cartecay

Last week my daughter and I witnessed exceedingly cruel behavior on the part of the restaurant staff towards a very elderly couple. After throwing them out, I think because they complained (very quietly) about the air conditioning, the waiter and Francoise, the madame, hurried to the door and laughed at them as they tottered down the street in search of another restaurant. They repeated this cruel performance three times, laughing and belittling the elderly couple each time. They don't deserve anyone's business. I will always be sorry that we didn't leave our dinner on the table and immediately depart.

cigalechanta

I'm surprised to hear this and only heard good reports about Francoise. The worst thing I've ever heard is that when it fills up it's too cramped.
Do they still have birds outside the door?

amelia

cartecay: I'm thinking that there's part of this scenario to which you weren't privy. Francoise has been quite courteous and polite, and so has the waitstaff, in the many visits we've made to this restaurant.

TopMan

Let us never forget that everyone's experience in a particular establishment can be different and also completely valid.

elaine

the whole story isn't known here, that couple might come in every night to complain, you're not sure why they were thrown out (as you say), and they might
be well-known war criminals. That's an exaggeration probably, but so is posting a comment to avoid a restaurant based on an eavesdropping incident.

Underhill

Whatever the circumstances, I would hesitate going to a restaurant where the staff and management behaved in such a manner in front of other guests. Such behavior was highly unprofessional.

tomboy

If the couple was so belittled, why did they come back the second, third and fourth times that day? Did the elderly couple not find an alternative restaurant down the street?

WillTravel

The first post doesn't say the elderly couple came back two, three, or four times that day (it just reports them being thrown out once).

mitchdesj

Being witness to a cruel behavior can change your view of a person that you believed was nice before she was placed in a position of belittling some people; showing their true colors does not lie.

They sometimes advise young women to pay attention to how respectful to his mother a man is ; an indication of how he will treat you when you become more familiar to him.

grandmere

I agree that we don't know the entire story, but it's hard to imagine how any behavior could justify what Cartecay and her daughter observed. Whatever the elderly couple could have been doing or saying, there had to have been a more professional way of handling it.

Christina

I agree with above, regardless of any background story, there is nothing that could justify such behavior by a restaurant proprietor. (I believe tomboy misunderstood that their making fun of the couple was repeated several times, not the couple being thrown out).

Even if they were in costume and were not elderly and had stolen from the restaurant or something, it was not professional to behave in that manner in front of clients in a restaurant. The fact that someone can be polite to a person ordering dinner one time doesn't mean they can't be a mean person to others, that's for sure, and I've witnessed hundreds of cases of that, both professionally and personally.

The only exception to this story would be if cartecay's observation would be interpreted completely differently by others and they weren't being belittled or made fun of. That is possible, I suppose, but it sounds extreme to be benign.

elaine

I agree it appears unprofessional, and if it was as it appeared to be, certainly it doesn't give an encouraging picture of the management.
I just don't think it's fair to generate a boycott based on one observed incident, even a bad incident. Every establishment imo is entitled to one off night, or one example of bad behavior. Each of us is as well, I hope. It it happens all the time, or if they are repeatedly persecuting that couple, that's another story.