of Cafe Stella, Stella and Mariusz Pomianek, met with us the morning of November 16th to talk about these events and Patrick Douglas, a former Cafe Stella employee and friend of Ashley Aniciete’s who we learned was involved in the experience at the cafe prompting the review, allowed us to interview him as well the following afternoon. We have contacted Ashley Aniciete on multiple occasions but to date have, unfortunately, not been able to garner a reply or interview. The following is what we gathered from our interviews.
Screen shot of one of the online threats directed at Pomianek
Earlier in the day, on October the 9th, Ashley Aniciete and Patrick Douglas came to Cafe Stella and ordered the smoked salmon plate and tea. According to Douglas, “We ordered food and tea, when the food came out, [it] wasn’t how the menu described it, and Ashley ended up not really liking it. So she went back up to the register, asked if she could switch it out and would cover the cost, if there was any. After Sarah [Cafe Stella employee] went back to the kitchen and asked, Stella she came out and said they couldn’t do that. So I told Sarah that’s BS, and any restaurant is more than happy to satisfy the customer. Sarah went back and asked again, this time Raphael [Cafe Stella employee] came out and just asked us to not make a big deal, even[though] the table 5 feet away couldn’t hear us talking to Sarah. [This] left us confused, so I asked him to ask Stella, considering I didn’t know why they were acting this way. [A] few minutes pass, then Stella comes out, asks Ashley in a condescending tone why she didn’t like the dish. [Ashley] told her the reasons why, and Stella’s reaction was to proceed to tell her, “If you don’t like my food, then you don’t need to come back”. [Stella] then stomped away in an obvious tantrum. So, we gathered our things and left.”
The following is a Facebook screen cap of Douglas’s take on the experience the night of the incident as well.
Initial screen cap of Douglas’s feelings after the customer service dispute.
Pomianek’s description of the event is substantially different. She informed us that, in light of Douglas’s, “non-amicable termination”, once she was told by Sarah that Douglas was with the customer, she was skeptical of the motive. She further explained that, “A few weeks before this happened, Patrick was fired. When we hired him he seemed very sincere but we always had to work around his schedule. He also came to work with a big hunting knife, which we repeatedly asked him not to come to work with. He was combative with customers and often visibly upset. Things went downhill completely when he left the cafe unattended to go to a second job and I had to let him go.”
In further reference to the customer service incident dispute with Aniciete, Pomianek stated, “I was told by Sarah that Patrick was making a scene. Both Sarah and Raphael came out of the kitchen to talk and try to defuse the situation with Patrick. Raphael knows Patrick. But Patrick kept saying the owner needs to come talk to me. He was getting louder and saying the F-word. When I came out he was causing a scene. I feel that it’s because he was fired; this was his ultimate motive. Ashley was not the one doing most of the talking, Patrick was. He has made this dish before; he knows it is smoked salmon and that it was made correctly. It is ‘smoked’ salmon not ‘cooked’ well through. I did turn to Ashley and tell her if you do not like the dish, you do not have to come here again. It was clear to me they had a motive coming in here.”
Stella and Mariusz also informed us that heated phone messages by way of voice mails were exchanged soon after the termination between Patrick and Mariusz. Mariusz stated that it involved “school yard style threats” from Douglas and Stella further cited this phone message exchange as a reason why she believes Douglas and Aniciete had motive to cause a disruption when they came to the cafe on the 9th of October. When we asked Douglas about the conflicting account of the event, he told us, “I don’t understand how [the accounts would] differ. Trust me when I say, I bit the hell out of my tongue. If I made a scene, I would have went out in handcuffs.”
Also, when asked about the discrepancy of the two accounts in reference to the quality/ preparation of the dish along with Pomianek’s statement that he had a motive when coming to the Cafe, Douglas informed us that, “No, the dish called for chives, I believe, and it wasn’t sent out with any. Also, the way we cooked it before, we threw the salmon in before the eggs were done to get it a bit warm [but this time] it came out cold. Ashley sincerely didn’t like it, I’ve never had a problem. I liked still being able to come back as a customer, the tea and coffee are always good; don’t understand why I’d want to ruin that for myself.”
