Spicy showdown at eatery
Dinner cancellation sparks fight
A North End restaurant that charges $125 a person is under fire after the owner’s beef with a customer over a reservation cancellation went viral.
The communal-style eatery Table Boston has gone dark on social media after the private messages from owner Jen Royle to a customer were posted online and took off like a rocket. Now, Royle is “getting bombarded with death threats,” her lawyer told the Herald yesterday.
Royle in the messages had sarcastically thanked the customer, Trevor Chauvin-DeCaro, for “screwing over my restaurant and my staff when you disputed your cancellation fee.”
Then after ChauvinDeCaro publicly posted his private interaction with the owner — which led to major blowback for the Hanover Street restaurant this week — the North End eatery threatened it would sue the customer.
If you looked up the restaurant on Google Maps yesterday, it stated in red lettering, “Permanently closed” because of the deluge of threats and comments, according to her lawyer. But the restaurant remained open, the attorney said.
“The false statements, the defamatory statements, the death threats, the abusive comments, they hurt and she doesn’t want to be hurt anymore,” said her lawyer Michael Ford.
“She’s been facing attacks on the internet, and now she is getting bombarded with death threats,” the attorney added.
Back in December, Chauvin-DeCaro had made a reservation for Jan. 6 at Table Boston for two. He was planning a trip up to Boston from New York, highlighted with seeing Madonna at TD Garden.
But while his Amtrak train to Boston faced major delays that weekend, Chauvin-DeCaro said he got sick.
“The delay was a blessing in disguise,” he told the Herald yesterday. “Thank God we were still home.”
Chauvin-DeCaro, as a result, said he went to the ER — and the trip to Boston was scrapped.
With the last-minute trip cancellation, he needed to make several calls to the businesses where he had made reservations, including Table Boston. Because it was within 48 hours of the restaurant’s reservation, he was told that he would have to pay the $250 cancellation fee.
But with his Chase credit card’s travel protection insurance, he contacted Chase to get his money back.
“They told me they were taking care of it, and I never thought of it again,” Chauvin-DeCaro said.
That was until Thursday, several weeks later, when Royle sent him a private message.
“Hi Trevor. I own TABLE restaurant in Boston,” Royle wrote in the Instagram DM. “I just wanted to personally thank you for screwing over my restaurant and my staff when you disputed your cancellation fee.
“I really hope in the future you have more respect for restaurants, especially small businesses such as mine. Pathetic,” the restaurant owner added.
Chauvin-DeCaro was so shocked by the message, sending a lengthy response back to Royle and then feeling compelled to share it with the world.
“Her response was simply uncalled for and wildly unprofessional,” he told the Herald. “Even if you disagree with how a customer goes about canceling a reservation, her response was outrageous and unhinged. There’s no reason to ever do that to a potential customer.”
He stressed that he canceled the reservation due to unforeseen circumstances, and that falls under the protection of his travel insurance.
Meanwhile, Royle’s attorney called the customer’s claim that he went to the ER “bogus,” and argued that he should not have gotten his money back.
Chauvin-DeCaro and Royle went back-and-forth for a while, and ChauvinDeCaro shared more of the private interaction online.
Then Royle publicly posted on her Instagram story about the beef, writing, “BOO HOO. Then call and cancel and explain! DISPUTING A CANCELLATION FEE IS WRONG !!!! ”
“I spoke to about a dozen business owners today who shared their frustrations in people walking all over them and disputing their credit card charges,” Royle wrote. “THIS HAS TO STOP! The lack of respect and entitlement is gross.”
After the interaction went viral, the restaurant in a private message told Chauvin-DeCaro that the eatery has contacted its legal team.
“We privately messaged you and you chose to take this public,” the restaurant wrote. “The amount of slander that the business is receiving is absolutely horrific. You will be hearing from our lawyers.”