Portland restaurant turns joke about abortion and grilled cheese into fundraising chance

PORTLAND, Ore., July 24 (UPI) -- An Oregon restaurant has come up with a plan after a Yelp reviewer made a tasteless joke involving abortion and the eatery's grilled cheese sandwiches.

In a since-deleted Yelp review, someone wrote that his friend picked up a "hot girl" at the restaurant and got her pregnant. "But she was Canadian so she went home and got a free abortion so it's all cool now," the review continued. "You can get grilled cheeses here for $5."

EastBurn owner Mike Bender didn't need the five-star review to let him know his grilled cheeses are good, as Food and Wine magazine previously mentioned them as being in the top 25 in the country.

He responded to the reviewer by trying to turn the negative into a positive.

"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," Bender wrote. "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!"

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

The PWCL helps women coping with domestic and sexual violence.

"All of a sudden it got posted up through Facebook and it's gotten to be a little crazy so looks like we'll be selling a lot of grilled cheese," Bender told KATU.