“Challenge accepted.” That’s the message the owners of a mom-and-pop bakery had for John Oliver after the host got in the way of their attempt to purchase some equipment from a now-shuttered Red Lobster.
Last week, Oliver pulled a stunt on Last Week Tonight that perturbed the owner of Deising’s Bakery and Restaurant in Kingston, New York, when he bought up equipment from Red Lobster’s former Kingston location, solely to launch a Cheddar Bay Biscuits-only version of the restaurant in his studio.
The bakery’s owner, Eric Deising, said the stunt caused him to miss out on the opportunity to purchase machinery he needed for his own restaurant. Before Oliver pounced on it, Deising had even left a handwritten note on Red Lobster’s door inquiring about it.
Oliver explained the situation on Sunday night’s show, and admitted that, “To be honest, we were going to ignore all of this. But then we took a look at online reviews of that guy’s bakery. And honestly, it looks pretty good.”
Oliver was particularly smitten with Deising’s cake bears.
“Respectfully, check out the donk on that cake bear,” Oliver raved. “That cake’s got cakes. It’s draggin’ a wagon and I wanna hop on board.”
Unfortunately for the restaurant, Oliver had already donated the kitchen equipment the show purchased. “Even if we hadn’t,” the host explained, “it didn’t have the 36-inch flat-top oven/grill or kitchen convection oven that you were looking for.”
But Oliver had a proposal. “We’re willing to buy those items for you on one condition,” Oliver said. “All I want in return is a baked good with my face on it, on sale in your bakery. Specifically, a cake bear with my face on it. I want to be a cake bear.”
To ensure the bakery’s owners were aware of Oliver’s offer, he took a page from Deising’s playbook. “Because I know the normal way of asking for things isn’t really your style,” he noted, “I’ve written this offer on a piece of paper… that is currently taped to the door of your bakery.”
As it turns out, that was no joke — and now Oliver’s cake bear dreams are coming true. Early this morning, Deising’s Bakery and Restaurant responded to the host’s offer.
“Challenge accepted,” the bakery declared on its Facebook page. “Your special cake bear is in the oven and will be made today! We will also be offering mini John Oliver cake bears for sale through the weekend.”
But rather than use the attention from Oliver as a quick cash grab, Deising’s announced that all proceeds from the special edition treats will be donated to People’s Place, “a local food pantry right here in Kingston!”
“I woke up to my phone dinging with notifications, then arrived at the bakery at 3 am to see the sign left on our door,” the restaurant’s co-owner Peter Deising told LateNighter on Monday.
Barely 12 hours after the Last Week Tonight segment aired, the bakery is already seeing an Oliver bump. “We have been overwhelmed with messages, emails, and phone calls,” Deising said. “I had to bake cakes as soon as I could and they just hit the showcase minutes ago,”
“We had no idea we would be featured on the show,” he added. “So we are working as fast as we can to prepare these cake bears.”
As for how that note appeared on the bakery’s door? “A producer from John’s team stopped by the bakery this morning and said she left the note last night,” Deising explained.
That effort shouldn’t come as a surprise to Last Week Tonight fans. Viewers know by now that when Oliver says he’s going to do something, he does it. But clearly, the same is true of Deising’s. The bakery shared photos of their bespectacled masterpiece on social media, complete with “extra donk.”
