April is a big one for ice cream and print publishing. Two noted ice cream shops in the Mission District, Bi-Rite Creamery and Humphry Slocombe, are coming out with recipe books. So, if you've always wanted to use that Krups ice cream machine cylinder that has been sitting in your freezer for years, be sure to buy one of these books. You're certain to dazzle family and friends. Anyway, the latter ice cream store's book, Sweet Cream and Sugar Cones, features 90 truly astounding recipes. Seriously. They're fascinating. But our favorite recipe also has our favorite intro. Behold: more ›

Yelp co-founder and CEO Jeremy Stoppelman rang the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange Friday morning as Yelp's sparkling IPO debuted. Shares of the stock climbed as astounding 61 percent to $24.15 in the first minutes of trading, after pricing at $15 on Thursday night. more ›

Yelp, the locally based creative outlet for many a bored foodie, is finally going public. After turning down a $500 million buyout from Google last year, the local reviews site has filed for a 2012 initial public offering that should raise around $100 million and put the company's value somewhere around $2 billion. more ›

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal yesterday, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman told the paper that "an IPO is back on the table" for the local reviews site. After accepting a cool $25 million from Bono's investment group Elevation Partners last year, Stoppelman said the possibility of going public was at least a few years off. Despite the fact that the company has yet to report any sort of profitability, Stoppelman doesn't see a reason to seek out another round of private investments. Of course, Yelp still hasn't gotten the break on their payroll taxes they were speaking out about last month, so we'll just take this as a sign that Mayor Lee and the Board's various efforts to play nice with the tech community have gotten these companies to at least pipe down about it. more ›

The owner's message was a simple request to spell the name of a dish correctly, but now this person (who has presumably chosen the profession of publishing words where people can read them) can't bring herself to return to the establishment because she knows her "thoughts on the staff hotties [have] made it back not only to them, but to the person who hired them." Just imagine the potential for embarrassment! The horror! more ›

"Is it too little, too late for Zagat?" That's what TechCrunch asked after Zagat finally - finally! - gave its site a much-needed facelift. The new site boasts Zagat restaurant reviews, new stats, links to third-party reviews, user photos and rankings. But. It's pretty much Yelp with a Zagat whiff of fanciness. Will it take off like Yelp? Probably not, at least not here in the Bay Area. Not too long ago, Menu Pages tried to break the Yelp's Bay Area stronghold to no avail. [TechCrunch, Eater] more ›

At around 3 p.m. today, Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman will visit Yelp headquarters at 3 p.m. San Francisco Young Democrats urge: "Meg Whitman will be at the Yelp company HQ today - 706 Mission Street - at 3 pm. Protesters will be out in force. 1 star reviews for Whitman!" (We can't find a Yelp page for Whitman other than this.) So, yeah, there you have it. more ›

Poor Yelp. In addition to seeing lunatic business owners breaking into their downtown office--a recent incident, at least according to our sources--they're continually hit with allegations of manipulating users' feedback on businesses that advertise. That is to say, Yelp, according to many, practice a kind of advertorial blackmail. Or, so says some small business owners who possibly fear the interwebs. more ›

That's right, folks. According to TechCrunch, Yelp founder Jeremy Stoppelman walked away from the all-but-signed deal to sell the company to Google for a reported $550 million. Given that there is no other reported suitor, it would sound like Stoppelman is set on keeping Yelp independent, and is perhaps considering a strategic partnership with someone else instead. Dude's got some cojones, that's all we gotta say. He and Dave Chappelle are pretty much the only people we know who'd walk away from that kind of cash. more ›

Google is apparently in serious talks to acquire Yelp, the user-generated, local-business review site so beloved by Humphry Slocombe and certain antique and book store owners... more ›

Earlier this week we told you about the owner of Ocean Avenue Books who, after receiving a less than glowing Yelp review, went crazy on Yelper "Sean C.," showed up at his front door, and tried to attack him. more ›

Ryan Tate at Valleywag has a phenomenal story about the sanity-estranged owner of Ocean Avenue Books. The owner, after reading a negative review on the interwebs about her store, found the reviewer and tried to assault him. At his home. more ›

Via Mission Mission, a Yelper took it upon herself to warn fellow customers of a local bookstore that she had allegedly gotten bed bug bites while sitting and reading Twilight in one of their comfy armchairs. [Update: We have no evidence she was reading Twilight -- we were just subtly riffing off of Mission Mission's sarcasm -- SFist.] more ›

Eater brings us word that Mission district ice cream it girl Humphry Slocombe experienced its very first Yelp bullying. (Aw. You always remember your first.) Humphry Slocombe's Twitter message describes the assault: "Our 1st Yelper shakedown! Yelp girls to me: 'We're gonna order then yelp about it-what discount can you give us?' Me: 'Your joking right?'" The Yelp girls were immediately clocked across the face, then tossed out of the establishment. OK, not really. Because that would be mean and illegal. But, wow, that's pretty ballsy, Yelpers. Hopefully, Humphry Slocombe gave them the boot. Shameless, people. Really. That said, any other local business out there experience this kind of abuse from (alleged) Yelp users? If so, did you cave in? more ›

