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Food

This Restaurant Is Banning Bankers But Welcoming Dogs

Paris restaurateur Alexandre Callet announced the ban after having his loan request to open a second eatery refused. A sign outside the restaurant reads: “Dogs welcome, bankers banned.”
Phoebe Hurst
London, GB

One of the perks of being a restaurateur is that you can impart rules pertaining to whichever petty grievance you so choose on your unsuspecting diners.

Don't like kids? Ban those brunch-ruining, public tantrum-throwing suckers. Can't be dealing with the table that picks at the bread bowl without actually ordering mains? Charge 'em. Sick of vegans requesting tofu-based substitutes and sneering at your juice selection? Write a snarky Facebook post making it clear that plant-based patrons are not welcome.

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One French restaurant owner took his dictatorial powers to even greater heights this week and announced that bankers were banned from his establishment.

Alexandre Callet, who runs Les Ecuries de Richelieu in Paris, says he is forbidding financiers after numerous banks turned down his request for a €70,000 loan to open a second restaurant.

Instead of displaying the day's menu specials, the blackboard outside his eatery now reads: "Dogs welcome, bankers banned (unless they pay an entry fee of €70,000)."

Speaking to The Local, Callet explained: "I believe in reciprocity, I had to respond. 'If you hit me, I'll hit you.' As soon as I see a banker that I recognise, I won't let them enter my restaurant. They have treated me like a dog so I have denied them access."

According to Callet, when he attempted to open his first restaurant at 23, banks refused his loan application over 20 times. Now 30, the restaurateur says he feels humiliated at having his request for €70,000 turned down, which he sees as "nothing" compared to Les Ecuries de Richelieu's recent turnover of €300,000.

READ MORE: This Dublin Restaurant Banned Vegans and the Internet Went Beserk

Callet continued: "This is not just a kebab shop. My restaurant is in the Michelin guide and film stars come in here. A lot of bankers who turned me down know me. They come in here."

The restaurateur sees his experiences as symptomatic of French banks' reluctance to assist young business owners, adding: "Restaurateurs, entrepreneurs—it's the same. We have to get on all fours. I have never had financial problems and yet I find myself in this situation. Bankers are not doing their job."

According to The Local, Callet is yet to actually turn away any hungry bankers. No word either on whether any members of the Parisian canine population have had the chance to sample the restaurant's foie gras de canard.