The restaurant reacted to the Grand Slam champion’s declare.
Serena Williams has criticised a Michelin-starred restaurant in Paris, alleging that she was not allowed to enter together with her kids. The Olympian mentioned she and her household weren’t permitted to enter The Peninsula’s rooftop restaurant, L’Oiseau Blanc, in a publish revealed on X (previously Twitter). Ms Williams wrote within the publish that she had by no means been refused entry whereas her household was there.
“Yikes @peninsulaparis I have been denied entry to the rooftop to eat in a empty restaurant of nicer locations however by no means with my children. At all times a primary. #Olympic2024,” she mentioned on the microblogging web site.
Yikes @peninsulaparis I have been denied entry to rooftop to eat in a empty restaurant of nicer locations 🫠however by no means with my children. At all times a primary. 🙄#Olympic2024pic.twitter.com/lEGJR5WoEn
— Serena Williams (@serenawilliams) August 5, 2024
Maxime Mannevy, a employees member on the Peninsula’s rooftop restaurant, instructed Selection that Ms Williams appeared “unrecognizable” when she arrived pushing a stroller alongside one other woman. “When she got here there have been solely two tables obtainable and so they had been reserved by purchasers of the lodge,” she mentioned, including that she was not working when Ms Williams visited the restaurant.
“My colleague did not acknowledge her and feels horrible, however he instructed her what he would have instructed another consumer, which is to attend downstairs within the bar for a desk to grow to be obtainable. That was completely nothing private.”
The restaurant reacted to the Grand Slam champion’s declare, with staff reiterating their causes for turning away Ms Williams and her kids from a desk. “In response to Ms Williams’ tweet, for whom we’ve the utmost admiration and respect, as we do for all our esteemed visitors, we reiterate our deepest apologies that we weren’t in a position to supply her a desk at our rooftop bar when she arrived together with her household and with out a reservation,” the lodge mentioned in an announcement to the New York Publish.
They mentioned, “We do all the time strive to create space for walk-in visitors however typically this isn’t potential.”
“On August fifth, our rooftop bar was certainly totally booked, and the one unoccupied tables at the moment belonged to our connoisseur restaurant, L’Oiseau Blanc, which was additionally totally reserved. In its place, Ms Williams was supplied an out of doors desk downstairs on the lodge’s La Terrasse Kléber. We’ve all the time been honored to welcome you and can all the time be to welcome you once more,” the assertion added.
The 23-time Grand Slam champion initially got here to Paris in late July, simply in time for the “unforgettable” Olympic opening ceremony, which she attended as a torch bearer. Together with fellow tennis champion Rafael Nadal, nine-time medallist Carl Lewis, French greats Zinedine Zidane, Teddy Riner, Marie-Jose Perec, and Tony Parker, Ms Williams joined an extended custom of athletes carrying the torch. She has additionally received 4 Olympic gold medals over the course of her profession.
