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Spat over canceled reservation between North End chef and would-be customer goes viral
Both TABLE owner Jen Royle and the would-be customer said they've received threats, while the former switched her social media accounts to private and listed her restaurant as permanently closed to stop review bombs after their dispute went viral.
The social media accounts of celebrity chef Jen Royle and her three TABLE eateries went private or were deleted Friday after a user on X shared screenshots of a spat between him and the owner over Instagram.
Yelp also said it was monitoring TABLE’s page on the business review website after the restaurant was seemingly review-bombed with one-star reviews, many of the users citing the screenshots on X as a reason for their review. And Royle’s main restaurant, TABLE, was listed as permanently closed on its Google Card, while TABLE Caffe said it was temporarily closed Friday — however, both businesses remain open.
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“Last month, we had to cancel our Boston trip after I was hospitalized,” started the tweet from Trevor Chauvin-DeCaro, from New York. “As a result I had to use travel insurance to get my money back on our hotel, train, and restaurant reservations. Today I got this message from (TABLE).”
Chauvin-DeCaro’s first screenshot showed a message from what appeared to be the account associated with TABLE’s North End restaurant and said it was from the owner, Royle. The post had more than 22 million views as of Saturday morning.
“I just wanted to personally thank you for screwing over my restaurant and my staff when you disputed your cancellation fee,” the message said. “I really hope in the future you have more respect for restaurants, especially small businesses such as mine. Pathetic.”
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As shown in a series of screenshots, Chauvin sent a lengthy response to the rebuke from the restaurant, saying that he used his travel insurance tied to his credit card because of the “unforeseen circumstances” that resulted in him unable to visit Boston as planned.
That included getting out of paying a hefty cancellation fee of $250.
TABLE serves Italian food communal style and charges people per seat for a seven-course meal, which is $125, except for Sunday Supper at $98. According to Resy, TABLE has a 72-hour cancellation policy, and those who cancel the day of their reservation face paying their full fee.
There are no exceptions to their policy, according to Resy.
The screenshots show another response from TABLE, presumably Royle arguing that Chauvin-DeCaro could have called and given his sensitive, unforeseen reason for canceling instead of disputing the charge.
“Nobody on the TABLE staff has ever received a phone call or spoken to Mr. (Chauvin-DeCaro) or anyone in his party, therefore nobody was aware of any emergency, illness, or said hospitalization,” an employee from TABLE said in an email to Boston.com. “We just learned of that on social media.”
Royle’s attorney, Michael Ford, also told other outlets Friday evening that the chef doesn’t believe Chauvin-DeCaro canceled because he was hospitalized.
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Chauvin-DeCaro, who had plans to visit Boston with his husband to see Madonna perform, said they were all set to go at the Amtrak station, but the train was delayed. Around that time waiting for the train, Chauvin-DeCaro said that’s when he began to feel ill. They decided to go home, he had a telehealth visit, and he was told to go to the ER, which Chauvin-DeCaro said is where he was the entire next day. In the midst of his health concerns, he and his husband called Amtrak, the hotel, and TABLE to cancel their reservations.
“Each business has its own policies, and some of those businesses were like, ‘Sorry, this is our policy.’ Great, that’s why I have travel insurance with Chase,” Chauvin-DeCaro said.
He said that’s what TABLE told him to do as well, quoting the staff he spoke with as saying “if you’re so butt hurt about” the policy. In screenshots shown on social media, Royle said her staff would never speak to someone like that.
In an email, TABLE also said that “credit card disputes are detrimental to a small business,” when asked if they were financially impacted by the travel insurance claim filed by Chauvin-DeCaro.
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“We did not receive the money,” TABLE said in an email. “We received a credit card dispute, filled out the proper paperwork, and we lost.”
Royle is known for having online disputes, either after customers leave negative reviews or with other social media users who pick a fight. She and other chefs have defended her behavior as saying what other restaurant employees are thinking, or even sticking up for her staff, against entitled and rude customers.
As reported by Boston magazine, it’s also become part of her persona, one that has attracted fans of Royle as well as people who say they’ll never eat at one of her restaurants.
On Friday evening, Royle said her businesses were indeed open and “very busy.” TABLE said it shut down its accounts and switched their Google Card to permanently closed because of nasty reviews pouring in and threats.
While many who had commented on or shared Chauvin-DeCaro’s tweet showed him support and seemed against Royle’s cancellation fee and response, he said he has also received threats and slurs over the viral tweet. He said Royle shared his contact information and the last four digits of his credit card while sharing a screenshot of the credit card dispute. Royle’s lawyer said the tweet with the screenshot was unintentionally shared and taken down.
“It was never my intention to go viral, and two, to drum up a bunch of hate for a local business, and three, to get people to leave reviews on behalf of me,” Chauvin-DeCaro said. “I never called for that. Stop doing that.”
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