[Liza]

Or, a cautionary tale. A nice couple made a reservation at Trattoria Nostrani in Santa Fe NM. They were advised that it is a no scent restaurant. My parents were there guests. Upon arrival, one lady in the party was deemed too scenty. She politely agreed to do what she could in the ladies room to remove the scent. A worker from the restaurant joined her.
When she returned to the reception area, she was sniffed by the restaurant owner and deemed still too scented. At this point, she encouraged the other three to stay for dinner. Two of the three, my parents, said in so many words amongst themselves, no fucking way. And they all decided to leave. My dad remarked to the owner, the sniffer in charge, that they would never return. That's when the owner started yelling at my dad that the restaurant employs a sensitively nosed person and yadda yadda yadda. The group leaves. The owner follows my dad (my soon to be 75 year old dad) into the parking lot and continues the yelling.

So.
Questions and comments to follow of course. One question that comes to my mind, is how does a sensitively nosed person work at all in a restaurant. One comment: in this era of internets and such, a restaurant owner needs to be careful who he/she yells at. Cause this stuff can spread around fast.

[Rail Paul]

The restaurant mentions its fragrance free policy on its website, along with its no cellphone policy, etc. I wonder how they would handle body odor or excessive bad breath?

Quote

n consideration for all of our guests Trattoria Nostrani is a fragrance free environment. So we ask that you refrain from wearing cologne or perfume. We also ask that you do not use cell phones and turn the ringer off while dining at Trattoria Nostrani.

Website

[tanabutler]

X-POST WITH RAIL PAUL: Another effective way to bring this to the owner's attention is to put a link to their website. Eventually he is likely to see that the story is out on the internet, and God knows how many people will read it. (I am assuming he is tracking his web stats, as many business owners do.)

Is Eric Stapleman the guy who did the chasing?

[Suzanne F]

Rail Paul, on Mar 8 2007, 12:47 PM, said:

The restaurant mentions its fragrance free policy on its website, along with its no cellphone policy, etc. I wonder how they would handle body odor or excessive bad breath?

Quote

n consideration for all of our guests Trattoria Nostrani is a fragrance free environment. So we ask that you refrain from wearing cologne or perfume. We also ask that you do not use cell phones and turn the ringer off while dining at Trattoria Nostrani.

Website

By sending the offending guest to the restroom, to wash/brush up under the eyes of a staff member?

Oh, and I notice there are flowers in the dining room, according to a picture on the Web site. So why no fragrance on people? Does not compute.

Not to excuse the owner's yelling, which is unconscionable, but: if the customers knew about the no-scent policy, why did she wear any?

[nuxvomica]

it's the owner's right to have any policies they damn please. it's the diner's prerogative to accept them or not.

chasing and yelling should not enter into it at any point.

if you have to sniff a person upclose to determine whether they're wearing too much scent, they're not

in that case, you have a sniffing fetish



ets: sending a worker to watch/aid removal of scent is beyond ridiculous and the first stage of ensuing harassement

[Rail Paul]

I mentioned this thread to our compliance officer.

She said that, in some places, an employee who has a severe allergy could demand that a restaurant provide a reasonable accomodation for that allergy, including a fragrance-free or peanut-free etc workplace. Under federal laws and under some state laws, this demand could be enforceable with money penalties if the employee couldn't be accomodated with some reasonable work-around.

In a place like Santa Fe, with local employment laws, it's entirely possible the restaurant is trying to address a potentially serious complaint.


Insert the hypothetical, this isn't legal advice, etc disclaimer here.

[Daisy]

A worker joined the scenty lady in the rest room? The owner sniffed her?? Goodness.

'Inflexible', or 'fascist'?

Although I could have used that restaurant owner on my flight to Saint Martin last week. The woman across the aisle from me kept spraying herself with some incredibly stinky stuff. I actually started to wheeze from it and the idiotic creature kept it up anyway.

[Ron Johnson]

A proper response is to return to the restaurant with a 50 gallon drum of Hi Karate cologne for men, and begin dousing the entire fucking place.

or, drag the owner into the restroom and give him a swirly.

[tanabutler]

Ron Johnson, on Mar 8 2007, 11:07 AM, said:

A proper response is to return to the restaurant with a 50 gallon drum of Hi Karate cologne for men, and begin dousing the entire fucking place.

or, drag the owner into the restroom and give him a swirly.

[tanabutler]

Liza, this discussion should easily have gone into this thread.

[Hi, Mister Restaurant Owner!]

[GordonCooks]

I've advised on a few restaurant business plans recently and my "No Farting" policy is known as the Gordo clause.

[Wilfrid1]

Sure, owners can have any legal policies they choose. They can ask diners to remove all body hair before entering the premises.

But this policy is beyond the pale of good manners; totally unacceptable.

As for liability to an eggshell skull employee...I need to be persuaded. Can restaurants really be shackled by one employee with an allergy to...soap, for example?

[Ron Johnson]

Wilfrid, on Mar 8 2007, 02:25 PM, said:

Can restaurants really be shackled by one employee with an allergy to...soap, for example?

nope.

[Rebecca]

Question not answered:

Scent free requirement due to actual allergies by an employee or due to prima donna attitude not to overpower the delicate aromas of the food? Giorgio parfums were banned from some restaurants years ago for the numbing of scent receptors. Pretty desperate Restaureur to follow ANY customers out the door, much less send someone into a lav with a customer. What planet are these people from?

[Wilfrid1]

One diner reeking so heavily that he or she upsets other diners; yes, of course, management must do their best to resolve a problem like that - and the source of the reek doesn't really matter.

But as a policy, it's stupid. I doubt if I've attended a restaurant of any formality in the last ten years "scent free". I also doubt if I've offended anyone. Scent-wise, anyway. What's the deodorant policy? Do they have unscented soap in the washrooms?