Special thanks to the on-the-ball tipster who informed SFist of this humorous yet slightly disturbing occurrence surrounding Yelper Marie K.'s 3-star review of Perish Trust, an antique store on Divisadero Street, last week. more ›

How dare you? Rape jokes aren't funny, jerk. Read a whole lot more on it, right here. more ›

Here's yet another story on how Yelp are bullies, via Eater. Robert, a coffee blogger in Vancouver had signed up for a Yelp account a few weeks ago, but didn't do anything with it until he heard from Crystal H, who told him she was looking for good coffee places to check out. Crystal convinced Robert to start putting his cafe reviews on Yelp, telling him she had received a lot of traffic to her own website through Yelp ("much more than Twitter"). more ›

Another day, another bit of Yelp drama for you to chew on. This most recent morsel comes to us care of Timothy Holt, owner of Weird Fish and The Corner, claims he's "done with Yelp." Why? Well, it seems that last year, Halt posted a review on Yelp, thanking customers for their kind words and patronage. (An aside: We strongly recommend both establishments. Then again, any place serving fried pickles gets an A+ in our book.) This weekend, after allegedly refusing to advertise on the review-based site, Yelp pulled Halt's post as well as five positive reviews. Zoinks. Eater's Paolo Lucchesi says, "[I]it's one thing to crack down on shilling, but removing year-old reviews after a refusal to advertise? That's poor form at best, extortion at worst." But what say you? more ›

In what could be the most drama-inducing move to hit the internet in ages -- God willing -- Yelp has agreed to let businesses respond publicly to customers' critiques. Possibly in an effort to stave off continuing criticism of the alleged extorting business model, local enterprises can register for a free business owner's account. After an angry business owner posts a reply on the site, Yelp will alert the self-righteous reviewer by e-mail. And that? Is where the fun begins more ›

We've been enjoying reading the onslaught of one- and two-star reviews about Yelp on its own site, ever since the extortion stories sprouted legs. Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman denies the accusations, claiming the only things an advertiser pays for are a clearly-labeled "sponsored result" at the top of relevant search results pages, a photo slideshow of their business, and the option to highlight a favorite review. more ›

Kathleen Richards in the East Bay Express followed up her February story about the many-headed and allegedly democratic monster that is Yelp with a new story in which she responds to Yelp founder Jeremy Stoppelman's criticism that she only used anonymous sources in her original article--ironic, as she notes, because his entire site is anonymous. For this piece she got a number of business owners to go on the record to report that Yelp sales reps told them they could re-order or in some cases remove negative reviews if they paid to advertise. Business owners also reported on the disappearance of 5-star reviews when they refused to advertise, to which sales reps allegedly responded that those reviews would "come back" if they paid up. more ›

Whether it be his readers or the wait staff at Bar Bambino, Eater editor extraordinaire, Paolo Lucchesi, can get almost anyone whipped up into a frothy frenzy. Take, for example, the very innocent post he posted up yesterday, linking to Lauren Smiley's feature article on Yelp in this week's SF Weekly. The article, more or less, is about how business owners strive to keep Yelpers happy in order to get good reviews. (Great job, Lauren!) But the real meat here is Eater mentioning the "Yelp elite" via a quote from said article, which prompted the comments section to explode. more ›

Instead of wallowing over a poor Yelp review, the brilliant minds over at Pizzeria Delfina have decided to reclaim, if you will, cranky customer reviews. See, they're having employees wear shirts printed with quotes from one-star Yelp reviews. This also brings up another question: Who in their right goddamn mind would give Pizzeria Delfina one star? Sure, it irks that they still don't sell by the slice. Other than that, the place is solid. Seriously, just look at this severe tastiness. (Eater, via 7x7) more ›

With yet another cover story on the same subject in 30 days (same story, but no new information), The Chronicle's anti-Internet story "Web 2.0 defamation lawsuits multiply" attempts to show how the promise of Web 2.0 has turned into a nightmare -- psst, it has not -- and why you should stick to buying print editions. Or whatever. (We tend to tune out when an article uses "Web 2.0" in its title.) more ›

The lawsuit professional back cracker Steven Biegel filed against Christopher Norberg, all over one measly, negative Yelp review, has been dropped. According to Norberg: more ›

After going to a chiropractor and having a billing dispute with the professional neck cracker, Christopher Norberg posted a negative review on Yelp, calling the guy a liar. The "doctor" in question, Steven Biegel, then in turn hit Norberg with a lawsuit. The review happened over a year ago, and Norberg has created his own site to tell his side of the story. According to his attorney, Michael Blacksburg, "If Christopher loses then anyone on Yelp who writes a negative review better be careful ... This strikes at the heart of Yelp's business model and other Web sites that provide a bulletin board for people to state what they think of businesses in their community." To read the damning review in question, go here (warning, .pdf!). more ›

You remember how the Mayor's office told Yelp that they were going to declare December 4 Yelp Day? But then, when the day arrived, team Newsom blabbed to the media that that wasn't the case, even though they had sent Yelp higher-ups several emails telling them otherwise? more ›

Um, scratch that. more ›

Jeremy Stoppelman must be beaming. more ›