Let’s recap: In 2010, Amy’s Baking Company, a Scottsdale bistro, became “famous” for going after a reviewer on Yelp. Late last year, during the taping of Fox’s Kitchen Nightmares, Scottsdale PD were called to the scene to defuse a shouting match between owner Samy Bouzaglo and a patron who waited more than an hour for his food.

Last Friday, that episode of Kitchen Nightmares aired, resulting in magic like this:

From there, things only escalated for: The Facebook, Twitter and Yelp pages for Amy’s Baking Company flooded with general Internet haters — and, as they have done in the past, Amy and Samy defended their company. Viciously.

Now, they’re the most recognizable name in publicity stunts gone horribly wrong — which is saying something in a world where LED boards with cartoon characters were considered bombs, and a movie theater brought in dudes in body armor with AR-15s to promote Iron Man 3.

As we’ve already noted, Amy’s Baking Company is going ahead with a Grand Re-Opening, in which they hope to ignite all sorts of love and goodwill (and also stick it to Ramsey, apparently).

But the fact that everything melted down for Amy’s means that the rest of us have had the chance to enjoy comedy gold.

Take this parody commercial, for instance, which just doesn’t feature enough meowing for my taste:

Or this, from an Amy’s Baking Company Twitter parody:

But the best (worst?) part is the newfound Internet fame that has befallen Katy Cipriano, the young waitress that was dropped like a bad habit for giving Amy an “attitude” during the show. Her Reddit AskMeAnything Q&A session was, for two days, one of the top posts on the site…and it looks like it’s resulted in a nice, creepy following:

Which, of course, she retweeted, because SOMEONE has to be into her obsession with Phoenix Suns player Channing Frye.

We’ll see how long the interest in Crazy Amy’s Baking Company lasts — though I will say, we’re waiting with bated breath for next week’s Grand Re-Opening and all of the crazed publicity that’s sure to follow.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=gI5LWiPjQIE

This article appears in May 16-22, 2013.

6 replies on “The Chernobyl-Like Fallout of Amy’s Baking Company Is Comedy Gold”

  1. She now has a tumblr and her posts on there show that the facebook posts were entirely in character. Actually the tumblr posts are even worse. She is still posting stolen pictures and claiming that they are her own baking – when challenged about it she didn’t understand what the problem was at all, and specifically posted a photo which has already been identified as stolen as a genuine photo of her cooking. On her private facebook page she had stolen photos and had been lying to her own friends about them, but they have now been taken down. Here’s a link to her tumblr so you can see for yourself … it *could* be another parody but I’m fairly convinced that it’s really her … http://amybouzagloofficial.tumblr.com

  3. Come on David Mendez, if this is entertaining, it does not say much for those enjoying watching this couple have a meltdown and lose their business. And we wonder why our children bully others? I have been to their restaurant based on a review from Check Please, and the food was fine as was the pastry. I don’t know how anyone at this point can determine fairly was is fact or fallacy. Why don’t you stick with Restaurants that are in Tucson, but better yet, with matters that really matter in the grand scheme of life.
    Kathy Parker, Fountain Hills, Arizona

  4. Kathy Parker, I appreciate your opinion.

    But when you screw up as massively and publicly as they did, you can go one of a few routes. For simplicity’s sake, we’ll say two:

    One, you can admit your failure, apologize to those wronged and move on, knowing that you’ve got something to fix. Two, you can double-down on your mistake, affirm that you are completely within the right and that everyone who disagrees is a fool.

    One of those earns respect, the other earns (well-deserved) mockery.

    Which do you think they picked?

  5. This Grand Re-Opening is sure to result in multiple felonies. I can not wait.

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