Baltimore’s Jimmy’s Famous Seafood Goes Viral After Olympic-Week Post, Owners Say

Jimmy’s Famous Seafood, an East Baltimore institution, replied to a HuffPost post on X with three words - "Go f\\k yourself" - and owner John Minadakis said he sent the response from the restaurant account during the wave of celebration after Team USA’s men’s hockey 2-1 overtime gold-medal win over Canada. The exchange exploded online and, according to WBFF, the restaurant’s reply received over 17 million views in the 48 hours after it was posted; Fox News Digital reported more than 16 million views as of Tuesday morning.

HuffPost’s original tweet, reproduced in news reports, read: "If waving the American flag or chanting 'USA!' turns you off right now, you're not alone," linking to an article about discomfort watching the Olympics. Minadakis told Fox News Digital he “was just overcome with joy yesterday watching the boys bring home the gold against Canada,” and WBFF quoted him calling the match "the most unifying sporting event that I can remember," adding, "I had goosebumps. I was shaking." WBFF also reported Minadakis saying, "when someone says something that ignorant, I think you do have to say something back."

Engagement metrics published by different outlets varied by type and timing. WBFF reported the views figure cited above while Fox gave a slightly lower views snapshot. OutKick reported the Jimmy’s reply had racked up more than 200,000 likes and noted HuffPost’s post had roughly 1,600 likes and more than 27,000 comments; ABC6 reported the restaurant’s comment had over 250,000 likes and carried a content warning for explicit language. Each outlet timestamped its own snapshot of the thread, which accounts for the differing totals.

Jimmy’s leveraged the attention into further gestures. OutKick and TNND reported an offer of lifetime free crab cakes to U.S. men’s and women’s Olympic hockey gold medalists; OutKick added that as of about 24 hours after the offer no players had accepted. OutKick also quoted Minadakis saying, "We’re determined to really just touch every single order and let everybody know how much we appreciate their support," and reported the restaurant planned to include handwritten notes with shipped orders.

The coverage also noted follow-ups and reactions beyond Baltimore’s dining scene. WBFF said some Maryland lawmakers weighed in on the exchange, and WBFF reported Jimmy’s later continued the online “bit” by replying to a story from The New York Times. Fox recorded a family detail from Minadakis about his father emigrating from Greece in the late 1960s and building Jimmy’s "with bare hands," framing the restaurant’s social-media moment within a multigenerational Baltimore story.

Platform-native verification of views, likes and timestamps was not published with the metrics cited in these reports. For now Jimmy’s East Baltimore feed remains at the center of national attention, the owner has publicly offered lifetime crab cakes to the Olympic teams, and the restaurant says it is converting viral attention into handwritten thank-you notes for customers.