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Kevin Owens, a professional wrestler with WWE from Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, recently told his half-million-plus Twitter followers about a "Terrible experience" at Notre-Boeuf-de-Grâce. The NDG gourmet burger shop from owner Jonathan Dresner that made over the former D.A.D.'s Bagels and opened a year ago promptly responded with a bit of snark. Then WWE legend Mick Foley weighed in. Update: Dresner says Owens "flat out lied" — see below.
Terrible experience at @BoeufDeGrace just now. Waited almost an hour for our order and ended up having to leave without eating.
— Kevin Owens (@FightOwensFight) May 19, 2016
@FightOwensFight We must not've been clear enough, we're @johncena fans and didn't want your biz anyway✌. Hope you enjoyed the free drinks .
— Notre-Boeuf-de-Grâce (@BoeufDeGrace) May 19, 2016
Sat down at 6:10, walked out at 7pm. But yeah, the free coke and orange julep drink were totally worth the hour wait https://t.co/1gV8f9nqI0
— Kevin Owens (@FightOwensFight) May 20, 2016
So a restaurant mocks an unhappy customer & PUBLICLY says they didn't want @FightOwensFight business? Lawsuit in US https://t.co/kHOPIdVZwz
— Mick Foley (@RealMickFoley) May 22, 2016
A hungry Owens and his wife took their business to La Belle et la Boeuf downtown. "All is well that ends well," the wrestler tweeted. The dispute with Notre-Boeuf-de-Grâce was not quite over, however. After Montreal-based MMA blogger Ariel Helwani, a friend of Dresner's and a noted fan of Notre-Boeuf-de-Grâce, covered the feud on his podcast, Owens felt the need to further clarify what went down at the restaurant from his perspective. Some excerpts from the wrestler's statement:
I was there for at least 45 mins. Not 24. Your buddy is straight up lying if he is indeed saying that. I also never said I was there with my whole family. It was just me and my wife and I never claimed otherwise.
His staff also wasn’t very apologetic like he claims they were but he wasn’t there so he’s probably just going off of what they said. The waiter actually seemed annoyed when we pointed out the issue.
When they tweeted the Cena thing, that was all in good fun, no problem. What I didn’t appreciate is them bringing up "the free drinks" multiple times to me and other people they were tweeting at. To me, it seems like they were trying to make it seem like I got wasted on their dime when the truth is we had a coke and some orange julep drink that we didn’t even get to finish because we had to leave. Those drinks were also free not because the staff offered for them to be free but because my wife said they should be since we had to wait for so long with no food ever coming out.
I was ready to love your buddy’s restaurant. I live 2 mins from there. I get less than 2 days at home every week. Taking my wife out to dinner is a big deal to me. We were excited to be there and try it. If we had liked it, we’d probably have gone there weekly. But your buddy’s staff handled the whole thing poorly and I took to Twitter to let people know about it, just like I would have done to praise the place if I had liked it.
All I wanted to do was take my wife to dinner but we got poor service and I tweeted about it because people should know this might happen to them if they go there. That’s it. People tweet about restaurants they go to all the time. The fact that I have a lot of followers shouldn’t matter.
@arielhelwani You're welcome. If you want the other side of the story, let me know! :)
— Kevin Owens (@FightOwensFight) May 24, 2016
Update, Friday, May 27: Jonathan Dresner, the owner of Notre-Boeuf-de-Grâce, has reached out to dispute Owens's version of events. Here's the restaurateur's take on what transpired:
[Owens] came in and made a scene after waiting 25 minutes for food when it was packed on a thursday. There was a small paper jam and we handled it so well and offered his drinks on the house but he stormed out. I will be posting the camera footage of him being in and out within 30 minutes exactly and then claiming he was there for an hour. He flat out lied and then I decided we should still just lighten it up with an obvious joke about being John Cena fans. I mean come on. Anyone with half a brain actually thinks we didn't want his business because we are Cena fans, his WWE nemesis? None of us and no customers even knew who he was. But as soon as he stormed out all the customers around him were saying wow what an asshole and forget this guy. He made himself sound like a victim. He had no kids with him. He was there with his wife and they had cocktails and instead of enjoying his company he just complained after 20 minutes and said I'm not paying for these drinks and left. It was 25 degrees on a thursday and while everyone else there was enjoying life and the experience he was complaining. That's the story.