Show 332, July 13, 2019: Chef Davide Cerretini, Botto Bistro, Richmond, CA, -“The One-Star Chef”

Chef Davide CerretiniChef Davide Cerretini is the Chef / Co-Proprietor of the modest (10 tables) Botto Bistro in Richmond, CA. In 2014 he discontinued a modest advertising effort on Yelp that clearly wasn’t bringing in new business and things suddenly turned highly negative on his Yelp page. Curious… Meanwhile the hugely aggressive sales staff at Yelp was relentless in pursuing him to resume advertising.

This is all engagingly explained by Chef Davide in the new documentary on Yelp, “Billion Dollar Bully.” Chef Davide details the unlikely story of how he eventually creatively turned the tables on Yelp.…As the “One Star Chef” business at Botto Bistro actually couldn’t be better…

“For five long years, we have refused service to their supporters (Yelp), mocked their users and made profit out of their arrogance, using their forum as we please without their permission. All while having a blast.”

“We made the world laugh at them, a small Italian restaurant sticking it to what they thought was the god of the online review sites. But we have no gods to worship here, just pizza and a bad Italian attitude. After all, it was not such a great idea try to extort the Italians and now they know.” – Chef Davide Cerretini

Show 310, February 9, 2019: Documentary Filmmaker Kaylie Milliken, “Billion Dollar Bully”

Kaylie MillikenWe all know, and have probably used, the business review site, Yelp. Is it a trustworthy, objective business review site or an immensely lucrative platform for advertising? Where do Yelp! “Elites” fit into the picture? How reliable are their “honest” opinions?

Documentary filmmaker Kaylie Milliken was curious and spent the last four years researching and making “Billion Dollar Bully.” A wide cross section of small business people share their experiences with Yelp and their less than subtle advertising sales tactics. Particularly fascinating is the story of Chef Davide Cerretini of Botto in Northern California. He turned the tables on Yelp in the Italian way. The documentary is about to be released and you can be the judge.

Filmmaker Kaylie Milliken joins us without any filtering.