Kings fans trash LA bar on Yelp after profane taunt
Silvio's Brazilian BBQ is a bar in Hermosa Beach, California, and like many bars, they entice customers with the promise of televised sports. But there's a twist: while Silvio's is in LA Kings territory, and Kings players like Matt Greene live right nearby, the bar advertises as "your destination for all Blackhawks games".
They've become Hermosa Beach's Chicago sports bar, and the home base for a group comprised of transplanted midwesterners called WACCO, "The West Coast Association of Crazy Chicagoans and Others".
Still, they probably also get some Kings fans in there, which makes one wonder why someone thought it was a good idea to broadcast the above message on one of Silvio's screens the night the Kings ousted the Blackhawks in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals:
A reminder: this is a sports bar in Hermosa Beach, where Jarret Stoll lives, and took the Cup in 2012. Some people probably came in there for a plate of picanha after the big party.
Naturally, once Kings fans saw this photo, they were upset. But rather than doing as the screen told them, they took to Yelp to flood the restaurant's page with complaints and bad reviews. A sampling, courtesy The Royal Half:
Other reviews complained the food "tastes like cheap cat food", and that someone should "shut this s***hole down."
Meanwhile, reviewer Chris E. said, "Very turned off by the big-screen TV that had a message from the owner saying that the Kings can go f*** themselves."
That's a fair observation. But how was the iparanga shrimp, Chris?
Silvio's owner Doug Howarth is upset, and not just because he's also a Kings fan. He explained how this message found its way onto one of his screens.
"One of our Blackhawks regulars made a 20 to 25-minute Blackhawks highlight video," Howarth explained, "and at the very end of the video, there was a 10 to 15-second screenshot that said, 'Hey Kings, go **** yourselves. Unfortunately, someone took a picture of that and it went viral."
Suffice it to say, nobody screened the video ahead of time, mainly because it was a trusted regular. (And because it was 25 minutes! Come on, man. Brevity.)
"It's something we never thought would happen," Howarth said. "We're in LA. We're from LA, and to have something like that go up on the screen -- it was a stupid thing that nobody was aware of until it had already happened."
And now Howarth and his restaurant are tasked with trying to explain this to the media, to Yelp reviewers, and to angry Kings fans flooding their Facebook, Twitter, and telephone.
"We're trying to do some damage control," Howarth explained. "We're very family-friendly and to have something vulgar like that up on the TV screen, it makes me want to throw up. I'm pissed off."
"This isn't something we condone. This wasn't coming from Silvio's."
The lesson for other small business is very clear: Don't mess with Kings fans. They, like the team for which they root, just keep coming.
s/t to The Royal Half.
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is the assistant editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @HarrisonMooney
