Wall Street Banker Hides From Yelp Review

When investment bank William Blair’s global head of M&A Mark Brady was charged $1,200 for missing a dinner reservation at high-end Chicago restaurant Next, he took to Yelp to fight back. Unfortunately for Brady, restaurant owner Nick Kokonas had a much different take on the situation and wasn’t particularly shy about sharing it.

1-Star Rating

In Brady’s original one-star Yelp Inc YELP review, which has since been deleted, he didn’t pull any punches when describing his experience.

“Complete [vulgarity omitted]. No confirm call or email, the objective is to take your $1200 and not have to serve you anything,” Brady wrote.

Kokonas Hits Back

Kokonas issued his rebuttal via Facebook Inc FB, where he shared an email he sent to Brady in response to the negative review but never actually mentioned Brady by name.

“We do not offer refunds for no-shows unless the error made was somehow our fault. In this case both your confirmation email and reminder email were sent appropriately and automatically through our booking system,” Kokonas said.

Kokonas explained that he would have been more than willing to refund Brady’s money or change his reservation had Brady contacted Next instead of simply no-showing that night. Next kept the table open all night even with nine parties on the wait list. The restaurant does not accept walk-ins.

“Economists will note that the loss here ($1,200 or so) is going to be borne by either the restaurant or the patron,” Kokonas explained in his Facebook post. “If we rebook him for the future we still [emphasis omitted] lose $1,200… he has essentially taken up two tables for the cost of one (one empty, one in the future.”

Kokonas said that Brady would never expect a refund from the opera or the Chicago Cubs if he missed the date for which he had purchased tickets.

“Had he not been insulting and rude I would have never posted my emails to him online,” Kokonas said in a follow-up email. “Given his user history on Yelp and posts on Twitter Inc TWTR I felt compelled to give a public reply-though redacted-so that the public and our industry knew why a review like that happened.”

Posted In: NewsRestaurantsGeneralMark BradyNeXTNick KokonasWilliam Blairyelp
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