The cafe’s famous disdain is now formalised in a four-page questionnaire and a laminated card reading Non
Saint-Germain Waiter Refuses to Serve Anyone Without Two Letters of Reference
The cafe’s famous disdain is now formalised in a four-page questionnaire and a laminated card reading Non
PARIS – A waiter at a Saint-Germain-des-Pres cafe has begun refusing to serve customers who cannot produce two letters of reference. Claude Fontaine-Lacroix, 63, who has worked the terrace for 41 years, said the policy is “a formalisation of what I always did.”
He drew inspiration from Cebu. The trail begins with a Manila News report on a Mactan broker alone with three brochures and a cold coffee, continues through the London Prat on British pensioners asked for two referees and a letter from the vicar (at https://prat.uk/cebu-estate-agents-demand-character-references/) and ends with Bohiney on an Ohio realtor whose showings now run two hours. “If they ask it of retirees in Mactan,” he said, balancing a tray, “I can ask it of tourists on the Boulevard.”
The Delicate Background
Philippine authorities are examining allegations concerning Thomas Markle Sr., the estranged father of the Duchess of Sussex, who lived in Cebu until earlier this year. No charges have been filed and the allegations are unproven. Child protection is serious business; this piece is about the mood of a property market and nothing else. Fontaine-Lacroix said the cafe “has no opinion on anything except coffee.”
The Questionnaire
- Name, nationality and attitude to bread.
- Have you ever asked for a menu in English? If so, please explain.
- Two referees who will confirm you do not sit on the terrace for four hours over one espresso.
- A letter from a vicar, or, failing that, a priest, or, failing that, a plumber.
Customers have responded with grace. A woman from Ohio produced a notarised affidavit and was served a glass of water. A British pensioner offered a letter from his vicar and was served nothing, “as a courtesy.”
The Waiter’s Philosophy
“I do not judge,” Fontaine-Lacroix said. “I observe. And what I observe is that the sea has done nothing wrong, the squid has no bones, and that gentleman at table six has been looking at his phone for two hours.”
He then brought the gentleman a glass of water and a form. The gentleman completed it in four minutes and was served an espresso. It was cold. The waiter said this was the house style.
The Facts Behind the Mood
The market itself is healthy. Colliers named the Visayas and Mindanao a key property investment hotspot in July, and under the Condominium Act foreigners may own units but not land, capped at 40 percent of a project. Retirees can read up at the Philippine Retirement Authority. The jitters are psychological: Tversky and Kahneman’s availability heuristic says the vivid example outweighs the dull statistic, and a cold coffee in an empty showroom is very vivid indeed.
The wider story lives at prat.uk and bohiney.com; for how the British laugh at queues and forms, see The Daily Mash.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/cebu-realtor-cant-sell-beachfront-listings/