Waterboys rocker Mike Scott has launched a Twitter spat with celebrity chef Jamie Oliver over an incident at his restaurant where he was accused of jumping the queue.
The Dublin-based musician told how he tried to dine at Oliver’s Heathrow airport restaurant on Friday but felt “discriminated against” over his appearance.
He claimed that when he was approached by the waitress, he told her he would be dining alone and she responded with a “1960s British authoritarian schoolteacher type attitude”, telling him there were others that needed to be seated before him.
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A disgruntled Mike wrote on Twitter: “I tried to dine at your Heathrow T5 restaurant yesterday, Friday 10 June, at 2.45-2.50pm. I've eaten in this restaurant before and the food is always good and until now the service has been friendly and courteous. And I remembered that it's a "wait to be seated" situation.
“I saw a waitress approaching me so I greeted her with a friendly smile and told her I would be dining on my own. But instead of responding with cordiality, she addressed me as if I was naughty schoolboy, and accused me of trying to jump the queue.
“Her words were "There are other people before you" delivered in an annoyed voice. There were indeed some people milling around but I didn't know if there were waiting to dine or not. Airports are crowded.
“It would have been easy for your waitress to smile and say "Yes, Sir. You'll have to wait a few moments", and I could have exercised my choice to wait or go to another eaterie within the airport. But no, I got treated with disdain, and none of the stress-free welcome implicit in your advertising.
“I understand this lady may have had a bad day and there may indeed have been dedicated queue-jumpers before I turned up. But that doesn't give her the OK to jump to a conclusion and exercise a kind of 1960s British authoritarian schoolteacher type attitude.”
He claimed that he was discriminated against because of his appearance as he wore a “hat and coat and looked like an artist”.
“Her response may have been because I wore a hat and coat and looked like an artist. Artists aren't recognised as a minority, and rightly not - there are millions of us - but we are used to discrimination based on our appearance. A lot of people make snap judgments about us.
“I respectfully suggest you make it clear to staff they should treat potential customers - even artists who may not fit their profile of a decent person - with cordiality, not annoyance. Of course, maybe I'm wrong about that and she genuinely thought I was a queue-jumping rat :-)
“Either way it reflects badly on your restaurant group - and perhaps needless to say I took my custom elsewhere. With best wishes and please give Jamie a squeeze in the bollocks from me :-)”
A rep for Jamie Oliver has been contacted for comment.
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