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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to have created a scene in Chez Gerard

139 replies

margoandjerry · 20/03/2007 16:17

Chez Gerard have just opened up on the high st in our small suburban town - it used to be a Cafe Uno which was always very family friendly.

I just went in there (3pm) with my mum and with the baby in pram - the place is huge and was 3/4 empty. The manager came and told us the pram would have to be folded or we would have to leave but a) it doesn't fold much as it's a bugaboo and b) the baby was asleep and would have slept all through lunch and c) it was not in the way at all so why?

He said it would get in the way of wheelchairs (of course there was no one in there in a wheelchair) but there was stacks of room anyway - you could have got a Red Arrows style squadron of wheelchairs through there. They had finished with lunch and there were only about 5 tables in use in the whole place. I said that we used to go there all the time when it was Cafe Uno which is owned by the same group and I even showed him where we used to sit, right at the back away from everyone and not causing the remotest obstruction.

He kept offering a high chair but the baby is too small for that and anyway, was fast asleep. I was furious and ranted away at him and all he could say was "it's company policy".

I wouldn't mind if this was in the City and full of adults at lunchtime or in the evening and full of people wanting a quiet meal together but it was in the middle of the afternoon, quiet as death and the baby was fast asleep.

I think this whole "you'll have to fold the buggy" thing is code for "no babies". Got the same attitude in Baker and Spice last week as well which made me even madder given Baker and Spice's target market which I assume to be posh mums.

I shouldn't really be bothered as we went down the road to a really nice local restaurant (not a chain) instead. Had a lovely meal and were made to feel very welcome. Also just remembered that I saw a mouse once in the Chez Gerard in Covent Garden. Pah. They are incompetent fools.

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Bethbe · 20/04/2007 16:04

LOL at Chocolateface, - if only it weren't so true!

Maybe we should start a thread on this topic!?

Chocolateface · 20/04/2007 15:09

This thread has made me so cross!
My hairdresser won't cut my c's hair (they love having their hair cut and sit really still)
My optiction asked may three year old to identify letters.
I've been asked to leave the buggie out side a cafe, then struggled to carry a tray and a 5 month old.
What is it with people and children in this country?

newgirl · 20/04/2007 14:59

margoandjerry - that letter would have pissed me off too - glad the phone call was better

at the end of the day, is the point that they just don't want kids in? if so, they need to put up a sign like 'ember inns' saying adults only or over 12s or whatever, and get on with it

if not, then welcome all customers, buggies etc

Bethbe · 18/04/2007 23:08

'Booked' at table in Pizza Express in Cambridge last week. Told them we would need a table with buggy space. When we arrived they asked 'Is it alright to sit upstairs?'

.....er no!

GeeGee2 · 18/04/2007 22:51

I've just read this through. What has annoyed me the most (other than general unhelpfulness to people with children), is that after you have gone to all the trouble to complain, they write a stupid letter back which completely misses the point.

They obviously have not bothered to really understand your complaint.

I'd also like someone from Health and Safety to stand up for themselves when organisations try to blame them for stupid policies. I'm all for protecting the public (and the staff who work in these places) but I reckon that 'Health and Safety' is used as a cop out so many times (e.g. to discourage non target market clientele.)

Original poster
margoandjerry · 18/04/2007 12:59

ok!

OP posts:
Ponce · 18/04/2007 11:29

margo
i n a lovely way
you need to GET OVER IT

Original poster
margoandjerry · 18/04/2007 11:28

OK feel a bit better now. Just called the person who wrote to me and he was actually quite understanding.

They, obviously, have a fear of Health and Safety jumping down their necks. Also, I think they ARE trying to make it more adult than Caffe Uno was. Both of which I think are reasonable aspirations even if the latter is a bit of a pain for me at the moment.

What p*ssed me off was just the refusal of the manager, on the day I went in, to compromise.

So, I have sort of forgiven them although I would like now to have a go at someone from health and safety for coming up with these stupid rules in the first place.

Here is my question: how many people have ever died in a fire in which a contributory factor was that a buggy was neatly placed by a table in a restaurant.

OP posts:
Original poster
margoandjerry · 15/04/2007 20:35

Have just had a really long and mealy-mouthed response from Chez Gerard basically saying that the issue seemed to be that "the problem was to do with the size and model of the pram and more particularly that it could not be folded..."

No. The issue was THAT THE BABY WAS ASLEEP AND IN ANY CASE IS TOO SMALL TO PUT IN A HIGH CHAIR. AND YOUR RESTAURANT IS EMPTY SO WE ARE NOT IN ANYONE'S WAY.

