Posted on 03/07/2024 9:13:03 PM PST by nickcarraway
The controversy involves Jen Royle, the chef and owner behind North End Italian restaurant Table, and a customer who cancelled his reservation in January
Annie Harrigan is the Editorial Coordinator for Eater. North End Italian restaurant Table has set all of its social media accounts to private after screenshots that appeared to show a heated exchange between a customer and chef and owner Jen Royle on Wednesday, February 21, went viral. The screenshot of the conversation, which appears to have taken place over Instagram DM and in which Royle appears to berate a customer for disputing a reservation cancellation fee, has been viewed more than 23 million times on X, formerly known as Twitter, where it was posted by Trevor Chauvin-DeCaro.
Starting on the evening of Thursday, February 22, the restaurant was listed as permanently closed on Google, although lawyer Michael Ford who is representing Royle told the Boston Globe that the restaurant is still open. (The tag has since been removed from the restaurant’s Google listing.) On Friday, February 23, Eater Boston attempted to contact the restaurant, as well as Royle directly, but did not hear back. When Eater Boston reached out to Ford, he declined to answer questions, instead redirecting them to a PR representative for the restaurant, who also did not respond by the time of this article’s publication.
New York resident Trevor Chauvin-DeCaro tells Eater he booked hotel and restaurant reservations in Boston for a two-day trip earlier this winter. On the day Chauvin-DeCaro was scheduled to leave for the trip in early January, he says he fell ill and was hospitalized. Following his treatment, Chauvin-DeCaro and his husband began the process of canceling the various reservations they had made.
While Chauvin-DeCaro could cancel his reservation at some restaurants, like Ciao Roma, with no fees, he alleges that an employee at Table explained to him that the restaurant could not waive its cancellation fee and that he should contact his credit card company. Chauvin-DeCaro says that he reached out to his bank, Chase, through which he has a credit card with a robust travel insurance policy, to dispute the $250 cancellation charge from Table. After sending documentation proving his hospitalization, the bank reversed the charges on his card and, to Chauvin-DeCaro, the situation seemed resolved.
That is, until February 22, when he received a DM from Table’s Instagram account, several weeks after canceling his January reservation. The message, seemingly sent from the restaurant owner Jen Royle, read: “Hi Trevor. I own TABLE restaurant in Boston. I just wanted to personally thank you for screwing over my restaurant and my staff when you disputed your cancellation fee. I really hope in the future you have more respect for restaurants, especially small businesses such as mine. Pathetic.”
Royle, through the @TableNorthEnd account, appeared to continue to engage Chauvin-DeCaro over DM, and also began to post screenshots of their interaction to Table’s Instagram story, tagging him. (Chauvin-DeCaro, for his part, says he continued to try to explain the extenuating circumstances surrounding his reservation cancellation.) In Chauvin-DeCaro’s X thread, the screenshots appear to show that the person claiming to be Royle blocked, then unblocked, Chauvin-DeCaro several times. Screenshots also appear to show commentary about the interaction with Chauvin-DeCaro on Royle’s personal Instagram.
In Chauvin-DeCaro’s screenshots of Royle’s personal Instagram story, Royle is shown saying that Chauvin-DeCaro’s “lack of respect” and “entitlement” is “gross.” In a final message from @TableNorthEnd received by Chauvin-DeCaro approximately seven hours after he first posted the interaction to X, Royle claims that her legal team has been contacted and that Chauvin-DeCaro will be hearing from her lawyers.
Chauvin-DeCaro’s tweets took off quickly. At the time of this article’s publication, the original tweet has 128,000 likes. Chauvin-DeCaro claims he has been fielding hundreds of responses in the ensuing social media firestorm, ranging from messages of support to homophobic slurs and death threats.
“I’ve muted the conversation on Twitter so I’m not getting notifications from that anymore,” Chauvin-DeCaro says. “I’ve got a thick skin… [But] you can only be told that so many times before it wears on you.”
On Table’s Yelp and Google listings, negative comments citing Royle’s treatment of Chauvin-DeCaro take up the first 20 pages of reviews. Yelp and Google appear to be removing negative reviews from the last 24 hours; both platforms have restricted new reviews of Table. “I have not asked anyone to send reviews,” Chauvin-DeCaro says. “I have not encouraged that. It’s not something I wanted to happen.”
