Vicar puts his foot in it... by wearing sandals to wine bar
THEY were good enough for Jesus, but a pair of sandals have led to a vicar being turned away from a bar – on Easter Sunday.
A doorman refused to admit the Rev Andrew Dotchin for a late- night pint on health and safety grounds, claiming the clergyman’s open- toed footwear could lead to him cutting his feet should a glass drop and break.
The Church of England vicar, who always wears sandals, said yesterday after the ban: “I was gobsmacked. I only wanted a quick drink. I wasn’t going to go in and tell everyone to go to hell or anything.
“I know the doorman was only doing his job but it is an illustration of how we live in this silly risk- averse society where if you get hurt it is always someone’s fault.
“If someone had dropped a glass and my foot was cut, I would have just carried on.”
Mr Dotchin, 59, vicar of St Mary and St Botolph church in Whitton, Suffolk, was on his way home from a beer festival in nearby Ipswich.
He, his son Johnathan, 30, and a friend, tried to get into a popular town venue called The Wine Bar at just before midnight for one last drink before heading home.
Rev Dotchin said: “I had limited myself to one pint of beer a day for Lent so on Easter Sunday, I decided to go out and have more than one after fi nishing work. We went to a beer festival and were wandering into town to get a taxi when we decided to go for a quick drink.
Flip- fl ops
“The doorman, said, ‘ No fl ip- fl ops in here’ and refused me entry. He said it was on health and safety grounds because their drinks are in glass bottles, and one could break and hurt my toe.”
The vicar, who was wearing his dog collar at the time, said he insisted to the doorman that he was wearing sandals not fl ip- fl ops and pledged not to try and convert any drinkers.
But the bouncer would not budge, meaning the trio had to seek out another bar instead. Rev Dotchin, who said he picked up the sandalwearing habit while working in South Africa, has since contacted the doorman to say there are no hard feelings.
But he claims that on previous occasions he has been allowed into the bar despite his footwear choice.
Luke Parkerson, the manager of The Wine Bar, stood by the decision to refuse admission to people wearing “open shoes” for safety reasons.
He said: “Unfortunately it’s because we are a glass- led venue. A lot of venues in Ipswich use glass substitutes now.
“All it would take is someone to drop a glass on an exposed foot, that was our concern. It has happened once before. It’s just a shame I wasn’t able to have a word with the gentleman personally.”
The Rev Dotchin intends to carry on wearing sandals regardless, explaining his choice is partly for “devotional” reasons – because Jesus wore them.
He added that he does not wear socks, regarding them as “devilish”.