Kolkata eatery shuts door on chauffeur, faces flak online

KOLKATA: It seems that if you want to have a good meal in a Kolkata restaurant, you need a proper dress too.

On Friday evening, Mocambo, one of the most popular restaurants in the city, refused entry to the driver of a car whose owner wanted to treat him to a meal before she left the city as a reward of his service.

Despite an argument with the waiters and personnel of the restaurant, Dilashi Hemnani failed to obtain permission to enter with her driver.

Fuming, she posted her plight on Facebook that has gone viral with many devotees of the iconic eatery demanding an apology from the management for their offensive behaviour, else they threatened to boycott one of the oldest multi cuisine restaurants on signature Park Street.

“How shallow and inhuman have we become,” lamented Hemnani on Facebook. She is a senior marketing executive with an automobile major.

She was supposed to leave Kolkata on Saturday and wanted to treat “Manish bhaiya” who served her family for years.

Despite the storm on social media, Mocambo owner Nitin Kothari appeared defiant on Monday. “We consider Mocambo to be a ‘small’ restaurant that welcomes everybody irrespective of caste, creed, race or profession. We only want our guests to be neat, clean and dressed decent. But in this case the driver accompanying the woman was not wearing a neat and clean dress that would have made other guests uncomfortable,” Kothari told Hindustan Times.

Hemnani wrote the pretext of the restaurant personnel was that he was not in a proper dress that would fit a “fine dining” restaurant. But when Hemnani asked the restaurant staff whether they have a dress code, they could not come up with one.

Moments later the manager came to her and alleged that the driver was drunk. Hemnani claimed he was on duty since 8am on Friday and did not consume alcohol.

Mocambo that opened its doors in 1956 and was known for its jazz music has a number of loyal followers in the city.

We only want our guests to be neat, clean and dressed decent. But in this case the driver accompanying the woman was not wearing a neat and clean dress. Nitin Kothari, Mocambo owner