(updated below)
Wadzanayi ran into what can only be called racism … at the hands of a fellow black man.
Last night for the first time in Zimbabwe i was racially descriminated against by a BLACK MAN at St Elmos by Avondale.
We walked into the restaurant at 8.45 and the manager tells us we cant sit-in coz their kitchen is closing.
We understood and ordered takeaway. 5mins later, 2 white men walk in, they also wanted to sit-in and guess wat? The manager gives them a table and allows them to order in MY FACE!!!
I simply shook my head at the manager and said to him “nekuti ganda rasiyana ka“. This didnt go down well with my boyfrend and he caused a scene!!!
So no tip for the waiter..damn racists!!! nxa
Not cool. Not cool at all. My advice to Wadzi for (God forbid) next time would be to take both the manager and wait-staff’s names. This sort of thing cannot be allowed to fly, and needs to be reported up the ladder straight quick.
We have forwarded this post to the contact we found on the St Elmos website, so we’ll see what happens.
As Wadzi aptly put it … nxa!
Update 1 -Together with the St Elmos contacts, I also emailed this post to Dusty Miller, the Independent and Standard‘s food critic.
He, obviously, didn’t have the same problems, but it seems he couldn’t be bothered to save our email (or read this post) before filing his latest story, which mentioned our concerns.
Save, of course, to dismiss our contributor as late, hence undeserving of service anyway, regardless of race.
Way to go, Dusty. How very snobbishly … colonial … of you.
Update 2 – Robbie Mellor, the General Manager of the St Elmo’s franchise in Zimbabwe, responded in the comments.
“Once again I apologise to you about the poor service and lack of respect that you were shown. Please accept my sincere apologies, and if anything of the sort ever happens again, please call me on my personal cell phone …”
Well done Robbie, at least it shows you guys care about your customers and, obviously, your reputation. Good stuff.