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.

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?



Website

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?

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?

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

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.

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.

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.

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

[Hi, Mister Restaurant Owner!]

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

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?

nope.

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?

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?

i wasn't going to say anything, but now that it is on the table, i do think that you might have gone a little overboard with the jovan musk at centrico back in january 2006.

From the website I see they have tables outside. Couldn't scenty people be placed there?

"Good evening! Stinking, or non-stinking?"

Has it been that long? How I have pined.



Fine until the wind changes and starts gusting the perfume back in through the windows.

Yesterday's high in Santa Fe was 60 degrees. Maybe a little nippy for that, unless they're really set up with heaters, etc.

Well, there ARE a number of flowers that have no scent, but I am knitpicking...

Come on guys! It's SANTA FE! The quintessential home of fruits and nuts. And there are actually plenty of really good restaurants there that don't give a fig about how you smell.

Liza, may I have your permission to copy this into my perfume forum?

I am tempted to go to that restaurant on days that I don't feel so fresh.

For you, Lippy, permission granted.

Thanks. I'll report back.

I attended a conference a week or so ago and three days before received an email sent out explaining that the entire conference was scent free.

I was flabergasted. I wore cologne. Unless you're pretty much right on top of me, you can't smell it, which I guess is the point.

While there was discussion about this, and it seems that at a large number of public service agencies this is the norm, no one said anything to me about it.

National Organization for Women's 2001 resolution:

"THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that for all local, state, and national meetings and conferences of NOW, people be requested to refrain from wearing or using perfumes and colognes, essential oils, scented body lotions and soaps, scented deodorant, scented hair products, and scented laundry soaps and fabric softener in clothing..."

Article on Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Syndrome here,

What OSHA has to say.

BBC

ETA: Has anyone on MF come across anyone with this so-called disorder that noone (or hardly anyone) in the medical establishment recognizes?

One of my mother's cousins claimed intolerance of all fragrances.

A few posters on my perfume board have complained about workplace regulations similar to those that Yvonne posted. They usually find a way around it so they can continue to enjoy scent. The supersenditiver are not necessarily as sensitve as they think they are, apparently.

Oh, good lord. Forgotten that I had an aunt who positively HATED the smell of strawberries. Claimed they made her sick. Where will the fragrance police go next? Chocolate?

Since we live within spitting distance of a city that because of its zillion laws preserving some people's while restricting other people's personal freedoms (my husband calls the People's Republic of --------), I am used to this kind of regulation.

While I don't support it, I do remember having season tickets for a theater event . Two couples seated behind us had the same recurring tickets, so always sat behind us. The men smelled of bourbon, the women of two conflicting scents. I always attributed these several scents to the actors, and so added an unintended dimension to the plays. I frequently wondered if I would have had different reactions to the theater had I not watched them, year after year, in "surround scent".

Back to scent in restaurants, I never put flowers with scent on the dining table when we have guests, just "in case".

Liza

If the owner chased me into the parking lot yelling. I would have punched the motherfucker into kingdom come.

Everything else is irelevant. He's the owner. he can have whatever silly policy he wants. But embarrass me, harrass me, harangue me in front of my wife and guests in a public place?

I am never scentfree and haven't been since I was about 15, but I am considerate of others. Like Voyager, I don't put flowers on the table. For theatre and restaurants and anyplace I know people will not be able to get away from me, I use perfume rather than eau de toilette or eau de parfum because it stays close to the skin. Dyed in the wool perfumistas are not generally offenders. The nose becomes de-sensitized to odors and unless you switch the fragrances around, you will not be able to smell it on yourself. The ones you have to watch out for are women who have been using the same fragrance and only that fragrance for years on end and can no longer smell it unless they apply way too much.

nick, i realize you're a real man and i'm not, but there's never a good reason to hit anyone. just walk away.

mongo, here in Joisey, most people carry a spare baseball bat or tire iron in their car for resolving disputes. Among us, Nick is a gentle soul, and of the pacifist inclination...

Baseball bats are so 1980's.. These days we have retractable batons.. Light weight, easy to store, there is a design for anyone in the family..

Isn't Amazon having a baton sale right now?

Just in time for the "The Sopranos."

I have--a gal who used to sing in my chorus. She left because not only did she claim that some of the other women in her section were using too much scent, but that the leadership (director & the board) didn't take her complaints seriously enough. We do have a "scent-free" policy as part of the general concert dress code, but that makes sense because we're standing in close proximity to each other for long periods of time. In all honesty, while she may have had a legitimate gripe, she's one of those people who never have anything positive to say and are always happiest when they're complaining.

I personally am a touch scent-sensitive myself due to my allergies. I can't be around burning incense, for example.

I don't know why they asked the patron to wash off in the bathroom--it's hard to remove hydrophobic perfume components with water.

Much better to have dusted her with activated charcoal.

Don't give them ideas.

Oh, Daniel, these are so cool. Do they come electrified like cattle prods and it's legal to carry one concealed if you own a cow?

You people are scaring me.

This is pretty cool too: if you own a cow, of course:

Hello, table for two, please. We are completely de-scented.



Image here:
http://www.worth1000.com/entries/212500/212932ChJG_w.jpg

The image didn't post for me until I quoted it.

No doubt because the restaurant came up with some other rule barring entrance.

Make that a table for 4, here's our mates.

(Thanks, Tana.)

Image here:
http://www.worth1000.com/entries/212500/212932ChJG_w.jpg

I still can't see it.

Ah, but are you de-scented from the right people?

Exactly WHAT are those gloves for (giggle) in non-scented restaurants when owners get hostile? I prefer purple nitrile gloves myself.