Uglies are roasted while others sit pretty

TWO trendy Parisian restaurants have been accused of seating guests according to how good-looking they are to raise the tone of the establishments.

Former hostesses have claimed that Thierry and Gilbert Costes — brothers whose group owns hotels, cinemas, restaurants and cafés in the French capital — have introduced a discriminatory selection procedure for guests of Le Georges in the Pompidou Centre and Café Marly, which overlooks the Louvre.

“The good-looking ones are led to the good places where they can be easily seen,” they told Le Canard Enchaîné, an investigative and satirical weekly.

“As for the non-good-looking ones, it is imperative that they be dispatched to the corners of the room.”

The only exception to the seating rule, they said, were celebrity guests, who, “pretty or ugly, old or young”, get to sit before the “vast panorama” of the Parisian skyline.

Telephone bookings naturally posed a problem. To get around this tricky issue, the welcome desk was asked to remain noncommittal on seating arrangements.

In Café Marly, the hostesses claimed, phone bookers were told that balcony seats could not be guaranteed. Depending on the physical attributes of the guest, they would then receive the go-ahead to sit “on the terrace” for all to see or not.

A spokesman for the Costes brothers said they had no comment. — ©