Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on September 2, 2021

The Fourteas has denied kicking the family out (Picture: Google Maps/Getty Images)

A 1940s-themed teahouse has been accused of booting out a Jewish family after they asked for non-kosher chicken sandwiches to be left off their high tea plate.

Jonathan and Shayna Evans visited the Fourteas, in Stratford-upon-Avon, over the bank holiday weekend with their two-year-old daughter on their way back from a trip to Wales.

They say they offered to pay the same price if staff swapped the chicken sandwiches for cucumber ones as part of their afternoon tea, in keeping with their religious dietary requirements.

Jonathan says he even offered to pay full price for a plate with no chicken and no replacement, or to pay a higher price for a different selection of food on a high tea server.

But he claims the teahouse refused, claiming it could not accommodate individual preferences.

Jonathan, 32, told them this was a religious belief rather than a preference and pointed to a part of the menu saying adjustments could be made for allergies, but still staff refused to budge.

He told Metro.co.uk: We gave them three different options, all of them would have been quite easy for them to do.

All they had to do was substitute the chicken sandwich for a cucumber one, because there were four sandwiches being offered as part of the set tea, which were cheese and pickle, smoked salmon, cucumber and coronation chicken.

Weve been in many establishments in the past and no ones ever denied it when weve asked them do to it.

Id imagine its cheaper to serve cucumber rather than chicken, so it doesnt make any economic sense from their perspective.

Im not asking them to serve kosher food. Im not criticising them for not offering kosher food, thats not what Im doing at all.

He says they were told if they wanted their own selection of sandwiches theyd have to order of the la carte menu, but they declined to serve them on a traditional three layered platter.

Jonathan added: It seemed quite quaint, quite charming, nostalgic place. We have a two-year-old daughter we just wanted her to be able to pick the sandwiches from different levels.

We said Were not happy about it, we do feel were being discriminated against due to our religious beliefs, we will be leaving a Tripadvisor review about it, which were fully entitled to do.

It wasnt a threat. It was saying we were going to leave a factual report about our experience.

Jonathan says the owner then showed up and opened by saying: I understand youre using the threat of a bad review to get your own way.

The 34-year-old Londoner says he responded: No, weve already accepted were not going to be able to have the same experience as other people, but we do feel discriminated against because of our religious beliefs, and we are entitled to leave a review to reflect that.

Jonathan says he was immediately asked to leave, which left him feeling taken aback as he has never been kicked out of a restaurant before.

He added: He then threatened to call the police to remove us from the restaurant.

Being Jewish, when youre in a 1940s themed restaurant and youre being told youre not going to be served because of your religious belief and then them threatening to call the police to remove you from the establishment, it has a different context to it.

In his TripAdvisor review, he said: The waitress stated that the only way in which afternoon tea is served is with four sandwiches, which includes chicken.

She said there were no alterations that can be made to it. She pointed to some small print on the menu which stated that preferences cannot be accomodated.

He says Tripadvisor contacted him to alter the review because he had put one star for both service and food when he hadnt been given the opportunity to eat any which is why his is no longer on the site.

The restaurants response to the family on Tripadvisor had previously been deleted.

In it, the business said: The Fourteas TeaRoom will not tolerate the threat of the posting of a deliberately bad social media review, as a means of imposing unacceptable and abusive behaviour towards its hard working personnel.

We are proud of our staffs work and professional ethics, as acknowledged and approved by the vast majority of our clientele.

We also regret that we cannot accommodate mindsets seeking refuge behind imaginative cultural or religious reasons, to justify selfish and arrogant attitudes. Respect and appreciation works both ways.

Picking up on claims their reasons were imaginary, Jonathan said: That was indicative of their approach to us on the day.

Its mocking, its dismissive. The 1940s theme took on a more sinister theme than one that was nostalgic.

In an updated statement yesterday, the cafe denied asking the family to leave over their request for an adjusted meal.

It said it was working with the local Jewish community to resolve any concerns.

The management added: Referring to the day in question, we would like to put on record that the family were asked to leave due to their behaviour and out of respect to the other customers.

ZeniosLoucas, who runs the cafe, told Metro.co.uk that he was unaware the family was Jewish until the matter had already escalated to shouting causing other customers to feel uncomfortable and distressed.

He said: Our business is a themed Tea Room which coincidentally refers to the 1940s. She, regrettably, picked that characteristic up and tried to compare us to the Nazis and the fascists of that era. We find this ridiculous, and we have no hesitation in unequivocally declaring that we condemn any form of racism or discrimination against anybody. Our multiple, cosmopolitan clientele is the answer to whoever thinks the opposite.

The menu stated it would not be possible to change that particular dish, but they were offered other options instead, he said.

He also shared a screenshot of a separate review removed from TripAdvisor posted by another customer, who claimed they witnessed the incident.

They said that they were not sure why the sandwiches could not have been changed, and that the business should think about that for future customers.

However, they added that the mother was shouting extremely loudly as the staff remained calm and quiet but did politely ask her to leave.

Mr Loucas said: I can also say, that had they not presented us with the sheer blackmailing of you either do what we want, or we shall write for you a bad review we would have gone out of our way to do exactly what they had asked for. Probably more!

As far as we are concerned, it was clearly a question of two individuals who caused a scene unnecessarily, showing no respect or appreciation for the people who were serving them and expected the whole of the restaurant to listen to their shouting and abusive behaviour.

He added that since the media attention they had received threats and other abusive messages, either by email or by phone, which cause serious concerns about our safety and the security of the Tea-Room.

Jonathan said he denied the allegations made about his family and responded: Their response to us on Tripadvisor where they referred to not accommodating our imaginative cultural or religious reasons belies his statement that he was unaware we were Jewish and demonstrates his attitude towards us.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us atwebnews@metro.co.uk.

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Teahouse 'kicked out Jewish family after refusing to remove non-kosher chicken from plates' - Metro.co.uk

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