A waiter of a brasserie in Antwerp, Carrousel d'Anvers, has been fired after a client posted a picture of her receipt, which said "extra pancake for the fatty at table 1", on Facebook.
"Never seen anything like it," the client said in a review of the business on Facebook. "Quietly eating all-you-can-eat pancakes, their concept, after paying for three pancakes, you are verbally insulted," she wrote. She also posted a picture of her receipt, which said "extra pancake for the fatty at table 1, not normal" ("extra pannenkoek voor dikzak tafel 1 niet normaal" in Dutch).
The owner of the brasserie, Imad Hammoud, has since posted on the Facebook page of Carrousel d'Anvers that he has spoken on the phone to the girl to apologise, and would like to make it up to her. "It is our aim that all clients are treated with the same level of respect, everyone is equal," he added, reports Het Laatste Nieuws.
Translation of post: "As the owner of the business, I would like to apologise for the incident that took place today in my business with Nadia. I also apologised to Nadia over the phone, and regret the waiter's behaviour. This is certainly not our policy. In the meantime, I have taken the appropriate measures with regard to the waiter."
The waiter who wrote the insult on the receipt has been fired, according to Hammoud. "He has apologised about 1,000 times, but what is done is done. I want to send the right signal, this was the only solution," he added.
Horeca Vlaanderen, the professional federation of café and restaurant owners and hoteliers in Flanders, has also responded to the incident in the meantime. "Hospitable entrepreneurship is the basis of our sector," said spokesperson Matthias De Caluwe on Radio 2 Antwerp. "Even if this was an internal message from the waiting staff to the kitchen, this is not okay," he added.
Maïthé Chini
The Brussels Times
