Today I walked over to a little French bistro for lunch. I've been there a dozen or so times in the past, but haven't been in recently. The owner/chef asked me what I have been up to... So I told him about starting school and focusing on wellness. I mentioned I've lost about 35 pounds.

I ordered and then asked about a white cake he had in his dessert case. He told me it was a lemon tart cake. (Not interested. Don't like lemon desserts). But he told me that he wouldn't sell it to me. That I wasn't allowed to have it on my diet. "I could dream about it and think about it....but I could NOT have it." Seriously. He wouldn't sell me a slice.

Wow. That was interesting. I didn't bother telling him that I was intuitively eating and lost my weight eating whatever I wanted...only when hungry. But what was he thinking? Has anyone had a run in with the food police recently?

I'll start with a positive thought: Perhaps he was trying to be supportive. Like a bartender refusing to serve an known alcoholic a beer, or something like that.

Ok, now for my food police thoughts: UG!!!! I despise the food police. They should mind their own business and let you eat, or not eat, in peace! I hate to say it, but it only gets WORSE!!!!!!!

I shall now end in positivity: I like your cartoon!!!

Holy. Crap.

Ok, I'll be generous and assume he thought he was being cute. Or maybe helpful. But he was soooo out of line. Wow.

that is really Really REALLY out of line!! especially for an owner who, I assume, would like to NOT run off current customers...and secondly, reason #4892 why I do not tell my weight loss stats to anyone except my DH and sometimes my sister...ughhh

the fact that he is chatting up means you guys have exchanged more than pleasantries! so he is definitely being friendly and supportive!! I wouldn't worry too much about it, Lunar!! Take it in good stride. He's just being overly helpful I would thank him for being so supportive !!

This^^

I just can't believe that he was truly serious.... I mean did you actually insist on buying a piece of this cake and he flat out told you "NO!!!" because I just find that hard to believe...

I'm glad that most other people aren't overly helpful. LOL. I'd have to put them in their place.

I actually did have a guy on a first date ask me if I really should be eating a licorice rope at a baseball game. Ha. I didn't marry him.

TripSwitch, I didn't really insist, because I didn't want lemon cake, but I did ask him, '"But what if I REALLY wanted it?" and he continued on with his, "You can dream about tasting it...and think about finishing it....blah blah blah." It was really quite a strange interaction.

He might have been trying to be helpful or even supportive, but that still would have made me mad. It just doesn't seem like an appropriate comment for a business owner to be making.

It reminded me of this comic:


He said that I was looking quite sexy. Maybe he wanted to try to keep me that way.

And I agree, Katie. I'm not friends with this business owners. He knows who I am. That's it. I'm a girl that works across the street from his establishment.

^^ Agreed

No business really has the right to refuse to sell food to a customer (assuming that customer is acting in a "normal" manner)

Sounds like maybe it could have been some sort of akward social or cultural disconnect on his part... Maybe?.... IDK...

He was being a paternalistic jerk even if he was joking.

Yeah- even if he was joking...and I actually wanted the cake, I would feel pretty bad about trying to get it. He would have jokingly shamed me into feeling awful. But who am I kidding? I would have gone somewhere else for dessert then.

Was he French? My dad immigrated from France, and I briefly lived there as a child. My experience has been that the French are more liberal with such comments, usually in a "trying to help" kind of way. By American standards my dad was a total @ss about my weight, but by French standards he was just trying to help out. Hard to say for sure, but I would chalk it up to cultural disconnect...if he was a Froggie.