Royle’s attorney told the Boston Globe on Friday that in the aftermath of Chauvin-DeCaro’s tweets taking off, Royle allegedly has also received death threats and has been in touch with the Boston Police Department. Ford said that Royle reached out to Chauvin-DeCaro in the first place because it is challenging to be a small business owner (especially as a woman), and Royle also did not believe that Chauvin-DeCaro canceled due to a hospitalization.
Table is an acclaimed special occasion spot in the North End, known for its $125-per-person, prix fixe dinners served family style at two communal tables in a small dining room. Royle, a former sports reporter with a brash reputation, opened the restaurant in 2019 and it has been featured on best-of dining lists for outlets like Eater and Boston Magazine. The restaurant will charge for the full price of dinner if reservations are canceled within 48 hours of the scheduled seating, according to the cancellation policy listed on Table’s website.
Although this is the first time a contentious interaction between Royle and a customer has been publicized to this degree, it is not the first time Royle has responded publicly to customers, some of whom left Table critical feedback on review aggregate sites. One-star reviews on Yelp and Google prior to February 21 have been challenged by accounts seemingly tied to Royle. In some responses, these accounts attributed to Royle have alleged the commenters leaving negative reviews are fake.
As of Monday all of Royle’s personal and professional social media pages across Instagram, Facebook, and X appear to have either been deleted or set to private; Table is still listed as permanently closed on Google. Reservations, however, are still available to book through Resy.
Update: February 28, 2024, 12:02 p.m.: This article was updated to reflect that Table is no longer listed as permanently closed on Google.
“ Maybe it could reopen under a different name, perhaps “Amy’s Baking Company”.”
Great Gordon Ramsey reference.
It’s pretty common for high end places
Dining out is highly overrated
I don’t understand. The diner had travel insurance. Wouldn’t that cover the cancelation fee and pay the restaurant?
“his husband”
No. Nope. Not going there. No sympathy.
I have no problem with cancellation fees. People go to a lot of trouble to prepare for your arrival, and then you cancel at the last minute?
How would you like to be a business owner and you set up all day long for a customer, and he doesn’t show up? You still got to pay your workers you still have supplies that may go bad and be perishable. It’s not unreasonable
Another poorly written, nearly incomprehensible article based upon tweets, twoots, X’s and DMs (whatever they are), strung together in the name of modern journalism.
I remember when “his husband” was a grammatical error.
Stopped reading right there. Don't care.
That’s my take, exactly.
My business does custom work and we have non refundable deposits.
I am very sorry if something bad happened to you and you no longer need your custom apparel. I cannot sell it to anyone else. I have already spent hundreds of dollars in creating it, even if they are not finished - wholesale goods with 40% restocking charges, artist’s time, administrative costs, etc.
This is WHY there is a deposit...to protect the business should there be an unexpected cancellation.
Please remember the business is STILL going to lose money even if they kept the deposit. They are losing the expect profit from the transaction. The deposit is (hopefully) only covering the costs. Had these jokers not made the reservation and then cancelled it, some other customer would have been served that night and they would have made the profit off them. They LOST that profit they would have otherwise had.
So, in this case, the business owner got screwed out of the deposit that covered unretrievable costs AND the profit they would have made by serving someone else that night.
I’d be pissed too.
Lawyers get retainers. No lawyer will refund the retainer
The restaurant is not in the health insurance business. Anyone who can afford to eat at the restaurant can afford to lose the deposit and eat baked beans that night.
I paid my property tax last month using a physical check which I deposited In a USPS mailbox on a non-holiday Monday, the tax was due on Thursday. The tax official just billed me for a late fee, on the basis that the envelope with the check arrived with no postmark date. So one branch of the government, the USPS, failed to put a postmark on my letter, and another branch of government gives me a fine for the mistake of the USPS. If I told them I was in the hospital I guarantee they would tell me to pound sand.
The restaurant has a point, though she expressed it poorly, and the amount of the cancellation fee was ridiculous.
ROFLMAO
Stupid is as stupid does.
These so called “people” had to have the last word, and have now destroyed their business.
I kinda liked “rancer”. I’m gonna suggest it to Funk & Wagnalls for its new word list...along with “gonna” and “kinda”.
Elitist problems for elitist customers and elitist restaurant. Who cares?
rancer - cancer with an unplesant disposition.
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