Perth Voice Interactive

A MT LAWLEY man is literally sacré bleu with P’tite Ardoise Bistro following its failure to offer him either apology or compensation for the theft of his suit jacket.

Phil Westbrook had been enjoying a meal with his daughter at their favourite French restaurant when the maître d’ offered to hang his suit jacket on the coat rack. It was the last Mr Westbrook saw of the $400 garment: the owner later told him he suspected a customer had pinched it and he would investigate and get back to him.

No responsibility

“I didn’t hear anything for two weeks so I contacted P’tite Ardoise and they said that despite their staff having taken charge of my jacket I had not been obliged to hand it over and that they had no responsibility for its safe-keeping,” Mr Westbrook told the Voice.

“I suggested that they might like to give me a credit note for a free meal, but they had no intention of making amends and basically it was my hard luck.

“I find it really disappointing that a small family-run restaurant, which we have been to four times over the past year, didn’t even apologise or even offer us a free lunch, nor any kind of gesture.”

P’tite Ardoise owner Xavier Pique says he’d called everyone who’d booked a table that night, to no avail: “There was only one booking that we couldn’t get hold of and we tried really hard to track down the jacket,” he says. “This kind of incident has never happened to us before, it’s a first. We can’t be responsible for every personal item in the restaurant—I don’t see why I should offer a free meal as compensation.”

Perth lawyer John Hammond says he believes the restaurant is liable and the owner should shout a “few generous dinners”.

“The owner of a restaurant who takes care of a person’s clothing or other goods is known as a bailee,” he says. “The person who deposits the goods with the restaurant owner is known as a bailor. The bailee is obliged to hold the goods safe for the bailor to reclaim.

“If the goods are stolen the bailee is, in my view, liable.”

Mr Westbrook, an immigrant from England, says he loves P’tite Ardoise and doesn’t want to restage the Battle of Agincourt.

“We actually started learning French last year and our tutor recommend we go to a French restaurant to hone our conversational skills,” he says.

“Traditionally the English and French haven’t got on, but there’s no historical malice in this one—just poor service.”

by STEPHEN POLLOCK