After posting a negative review about an Oakland burger restaurant, a Bay Area content creator says she is being harassed online and has received death threats.
Tensions with TikTok user hoodrely (opens in new tab) boiled over this week after the owners of Hyphy Burger took to social media to refute her review by sharing CCTV footage (opens in new tab) they said contradicts her account.
Hyphy Burger, which has two Oakland locations, is known for crispy smashburgers and a hip-hop aesthetic. It’s a joint venture between Darion Frazier, an influencer behind the popular Instagram account BayAreaFoodz (opens in new tab); rapper Akeem Hayes, better known by his stage name Guapdad 4000 (opens in new tab); and entrepreneur Zack Alwajeeh (opens in new tab). They declined to comment.
The hoodrely account is run by Arely, who declined to share her last name, citing safety concerns. She has fewer than 1,500 TikTok followers and does not consider herself an influencer but says content creation is a hobby.
On Nov. 10, she posted a 26-second video (opens in new tab) about her Nov. 2 meal at Hyphy Burger’s East Oakland location. In it, she described a “very uncomfortable situation,” saying she had been “bothered” by an unidentified individual who she believed was “on drugs.” Arely alleged that restaurant employees noticed but did not intervene. Her video panns across the dining room, and she comments on its “dirty” state, claiming that there was food on the floor and the tables were “filthy.”
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Arely finished by giving the food a rating of 2 out of 10. “I don’t think this location is going to make it,” her caption says. The video has more than 5,500 likes and 300,000 views.
Restaurant manager Steven Hernandez said he was shocked when he learned of the review. “When we heard that someone had been getting harassed and that [the restaurant] had been extremely dirty, that was concerning.”
Hernandez said he and the owners checked the restaurant’s CCTV footage and found that it did not align with Arely’s version of events.
So the owners decided to clap back. On Nov. 16, they took to Hyphy Burger’s Instagram and posted CCTV footage that showed Arely standing in the back of the restaurant; no one can be seen approaching or talking to her. As to the dining room’s cleanliness, Hernandez said Arely filmed the area right after a lunch rush, as 12 people were exiting the restaurant. In the Hyphy Burger post’s caption, the restaurant’s owners said the tables were cleaned not more than five minutes after the other diners left.
The Hyphy Burger video has more than 39,000 likes and 1,200 comments, most in support of the restaurant and its owners.
Arely stands by her claims, telling The Standard that she was approached by a man who emerged from the restaurant’s bathroom. “He was a young guy, maybe around 20 years old, and he came out of the restroom with a huge yellow bong,” Arely said Wednesday. As he passed, he greeted her and asked how she was doing, she claims. She responded, and he quickly apologized for “bothering” her. The interaction then devolved as he raised his voice and repeatedly apologized, according to Arely. Notably, the CCTV footage released by the Hyphy Burger owners has no audio.
“He just kept saying it over and over again, which made me feel uncomfortable, because he was being very loud. Even the workers were looking at him funny. We were a couple of feet apart, but everyone could hear him,” Arely said.
Despite the backlash, she has no plans to delete her post.
“I’m keeping it up because I’m not going to let Hyphy Burger silence me,” Arely said.
She said she believes the owners posted the CCTV video as a way to shame her for sharing her opinion and to bring in more business. “They never reached out to me, but they did follow me on Monday, and the next day they unfollowed me,” Arely said. “I’m not an influencer. At the time, my video only had 40,000 views, but now it has like 200,000 views because of their response.”