A pub refused to serve a five-year-old girl apple juice in a champagne flute on New Years Eve – with the manager telling her parents ‘it could encourage her to drink alcohol’ and was ‘not a good look’.
Celebrity doctor Renée Hoenderkamp, 56, was at the Old Bull and Bush in Hampstead, north London, with her partner, 62, at 7pm on New Year’s Eve when the manager judged that he knew better how to parent her child, she said.
She told it showed how people are ‘moving more and more into this nanny state where people can’t be trusted to make their own decisions’.
Dr Hoenderkamp said she and her partner have seven children between them who have all grown up fine under their guidance.
She said they taught their other children in a ‘Mediterranean’ style, showing them alcohol was not taboo so they would grow up understanding it and not have the urge to go on wild booze-fuelled nights out when they grew up.
This year, the couple hoped to include their daughter Alice, five, in the New Year’s celebrations with a glass of Appletiser in a champagne flute but were stopped by ‘judgemental’ pub staff.
Celebrity doctor Renée Hoenderkamp, 56, (pictured) said she was shocked the manager of the Old Bull and Bush in Hampstead judged that he knew better how to parent her child
The pub’s manager claimed that giving Dr Hoenderkamp’s daughter apple juice in a champagne flute could encourage the five-year-old to start drinking
The manager also suggested ‘it’s not a good look for the pub’. The company that runs the pub said it supported his actions
The NHS doctor said: ‘It’s a local pub. We went to the restaurant part of it at 7 o’clock on New Year’s Eve.
‘They were very grumpy from the start.’
Dr Hoenderkamp and her partner ordered a glass of wine each and asked for a champagne flute filled with Appletiser for their five-year-old daughter Alice.
Although the waitress said it was fine, she returned with her manager and served the five-year-old’s drink in a ‘whisky tumbler’.
The manager told the bewildered parents that putting it in a champagne flute ‘could encourage her to drink alcohol’ and ‘it’s not a good look for the pub’.
He even removed an empty wine glass on the table so the parents couldn’t pour the apple juice in there themselves.
Although the waitress said it was fine to serve the Appletiser in a champagne flute, she returned with her manager and served the five-year-old’s drink in a ‘whisky tumbler’
The manager even removed an empty wine glass on the table so the parents couldn’t pour the apple juice in there themselves
Dr Hoenderkamp, who is also a Daily Mail writer, said she was infuriated but at the time ‘left it because I didn’t want a scene’.
She said: ‘I did a complaint that night.
‘[They] were making a judgement call about my child.
‘We are brilliant parents. She’s very adult.
‘It was a judgement call that they knew better than us.
‘They gave her a whisky tumbler, which is much heavier than a champagne [flute].
‘They didn’t give her a beaker.
‘We are moving more and more into this nanny state where people can’t be trusted to make their own decisions.
‘We know how to parent.
‘It’s a really dark place we are going to.
‘We are getting to the point where people won’t be trusted to do anything.’
The fancy pub borders Hampstead Heath, a large park in one of London’s wealthiest suburbs
Dr Hoenderkamp said the decision made ‘no sense’ and that she may never return to The Old Bull and Bush
Dr Hoenderkamp said her evening showed what was ‘wrong with society’.
She added: ‘We are the only parents in the restaurant (with kids at 50 per cent of tables) who are actually interacting with ours, the rest are planted in front of screens whilst the adults drink their champagne.
‘We are quite able to make our own sensible decisions for our child re[garding] her alcoholic intake (we were asking for her apple juice in a glass, not actual champagne).
‘I am sick of this nanny state where a manager in a restaurant feels that they can parent our child and pass judgement on our requests.
‘We need to let parents parent AND parents need to actually parent.’
She said the decision made ‘no sense’ and that she may never return to The Old Bull and Bush, which borders Hampstead Heath, a large park in one of London’s wealthiest suburbs.
The infuriated NHS doctor expressed her outrage at the controversial decision and said it summarised ‘what’s wrong with society’. She told it was a sign Britain is becoming a ‘nanny state where people can’t be trusted to make their own decisions’
The pub is part of Premium Country Pubs, a brand of the company Mitchells and Butlers, which confirmed the story was true and said it couldn’t serve apple juice in a champagne flute because they were ‘responsible’.
It said it instead served drinks in smaller glasses with a wider base to make them easier for youngsters to hold.
They refuted that the glasses were ‘whiskey tumblers’ but said they were are plain, small glasses with a wider base and, as a result, less likely to spill or break.
They said they were used rather than taller thin glasses as they are more manageable for children.
A spokesman for the company said: ‘As a responsible retailer of alcohol, we do not allow the sale of alcohol-free beer, lagers or ciders to people under the age of 18, or drinks that could perceived by our team or other guests to contain alcohol, for example a fizzy drink in a champagne flute.
‘Our position was explained to the guest at the time and, it appeared to have been accepted without question. No complaint was raised at the venue.
‘We were therefore surprised to subsequently receive a complaint via our Guest Care Team which will, as is normal policy, be responded to within three working days.’
Staff at The Old Bull and Bush pub refused to comment but said they agreed with the Mitchells and Butlers spokesman.