Pensioners cry foul over eatery’s ‘ban’

A GROUP of pensioners claim they were told to sit outdoors in driving rain despite free space inside a Waurn Ponds restaurant.

Reno Beltrame, one of 12 seated inside at Town & Country Pizza & Pasta for “20 minutes” on Tuesday night, said a manager told him the restaurant had a policy to sit groups of 10 or more outdoors.

“We were made to wait about half an hour to be told we weren’t welcome. There were tables available inside that we could have used,” Mr Beltrame said.

The 70-year-old said the 12 were part of a group of 20 who wanted to eat at the restaurant about 8.30pm.

“I’ve gone there plenty of times before and have had lovely meals. There I was promoting the place to my friends and were told we had to go,” he said.

“We’ve had a bad experience and probably won’t go back there again.”

Mr Beltrame said the Town & Country manager on duty treated the group in an “unprofessional” manner.

He said four of the group ate at the Pioneer Rd restaurant, while the rest left without eating.

“They had taken some of our orders but they told us to go (outside). (We had) five tables in total,” he said.

Mr Beltrame said the group of social friends knew each other through retirees group Probus, and from playing golf and bowls together.

He said the group had seen a movie at the Waurn Ponds cinemas before choosing to eat at Town & Country.

Town & Country Waurn Ponds owner Frank, who did not give his surname, would not comment on the incident when contacted by the Geelong Advertiser.

But he did not deny the incident had taken place on Tuesday night.

The Geelong Advertiser gave Frank multiple opportunities to comment.

Picture: ALAN BARBER NOT HAPPY: Barry Machin and his friends say they were made to sit outside in the rain at the Town & Country restaurant because they had a group of 14. They claim the restaurant has a policy of not allowing more than 10 people to sit at tables inside.