Houston Rocket and Golden State Warriors fans have officially taken their rivalry to a new level! The fans of the respective basketball teams have long been at odds with one another, but now their feud is having a negative impact on Ayesha Curry’s new Houston restaurant.
Curry, who is the wife of Warriors superstar Stephen Curry, is an accomplished cookbook author, Food Network star and restauranteur, but when Rockets fans learned she was planning to open a third restaurant called International Smoke on their turf in Houston, they weren’t very happy about it.
Though Curry’s restaurant, for which she partnered with James Beard award-winning chef Michael Mina, isn’t expected to formally open until July 5, a preview was held late last month just as the Warriors were in the midst of their seven-game Western Conference finals victory against the Rockets.
To express their dismay, Rockets fans have been flooding the International Smoke Houston Yelp page with 1-star reviews. One unsatisfied patron (and assumed Rockets fan) wrote: “The appetizers were the greatest ever, but the entrees made me choke they were so awful. It was almost like going 73-9 in the regular season, only to blow a 3-1 lead in the finals.”
Other reviews have mentioned nonexistent snake and cupcake dishes, and one reviewer even lamented, “I would never set foot in this place even if it was the last place on earth.”
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However, to counteract the negative reviews from Rockets fans, Warriors fans have begun inundating the page with extremely positive reviews, praising everything from the “mouth-watering” food to the “top notch” owners and Ayesha’s business acumen. As a result of the dueling factions, International Smoke currently has 3 stars on Yelp.
“When businesses make the news, their Yelp business page can be affected. Media-fueled reviews typically violate our Content Guidelines, one of which deals with relevance,”a Yelp spokesperson told Us Weekly. “Yelp reviews are required to describe a firsthand consumer experience, not what someone read in the news. Our user support team ultimately removes reviews that violate these guidelines.”
When a Twitter user asked Curry on June 20 what she thought of all the hubbub surrounding her latest culinary venture she took the classy route, writing: “I don’t play ball so this has been very entertaining to watch people so wound up. The food will speak for itself once we open and I actually love Houston. I love food, I love bbq and am excited to bring something different to the table.”
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