Declined Table at Mexico City Cafe, Woman Sparks Political Drama Daniel Hernandez - The Los Angeles Times
go to original April 30, 2013

Gabriela Lopez left, almost had her Mexico City restaurant shut down by inspectors, after she denied a table to Andrea Benitez, right. Benitez is the daughter of a powerful politician from the PRI party, who currently runs Mexico's Consumer Watchdog Agency, Profeco. (Manuel Rueda/ABC-Univision & Twitter.com)

MEXICO CITY - Talk about a tough customer.

Indignant that she didn't get a sidewalk table during the busy lunch hour at a swanky Mexico City bistro, the daughter of a chief federal regulator threatened to call her father and have the place shut down.

Two hours later, according to reports, inspectors from Mexico's consumer protection agency, known by its Spanish acronym, Profeco, showed up in the trendy Roma district and attempted to close the cafe for alleged "anomalies" in its reservation system and in its offerings of mezcal.

But at Maximo Bistrot, a sort of "local-fare" corner cafe where a sit-down meal can cost about $25, the customers apparently wouldn't give up their tuna and wine without a fight. Armed with cellphone cameras, diners reportedly accosted and intimidated the inspectors so severely that the government workers fled, unable to halt operations at the cafe.

"All of this due to the dissatisfaction of one girl, to whom I couldn't give the table she wanted, at the hour she wanted, and well, that's how things are in this country: People with influence can call their daddy and ruin your afternoon," Gabriela Lopez, a co-owner of the restaurant, told one news outlet.

The incident was the latest class and corruption scandal to spark up social media in Mexico.

Read the rest at The Los Angeles Times

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