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Café chaos scene was worthy of Basil Fawlty
• WITH some friends, I witnessed a fine example of Basil Fawlty-style customer ‘service’ on a recent afternoon, at a WC1 café situated within Russell Square itself, in WC1.
Drinks and food were being sold to customers – ourselves included – right up until 5pm, when the café apparently closed (although, confusingly,
a prominent sign displayed outside states it is open
until 7pm).
However, we – and many others – were startled when staff from the café suddenly appeared at our table outside, only moments after we had spent a small fortune on some refreshments and snacks, gruffly requesting that we pour our mugs of tea and coffee into paper cups, as they wanted to wash up the crockery.
A few minutes later, more staff appeared, informing us they now needed to take our table and chairs as they were packing up for the day!
By this time the whole thing began to feel somewhat surreal. Bearing in mind the aforementioned food and drinks had been sold to us just minutes before, it seemed strange that no one had simultaneously bothered to mention that the cafe was about to close, or that customers would be expected to forgo cups, plates, table and chairs, pronto.
When several tourists understandably began politely to complain (as their table was virtually wrenched from underneath their half-drunk cups of coffee), an ugly scene quickly developed, culminating in staff loudly telling them to never come back.
It seems doubtful they would make a return visit to this particular establishment, all things considered…
Needless to say, this created a highly enjoyable conclusion to a sunny afternoon, not to mention a wonderful impression of London to our friends from overseas.
J ANDERSON
WC1
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