They made a gravy error.
One of the city’s chicest restaurants bizarrely decided to nickel and dime a New York media exec — over Christmas dinner, of all things — after accidentally advertising the wrong price for a Yuletide feast.
And now the dumbstruck diner is left with a taste more bitter than a bad Brussel sprout — and his family are stuck without a booking for the big day.
Cranberry sources say the biz boss booked a table for four at Jean Georges after noticing that the haute haunt had (presumably in the spirit of peace and goodwill to all men) knocked down the price of its tasting menu on the 25th.
We’re told that back in November, the 27-year-old Columbus Circle restaurant’s website said its six-course prix fixe — which usually costs $298 — would be $258 on Christmas Day, or its ten-course option would be $318, rather than $398. Not exactly a blue plate special, but a nice touch.
But on Wednesday when the twice-Michelin starred dining destination sent him an email to confirm the table, he noticed that the prices had gone back up to the normal rate.
And he canceled the res in a fit of festive pique when the restaurant, which the Times once said in a four-star review “glides like a Mercedes sedan,” told him that it wouldn’t honor the lower price.
We’re told a staffer simply said the advertised rate had been a mistake, and they’d be bringing a bill with the normal numbers regardless. (Not, we might venture, the “serene” service promised by that same review).
When we called the restaurant, an equally unaccommodating staffer told Page Six that they “felt bad” for the family but: “We do not honor any discounts to anyone.” When we raised the idea that it could be considered a case of false advertising, he said: “It’s not false advertising. It was a mistake.”
The exec told us the money isn’t the issue, but the principle.
They said: “They promised festive cheer, but actually delivered… disappointment. Mistakes happen, but they should have honored the rate they advertised for weeks instead of leaving diners with a lump of coal in their stockings!”
Now our exec is well and truly scrooged, since, of course, everywhere in town is now booked for Christmas.
They’ll likely be stuck at a diner — which, we imagine, would have the class not to quibble over a fractional discount on Christmas Day.
