The Nice Matin newspaper quoted unnamed insiders as saying that some restaurants in St-Tropez, a favoured summer haunt of celebrities and the international jet set for more than half a century, had taken to checking customers’ names against their database and refusing reservations if a previous visit was not felt to have resulted in a big enough bill – or tip.
An increasingly common technique was to say there was availability, but at a price. “They’ll say: ‘Sure, we have a table at €5,000. Is that OK?’” a customer said. Another cited a minimum spend of €1,500 a head.
Who cares. Bunch of rich assholes being assholes to each other isn’t really news
What usually happens is the area becomes too rich for the usual folk who have lived there since their birth. Now they can’t eat at a restaurant in their own home town.