Business

Get to know the ‘disgustingly pro-women’ southern New Hampshire coffee shop

How a two-star Yelp review turned into a local business’s brand and a “community movement.”

Flamingos Coffee Bar in southern New Hampshire adopted an angry, two-star Yelp review as the store’s new motto. Courtesy Photo

By Lindsay Shachnow

March 21, 2025

1 minute to read

Most business owners ignore bad reviews, but one New Hampshire coffee shop owner took a different approach.

MacKenzie Logan, owner of the women-owned and women-run Flamingos Coffee Bar, adopted an angry, two-star Yelp review as her store’s new motto.

“We took it as a compliment in the end,” Logan told Boston.com.

Logan first opened Flamingos Coffee Bar in Hampton Beach in 2021 after learning that her friend was looking for someone to open a coffee shop in a vacant storefront. Two years later, she launched a second location in Exeter, serving specialty coffees on a rotating monthly menu at both locations.

“I volunteered, and next thing I know, I was building out a coffee shop and just throwing myself into learning everything I possibly could about opening a business,” Logan said.

Logan had the bright idea of posting the unsatisfied customer’s comment — where the reviewer said he felt “unwelcome as a male” and called the coffee shop “disgustingly pro-women” — on the shop’s Instagram. The post went viral.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Logan said. “We’ve been doing this for years, and I’ve never seen a reaction like that.”

Logan then decided to further amplify the review by making and selling t-shirts boasting the shop’s “disgustingly pro-women” attitude, donating 20% of the profits to Exeter Area Womenade, a nonprofit providing short-term financial assistance to local residents in need.

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Logan, who joined Womenade’s board in January, said they’ve sold over 1,000 shirts.

People “all over town” wear the t-shirts, according to Exeter Area Womenade Board Member Laura Napoleon Sckaal.

“I don’t know if that guy even knows what he’s done, but his horrible Yelp review turned into something really positive for really just the whole community, not just for her business,” Sckaal told Boston.com. “[Logan] turned this into an entire community movement.”