Anti-semitism accusations after dispute at Four Teas in Stratford-upon-Avon

A TEA room owner has defended himself against accusations of anti-semitism after death threats following a family’s claim they were discriminated against.

The Evans family went to 1940s-themed café The Fourteas in Sheep Street, Stratford, over the bank holiday weekend and ordered a set tea, served on a tiered stand. When they asked to swap a chicken sandwich for a cucumber one, they said they were told no substitutions were allowed on that item.

A row escalated after the family – who are Jewish – argued their request was not a preference but a religious belief as the chicken was not kosher.

Jonathan Evans, who was visiting from London with his wife Shayna and two-year-old daughter, told the Herald: “For the life of me I can’t figure out why they couldn’t do it. We weren’t asking for anything kosher, just a simple swap. We went there to have a proper afternoon tea – my daughter was excited to pick her tea off the stand.”

After an argument and the family threatening to write a review reflecting their experience on travel website TripAdvisor, Fourteas owner Zenios Loucas asked them to leave.

Mr Loucas told the Herald: “The family ordered the Ivor Novello afternoon tea, which is a dish and we can’t change what’s in it. It was agreed they could order a la carte items but when they threatened to write a bad review, that’s when I decided to ask them politely to leave.”

Mr Evans later posted a review headed “Discriminatory, abusive, inflexible” in which he said: “If you are Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, vegan or vegetarian, you are not allowed to enjoy the afternoon tea experience.

“It was particularly distressing as Jews to be in a restaurant which is 1940s-themed and to be thrown out because our religious beliefs meant we wanted a cucumber sandwich instead of a chicken one.”

His post was picked up on social media and gained attention from celebrities David Baddiel and Jay Rayner, resulting in widespread condemnation of the café.

Mr Loucas said: “There has been a snowball effect. After the family’s initial comments everyone has jumped on the bandwagon. We find we are getting comments from people who have never been to the Fourteas and don’t know us, and we’ve even had death threats.”

Mr Loucas responded on TripAdvisor to Mr Evans’s post, writing: “We regret that we cannot accommodate mindsets seeking refuge behind imaginative cultural or religious reasons to justify selfish and arrogant attitudes.”

Subsequent posters suggested the response was discriminatory but Mr Loucas said it had been misconstrued: “They chose to imagine we were not changing the sandwich as an act of religious discrimination, but this was absolutely not the case. No one was forcing them to have a chicken sandwich.

“I am not a racist or antisemite. I am of Greek origins and have worked with Jewish people all my life – they are our friends. It is ridiculous how they have converted their issues about the food into politics.

“I condemn racism and discrimination.”

He added: “We certainly regret any misunderstanding caused, however the tea room promotes inclusivity in our staff and working practices.”

Mr Evans remained adamant that the family had been the victims of antisemitism, adding: “In not accommodating our food order we were indirectly discriminated against. But there was direct discrimination when he referred to our ‘selfish and arrogant attitudes’. It is a concerning trope about Jews.

“It’s the sort of thing that people who don’t know much about antisemitism might not pick up on but it’s quite pervasive.”

However, Mr Loucas maintained that the dispute had not been to do with race. “It was about the customers’ behaviour,” he added.

See the Herald this week for your letters on this.

HERALD COMMENT

Let’s all be more tolerant of each other

SOMEWHERE between being too intolerant and too offended there is a mode of behaviour and attitude that is just right, as a modern-day Goldilocks might observe.

The distressing row that broke out at The Fourteas this week (see front page) is a lesson for us all.

During our recent recess from “normal” life enforced by Covid, it’s a popular notion that humanity has had time to reflect and that we have surely all come back kinder and more tolerant, having listened to those telling us, among other things, that Black Lives Matter.

We thought and hoped we were entering a new age of tolerance.

It seems appropriate at this point – as The Fourteas involved accusations of antisemitism and fascism – to quote a wise Jewish man from the 1940s, Rabbi Joshua Liebman, a forward-thinking intellectual, who observed: “Tolerance is the positive and cordial effort to understand another’s beliefs, practices and habits without necessarily sharing or accepting them.”

In other words, make an effort where you can to understand others without imposing your own will – whether that’s bending over backwards to please a customer because of their tastes, quirks or beliefs, or respecting the tastes, quirks or beliefs of those who preside over the realm you are currently inhabiting.

Religious and racial intolerance is abhorrent, of course. And the Herald stands firmly behind the belief that people should not be judged on race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status – as per the United Nations declaration.

We also call out the pernicious inclination of many of those on social media who act as judge and jury, condemning others, calling for their social execution or exclusion, based on bias and their own world view. It’s a new kind of bigotry thrown up by the digital age and one that we should not tolerate.