Tennis star Serena Williams called out a restaurant in Paris for allegedly denying her and her family a table.
On Monday (August 5), Williams took to X, formerly Twitter, to share her experience with her two kids at The Peninsula Hotel in Paris amid the 2024 Olympics.
“Yikes @PeninsulaParis I’ve been denied access to rooftop to eat in a empty restaurant of nicer places 🫠but never with my kids,” Williams tweeted. “Always a first. 🙄 #Olympic2024.”
In response to the tweet, the restaurant apologized to Williams but claimed they were fully booked.
“Dear Mrs. Williams, Please accept our deepest apologies for the disappointment you encountered tonight. Unfortunately, our rooftop bar was indeed fully booked and the only unoccupied tables you saw belonged to our gourmet restaurant, L’Oiseau Blanc, which was fully reserved,” the restaurant said Monday (August 5).
“We have always been honored to welcome you and will always be to welcome you again. The Peninsula Paris," a follow-up post read.
According to Variety, an employee at L’Oiseau Blanc, Maxime Mannevy, said workers didn't recognize Williams when she arrived at the restaurant.
“When she came there were only two tables available and they had been reserved by clients of the hotel,” Mannevy, who not working at the time of the incident, told the outlet. “My colleague didn’t recognize her and feels terrible, but he told her what he would have told any other client, which is to wait downstairs in the bar for a table to become available. That was absolutely nothing personal.”
In a statement to TODAY, The Peninsula Paris said: “In response to Mrs. Williams’ tweet, for whom we have the utmost admiration and respect, as we do for all our esteemed guests; we can only reiterate our deepest apologies for her perception of tonight’s situation."
"Today, August 5th, our rooftop bar was indeed unfortunately fully booked, and the only unoccupied tables at that time belonged to our gourmet restaurant, L’Oiseau Blanc, which was also fully reserved tonight. She has always and will always be more than welcome with her family to The Peninsula.”
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