Update: Angelo Mazzone has apologized for the incident, saying, in part:


In the heat of the moment, during the hustle and bustle of opening a new restaurant, we made a decision that was wrong – plain and simple. … I take full responsibility for my decision and would like to extend my sincere personal apologies to Jean Claude Simille, our loyal guests and all those offended by my actions.

Earlier update: This post has been revised to reflect an interview with Rumors co-owner Marri Aviza. I left a voicemail on her cellphone before publishing the original version three hours ago, but she said she did not receive it.

Salon owner Jean Claude Simille, who owns three Jean Paul Spa & Salon locations in the Capital Region, was asked to leave the new Tala American Bistro in Latham on Friday (4/26) and was told he was banned from the restaurant because of bad blood between him and the owners of Rumors Salon & Spa and Rumors IV Men. Tala, which leases space on the north side of the 12,000-square-foot Rumors building at 626 New Loudon Road (Route 9), was serving food and drink during a soft opening last week and officially opens today.

Restaurateur Angelo Mazzone, who co-owns Tala with partners Leah and Tom Tyrrell, told me that that Simille, who was quietly eating and not misbehaving, was asked to leave and never return. Mazzone said he is not clear on the source of the business-related acrimony between the salon owners and referred questions to Aviza.

Aviza told me that last week’s soft opening was for Rumors’ customers, staff, friends and family only and that Simille was asked to leave because he had done the equivalent of crashing a private party. She said he refused Leah Tyrrell’s request to depart. While the request was made on Aviza’s behalf, neither she nor her business partner, Lisa Norgrove, were at Tala or the salon at the time. From the various sides of the story I’ve heard, Tyrrell believed Simille’s presence would upset the Rumors owners. The only direct representative of Rumors to tell Simille that he should leave was the salon’s attorney, who was at Tala at the time, Aviza said.

“We’re in the hospitality business. We cater to people,” Aviza said. However, she said of Simille, “He was somewhere he didn’t belong and wouldn’t leave when he was asked to.” However, a large sign on the building last week read “NOW OPEN,” invitations were not required and other diners at Tala on Friday night report making reservations despite no connection to Rumors.

Simille said he was was unaware that the soft opening was considered a private event, that he was not asked for an invitation and that his drink and food orders were taken without question. He said he didn’t refuse to leave but instead asked why he was being thrown out and banned. When Simille was told he wouldn’t be served the entrée he and his dining companion had planned to share — they’d already finished an appetizer — they left, he said. Their check was comped, he said.

In November, Simille opened his third Jean Paul Spa & Salon in Newton Plaza, just down the road from Rumors. Before the move to its new building last summer, Rumors was located in the Newton Plaza space taken over by Simille’s spa.

Read more here  http://blog.timesunion.com/tablehopping/37438/salon-owner-banned-from-new-mazzone-restaurant/

Makes me wonder if the demoCRAPS tell him to kick me out of his restaurant after I have my salad, if he will or not. I am sure he doesnt want to piss those people off either.


bad policy/bad PR

I read through all the comments, and it appears that both salon owners may be petty and vindictive.

Not for certain, but if the FB post of it being a soft open for a week, with only Rumors employees are true, it doesn't speak well of the "victim".

That being said, for someone with as much business savvy as Mazzone, he sure screwed this one up.

I could probably name 3-4 ways to have handled this better...

Look, the place is a restaurant and it is in the same building as a salon. If the place is open to the public then be open to the public, not just the public who the landlady likes. If the guy was disruptive and drunk or unruly or swearing, or his date was a crack-ho with a see thru dress, then fine- boot his butt, but why ask for bad publicity?! It is super common for a restaurant owner to dine at his competition to "spy" on the place and see how the service, food etc is. Don't you think Neil Golub shops at Wegmans every time he is in Syracuse or Western NY? Do you imagine Buger Thing sends its people to MickeyD's???

That is business- you open up for all comers. Do I think that a place reserves the LEGAL RIGHT TO KICK SOMEONE OUT? YES< YES YES ALL DAY LONG.

But the PR of it all...crap!
I read the comments too tonight, and since I don't have a dog in the fight (there sure seems to BE a fight) I recall a post that said something like "The salon lady should have said that the joint was so good even her competitor goes there" and I thought "BINGO" that is the take to have. Mazzone should have calmed her down and explained how bad it would look, but I guess the path of least resistance for him was to boot the other dude out. Not smart. And as I said above, maybe I go to his place in Glen Sanders and the Capo sees me and demands he kick me out. He can't afford to alienate the Capo and the democraps either, so I better not waste my time going there is I may get the boot if someone who hates me disapproves of my presence. There are plenty of places I am probably not welcomed due to my disdain for the dicatatorship, and until now, I never thought I might be unwelcome in one of Angelo's places. But I really wonder now, honestly. Because if he booted me and my wife out, there would be no media firestorm.

According to many, there was an OPEN sign on the building and others were dining there. Would everyone driving by and deciding to go in have seen facebook? The guy might be a jerk, but who has people thrown out of other people's restaurants because they don't like them? And what kind of self-important dumbbell would carry out such a request? And what adult thinks it's acceptable behavior to have FEUDS and ENEMIES? My God, the woman trashed her own reputation and she still doesn't get it. Ugh. I felt like I needed a bath after reading about these lowlifes.

and of course according to the story- they had a LAWYER throw his weight around. Probably told him about the legal ramifications and threatened that he would be arrested with trespass. Jesus Christ, makes my skin crawl. Makes me look at Angelo in a new light. Maybe he should take the name "A-jello" from Satanbarabus.

from what i have been told there is an 'issue' between both salon owners.

from what i have been told they have BOTH had a hand at flexing their muscles to influence  a 'third party' business.

My opinion........shame on the 'third party' businesses that got involved!

OMFG!!! A REALITY SHOW IN THE MAKING.....kind of like the wives of Orange County.....

what pathetic slobs they are....puke puke puke

if you are from Rotterdam....that's the mindset ........third party that is.......

None of Mazzone's restaurants are worth going to anyway IMHO.  Lots of other restaurants have better food and better service.

bottom line is that Mazz shouldn't have gotten in the middle of this. Shoulda just stayed neutral.

bt, I think you are right. The restaurant owner is the one who is going to pay the price for this, and it wasn't his fight to begin with.

http://blog.timesunion.com/tablehopping/37536/da-uses-issues-cafe-ban-in-battle-with-blogger/

Now the DA orders people tp boycott a business

slippey slippey down the slope

That DA hired his girlfriend to work in his office and called it his "personal" life. Albany is so far away from being able to separate law and government from politics they make Schenectady look good. We aren't on the slope any more we are at the bottom.

"Simille said he was was unaware that the soft opening was considered a private event, that he was not asked for an invitation and that his drink and food orders were taken without question."

That is the interesting part -- instead of just politely saying something BEFORE the order was taken --- they sat him at a table, apparently gave him a menu, gave him time to look over it and actually took his order.

Something like this would never happen at one of the MANY better restaurants in the Capital District.