Boston bar's Ayesha Curry sign goes viral
BOSTON >> Ricky Falcucci is a bar manager at Game On — the popular sports bar located outside Fenway Park — but the Eastie native is also responsible for another duty not explicitly written in his job description.
Falcucci is in control of the sandwich chalkboard that sits on the sidewalk that pedestrians walk by on Brookline Avenue. Falcucci is the one who's in charge of coming up with funny messages — usually sportsthemed.
“Everyone knows I have the wit around here,” Falcucci said.
“He has a very, very creative mind,” said Rufus Arraheffege, a promotions manager at Game On. “The stuff he comes up with is quite hilarious.”
Some of the messages have created attention, like when he wrote “Gerrit Cole hates kids” on the board last October when the Red Sox played the Yankees in the wild-card game. But nothing like this.
As the Celtics play the Warriors in the NBA Finals, another battle is taking place: Game On vs. Steph Curry.
Last week, as the championship series continued, Ayesha Curry — the wife of the Warriors star — became the subject of Falcucci's latest ribbing. Ayesha is a television cooking personality, a host of a show and the author of a cookbook. The newest chalkboard message was born.
“Ayesha Curry can't cook,” the board said.
“We know his wife has a cooking book, a cooking show, so we just chose that,” Falcucci said. “We had a bunch of different ideas. That's one that ended up sticking.”
It went viral on Twitter, and got more attention than any of Falcucci's messages have ever had. But he and his co-workers at the bar certainly weren't prepared for what came next: On Monday night, after the Warriors took a 3-2 series lead, Steph Curry came to his press conference wearing a white T-shirt with a message in black letters defending his wife.
“Ayesha Curry CAN cook,” the shirt said.
Curry was asked about the shirt, but answered it vaguely.
“You have to ask around the room or ask Twitter,” Curry said.
It was a clear response to Falcucci's chalkboard. Back in Boston, he woke up Tuesday morning and couldn't believe that the Warriors star had acknowledged it.
“I had about every person that I've ever known send it to me,” Falcucci said.
“Crazy. Steph Curry is seeing my chalkboard? A little crazy.”
Falcucci wasn't working on Tuesday, but he wanted to make sure that the bar had seen Curry's response. He asked a co-worker to update the board to say, “Ayesha Curry STILL can't cook.” As a touch, two packages of Top Ramen Curry Noodles were attached to the board.
Over the last 48 hours, the bar has gotten even more attention.
“It's been a little crazy,” Falcucci said. “I just had my phone blowing up obviously all day long. It's been fun. It's been cool.”
The bar wasn't done, either. On Tuesday, after learning of Curry's shirt, Arraheffege made an order for their own shirts. The green shirts say “Ayesha Curry can't cook” in white lettering and are being sold at the bar for $20 apiece.
Arraheffege made clear that the chalkboard message is not intended to be personal, just some playful trash talk.
“It's awesome,” Arraheffege said. “I actually like that he responded and I actually appreciate it. It's good pub. It's all fun and games. I hope he sees it that way. I hope they see it that way. We don't want it to get personal, especially as a restaurant. … It's about sports.”
It appears Curry isn't taking it personally. He is actually a lifelong Red Sox fan.
“I'm the petty king so I know all about everything,” Curry said Wednesday. “I use it as entertainment and just have fun with it. The more you're on the stage, the more you realize the attention that is on you, how much it means to each fan base, how much it means to the cities. So you can't really be surprised by anything. There's a lot at stake when it comes to winning championships.”