Vietnamese Coffee Takes Center Stage In This Bizarre Texan Internet Drama
On a bleary-eyed morning, the only thing better than a strong cup of joe is a strong cup of joe accompanied by bizarre social media drama. That's the centerpiece of a story from the Dallas Observer published last Friday, April 23. It's a saga of Vietnamese coffee, social media nastiness, and a dude named Bob. Let's dive in.
The Observer reports that last week one Melody Vo ordered a Vietnamese coffee at a Dallas coffee shop called Toasted. Vo's coffee turned out to be a standard cold brew mixed with condensed milk—not the intensely strong brew typically used in Vietnamese coffee. Vo took her coffee back to the counter, at which point, she says, the employee told her they had prepared the coffee "exactly how they make coffee in Vietnam." That comment was a "slap in the face," Vo says.
Vo, a frequent Yelper, then left a detailed review of Toasted. She praised the shop's "gorgeous" atmosphere, but ultimately left two stars for an unsatisfying entree and the disappointing Vietnamese coffee imitator. "This seemed like a great moment for a well-known coffee shop to actually spend time learning about Vietnamese coffee and introducing the Dallas community to it," Vo wrote in the review.
After leaving the Yelp review, Vo messaged Toasted on Instagram to suggest working with Nguyen Coffee Supply, a business that sells Vietnamese beans. A Toasted representative then seemed to infer that Vo was affiliated with Nguyen Coffee Supply, which the Observer confirmed she is not. The Toasted rep replied to Vo's DMs, writing: "You only have 4 Yelp reviews. One says your beans are low quality. Want another one? Take your Yelp review down now." Shortly afterward, the Nguyen Coffee Supply received two one-star reviews on its Yelp page—one under the name of Toasted's owner, Bob Sinnot, the other under the name of "Major S."
This wasn't Sinott's first time in the cyberbullying spotlight. In 2019, Fort Worth Weekly reported on an "online spat" between Sinnot and a former employee. Vo says that some people even took to Facebook to warn her not to mess with Sinnott. "I don't regret anything because I should be able to leave a review for a business," Vo told the Observer. "I'm not going to live in fear of Bob." And neither am I, reader. Neither am I. Anyway, check out the full saga in the Dallas Observer here.