Chillingly authentic: 1940s-themed tea shop asks Jewish family to leave
V A JEWISH diner has said he was astonished to be thrown out of a 1940s-themed tea shop after being told that a non-kosher chicken sandwich could not be left off a plate.
Jonathan Evans, 34, visited the Fourteas in Stratford-upon-Avon last weekend to treat his toddler to a traditional high tea experience.
But the eaterie reportedly refused his request that the platter — priced at £18.50 per person — be served without chicken.
Speaking to the JC about his “appalling experience”, Mr Evans said he had explained to staff he and his family kept kosher and suggested that the meat be swapped for cucumber or removed from the plate altogether.
Restaurant staff eventually agreed to offer à la carte orders on a high tea server, but later said they could not do so because they did not have enough tea stands, he said.
The family eventually agreed to order food items not presented on a tea server, but said they would post an online review to reflect their experience.
Soon after the remark, a man who identified himself as the owner confronted the family, asking them to leave and threatening to call the police, Mr Evans said.
“I’ve never been kicked out of a restaurant in my life and I was quite frankly astonished,” he said, adding his toddler had been left confused and “upset” .
“Initially we went to this place and thought, ‘How quaint, a 1940s-style restaurant.’ It took on a rather more menacing meaning to us, being Jewish,” he said.
“We’ve got family who fled Germany in the Thirties,” said Mr Evans.
“My daughter, who is nearly two years old, was saying, ‘Why is the bad man shouting at you, Mummy?’ And then she asked us why we’re leaving without eating.
“She doesn’t understand.”
To make matters worse, after Mr Evans posted a bad review on TripAdvisor about his experience, the manager of Fourteas wrote: “We cannot accommodate mindsets seeking refuge behind imaginative cultural or religious reasons to justify selfish and arrogant attitudes.”
In response, comedian David Baddiel wrote on Twitter that the restaurant “possibly need to make it clearer that the imagined 1940s location is not Stratford, but Berlin”.
The Fourteas claimed in a statement on Wednesday that the family was asked to leave “due to their behaviour and out of respect to the other customers”.
It added: “We are working with the local Jewish and wider community to resolve any concerns,” adding it was looking into offering kosher or halal food in the future.
The restaurant’s CEO, Zenios Loucas, said he hadn’t intended to suggest in his message that Mr Evans held “imaginative” beliefs. “I meant strictly that it was their imagination that I was treating them like that,” he said.
The outlet ‘refused’ his request that the platter be served without chicken