Brews and Mews, a cat café in Lenoir, North Carolina, was the target of a negative TikTok review by a local influencer with more than 170,000 followers. The influencer claimed that a child was denied entry and that staff had behaved poorly, allegations that the café had never received an official complaint about.
Owner Nicole Flanagin responded by posting CCTV footage from the café’s security cameras. The footage showed the influencer and her child entering the café, looking at the cats for less than 40 seconds, and leaving without any visible incident. The video, which has now accumulated over 640,000 views, was posted on the café’s TikTok account with an outraged comment about the false claims.
Following the release of the footage, the influencer deleted her original review and posted an apology video, explaining that she had been upset as a parent and had posted the review without fully considering the consequences.