User:Yngvadottir/Botto Bistro

Botto Bistro is an Italian restaurant in Richmond, California, United States that became known for offering discounts in exchange for one-star Yelp reviews.

Davide Cerretini and Michele Massimo opened Botto Bistro in 2009 after closing their fine dining restaurants elsewhere in the San Francisco Bay Area; Cerretini had been forced to close by the 2008 financial crisis. They decided to open a simple establishment where they could focus on providing good food. Preferring a bad neighborhood—a ghetto—they chose a storefront next to a Quizno's in a strip mall in Richmond, a small, primarily blue-collar town formerly known for violent crime. The restaurant has an extensive menu including pizza and pasta dishes, and uses authentic ingredients including flour imported from Naples. There are ten tables with counter service only. In 2016, a New York Times technology writer thought the 18% suggested gratuity "rather aggressive" given the lack of table service.

Botto Bistro has an online FAQ as well as signs stating that they do not accept suggestions, provide ice or free bread, have ranch dressing, or sell pizza by the slice.

Cerretini was an early adopter of Yelp, but, angered by repeated pressure to buy search advertising on the website and by Yelp's removing reviews, which he compares to blackmail and to extortion by the Mafia, he began writing and submitting his own five-star reviews, and gave rivals bad reviews. Eventually in 2012 he and Massimo signed up for Yelp advertising to end the phone calls from Yelp salesmen, but after six months they stopped the advertising and the calls resumed. In spring 2014, after they again refused to buy advertising, five-star reviews of the restaurant disappeared and one-star reviews that Cerretini said were clearly by people who had not visited the restaurant appeared at the top of its Yelp listing.

Cerretini was already known for a "sassy" attitude to customers. In September 2014, he decided to protest Yelp's tactics and challenge the impact of its ratings by seeking to achieve the lowest restaurant rating on the site. He and Massimo offered customers a 25% discount and a chance to win a cooking class for posting a one-star review on Yelp; in response to a federal court ruling that Yelp's management of reviews on the site is permissible "hard bargaining" in order to sell advertising, they later increased the discount to 50% on the next pizza. After receiving a warning from Yelp that offering incentives for reviews violates its terms of service, Cerretini countered with a warning about removal of reviews. By mid-September, Botto Bistro had a two-star average on Yelp and 4.6 on Google Reviews; Cerretini said the restaurant had 500 one-star Yelp reviews and that business was flourishing. By the following January, Yelp had removed approximately 2,000 reviews for violation of its terms of service and Cerretini estimated that business had risen 20%, while noting that very few customers had claimed the discount. Two years later, there were approximately 250 reviews on the site, half of them one star. He has said fellow business owners have given him "boxes of chocolates, cash, checks" for standing up to Yelp, and visited the restaurant to write a one-star review.

The reviews have included that the pizza "tastes like the rag at Denny’s that they use to wipe down the counters and tabletops" and that it "arrived at the table with a dead rat under the cheese"; that "they won't deliver to San Antonio"; that the reviewer "took a doggy bag home [and] the dog refused it"; "I ordered a lasagna and the waiter literally punched me in the face. Then he took my date by the hand to the back room and she came back an hour later six months pregnant with his child! ... Worst breadsticks ever"; and that they serve "that fake Italian stuff" rather than "the authenticity Olive Garden provides".

In 2020, Botto Bistro was sold to Mountain Mike's Pizza.

Cerretini has used his notoriety to give speeches and cooking classes. In 2019 he appeared on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah on Comedy Central.