We asked for Douglas to comment on the grounds cited for his termination and he responded with the following, “1) It’s my right, under the 2nd Amendment to bear arms, when at work, you couldn’t see it [since] my shirt hung over it. 2) The one time I “ruined” a dish was because Mariusz didn’t tell me what the customer actually wanted, and [he] ended up freaking out on me when I asked him what he meant. 3) [Stella] approved of me leaving [for the second job], I still don’t get why she fired me for something she approved.”
After this situation on the 9th of October and the review that followed, the post sat on Facebook and other social media inconspicuously for a month. When we asked Pomianek why the response was written a month later, she informed us that, “After working that afternoon, Mariusz was looking online and saw it. We had worked all day and we were closing. He said to me he was going to respond. I thought he was joking and honestly kind of laughed it off. I sort of didn’t take it serious that he was going to respond.”
Mariusz informed us that he feels he has to fight for his family and business above all other things in life. He also told us that he took issue with the post because, “When we get the few bad reviews we do, it always seems like personal attacks, not a complaint about the food or coffee. That review [Aniciete’s], she called my wife “Ugly”. What is that? My wife can be pretty, and when she’s sweaty or whatever it’s because she has had a long day and is working hard. Since we have been open, we have kept a record of how many receipt tickets we’ve issued. We have around 120 thousand receipt tickets and have served somewhere around 150 thousand people. We are a busy family business not a corporate one. There are personalities and character here. Our regulars and anyone that comes to us with a problem or complaint in person we will fix it.”
When asked if he regretted the two comments he wrote in response to Aniciete’s review, Mariusz said, “Yes, I wish I had responded better, [pause] differently, but I felt my wife and I were being personally attacked and by someone with an agenda.” Stella also commented on our question stating, “My stance on responding to reviews is to leave it alone. I do feel like it was a mistake the way [Mariusz] chose to respond but I understand why he did it. We try to fix any problems we can when they are brought to us, but this was personal—a set up. I did not refund the dish because of that. We respect our customers and I was sincere when I issued the apology. Those comments don’t represent who we are. It was a mistake.”
The apology Pomianek posted reads as follows:
Dear friends and supporters, Recently we have received negative attention due to our response to a critical review online. We would like to take this opportunity to apologize to the person who wrote the review, and to everyone we let down with our words. What we said was defensive and unfair; we are better than that. We work extremely hard at Cafe Stella—maybe too hard. We have big personalities and yes, sometimes we forget to smile. We love this coffee shop, and with all due respect to the other coffee shops in town, we believe we provide you with the best. Without you, our customers, we are nothing. We promise to move on from this and to be more gentle with not just the negative reviewers online, but with our staff, and with each other. Thank you for sticking with us, Norfolk! We look forward to serving you long into the future.
-Sincerely, Stella & Mariusz
Three days later, after this post from Pomianek was put up, the vandalism occurred. We asked Douglas if he believed the apology was sincere and if he had any thoughts on the vandalism. “I doubt it’s sincere [the apology], after all the backlash, seems like they’re trying to cover their asses. But then again, who am I to say?” In regards to the vandalism, Douglas also told us the following, “What people need to do is not act like children, [like] vandalizing the establishment. If they have genuine issues with them, then simply boycott them by not going to their cafe anymore. I really don’t understand why people are acting the way they are on this.”
Some of the vandalism on the right front window (inside view)
When we asked Pomianek her thoughts and feelings on the vandalism she told us, “I felt really disappointed at this attempt at intimidation. When you are being attacked like this, and there is nothing you can do, you feel powerless. But we do feel very touched by our supporters and there really are two sides to every story. There really is hypocrisy here and we are being bashed without people knowing the backstory. There is a mob mentality out there.”
Again this morning before the posting of this article we attempted to reach out to Ashley Aniciete but were unable to get a reply.
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