The Best Way To Handle A Sexist Yelp Review

When's the last time your grilled cheese went to benefit domestic violence victims? Well, thanks to an incredibly sexist Yelp review of an East Portland restaurant, gooey, cheesy goodness and perfectly-toasted bread equals cash for the Portland Women's Crisis Line, which serves survivors of domestic and sexual violence. Now that is tasty.

It started with a five-star review of public house EastBurn, which had very little to do with actual food. In the since-deleted review, "Lee M." managed to turn a compliment into a disturbing comment about women.

The review read:

My friend and I picked up some hot girls here, but he got his pregnant. But she was Canadian so she went home and got a free abortion so it's all cool now. You can get grilled cheeses here for $5.

The bizarre need for some men to demean women should never be equated with something as delicious as a grilled cheese.

After the post got buzz on a Portland subReddit, the owner Mike Bender took it upon himself to let Lee know that his behavior was completely unacceptable. And as a nod to Lee's apparent appreciation of EastBurn's grilled cheeses, Bender vowed to donate proceeds of any grilled cheeses sold in August to the Portland Women's Crisis Line.

Bender responded:

5 stars to you Lee M. for making an example of how this kind of disrespect towards women is shameful and not at all funny. Yes, our grilled cheese is only $5 and was kindly listed as one of the top 25 in the country by Food and Wine Magazine. As a thank you for spotlighting this kind of behavior, all proceeds through August from the sale of EastBurn's Grilled Cheeses will go to the Portland's Women's Crisis Line. - Cheers!

Bender told The Oregonian that the restaurant industry is particularly susceptible to disrespectful behavior toward women, which led him to creating the fundraiser.

"It just seemed like a good thing to do," Bender said. "We do a lot of benefits here and thought it was a good opportunity to give back. ... It's especially pervasive in the restaurant industry [disrespect towards women] and it's not cool."

Why Lee needed to let the world know about his awful public house shenanigans is still unclear. Really, the mind reels. But in the end, it's a win against sexism and for grilled cheeses everywhere, which I think we can all appreciate.

Images: Yelp