I am honestly so annoyed, it would have been better for CG never to have written. They are basically saying, "yes, buggies need to be folded even in a 90% empty restaurant roughly the size of Terminal 5 which has never insisted on this before".

They sent me 25 quid in vouchers but quite frankly they can eff off.

Really, really cross.

OP posts:
mumtwogirls · 11/04/2007 19:54

Just managed to read through this thread. Reminder to myself must read before replying. LOL! Sorry to butt in but this did make interesting read. Might just go to my local one and take my dd2 & her quinny zapp in there just for the hell of it. LOL!

mumtwogirls · 11/04/2007 16:56

Margoandjerry you don't live in Loughton by any chance? We have Chez Gerrard just opened there which used to be Cafe Uno. Interesting about buggy issue. The restaurant at our place is huge from when it was Cafe Uno so cant see a problem with buggies. Wheelchairs take up just as much space. If this is the same place then I shan't be going there then.

DominiConnor · 11/04/2007 16:39

Dimpledthighs I got hold of the direct number of the person at Chez Gerard who ought to be be dealing with this, but it's gone all silent.

Such is the stuff of which PR disasters are made...

powder28 · 11/04/2007 14:30

Attila, you were robbed at gunpoint!
Was it on Crimewatch?

AttilaTheMeerkat · 11/04/2007 14:21

I was once told by some officious jobsworth to move off an empty bar/poseur pub terrace as my son had sat down on one of their seats for a rest (the terrace was by a public footpath)!. They told me their bar had a no children policy.

Of course I did not move off when asked!!.

BTW the terrace was empty as it was mid morning and this place did not open until lunchtime.

I await the day this particular establishment place goes out of business!.

DimpledThighs · 10/04/2007 20:08

write or email head office and link to this thread.

DominiConnor · 10/04/2007 20:06

Bundle I think it's part of the modern culture of "being offended", that's not just religion or race, but people often seek out things that "offend" them even when it requires significant effort.
I suspect the creep would have been "offended" if you'd been enclosed in a tent in a different room.

yellowrose · 10/04/2007 19:32

bundle me too, ds is now 2.9 and we still bf, i stopped bf in public ages ago though (actually ds didn't want it in public past a certain age any more, too distracted) although unlike dc i am rather attractive and always very well-dressed, so not the average hippy sort bf-er, i never smell of lentils lol...but i am good at scaring the hell out of rude people, despite my 5.2" stature ! it is an acquired skill !

bundle · 10/04/2007 15:10

meant to say 6 weeks old

bundle · 10/04/2007 15:10

i was astonished domini connor.

my baby girl was about weeks old, so tiny and virtually up my tshirt (it was summer) if you know what I mean. he was with a big group of people (obviously "told" to enjoy themselves on an office outing ) and they all looked completely embarrassed by his behaviour. it was nearly 7 years ago but I have never forgotten it as I too thought Pizza Express was different and it never happened to be me again (esp living in a muesli munching part of n london)

DominiConnor · 10/04/2007 14:31

I'm a bit surprised as Pizza Express has always been brilliant for us with kids.
Personally I perceive the breastfeeding/hostility to kids thing as a form of bullying sexism.
I'm an ugly looking, bloke with some bulk, we've had precisely one complaint in my presence.
And yes, I responded with vigour and utterly humiliated the bloke in front of his wife and the restaurant.
I don't think it would take many experiences like this to keep bullies from indulging their habit.

But to be honest, it's easy for me, being a bloke. What I haven't worked out is how a mother with kids in tow can do the same thing.

yellowrose · 10/04/2007 13:15

ah no, i don't have a problem with bf ANYWHERE

if i had ever been told to move it when bf, i WOULD have made a scene, asked for the manager to come forward and given him a bollocking

people not liking to watch bf is not a reason not to bf imo

powder28 · 10/04/2007 11:42

I did try but it made me want to cry it was so painful. I suppose you have to persevere

kittypants · 10/04/2007 11:41

havent read whole thread but ive never heard of place(im in deepest darkest cornwall)but we have local cafes that have no pushchair signs.so i cant go in.instead i get glared at in beer garden of local pub for having children so we tend to picnic in park.its awful how mums and dads with pushchairs are treated in some of these places.

bundle · 10/04/2007 11:40

i loved bf, powder, but each to their own

powder28 · 10/04/2007 11:39

Maybe i'll have another baby and bf. Wonder what dh would think about that