Gary Neville’s man on the pans threatens to use footballer’s ‘3.2 million followers’ to bring down restaurant business
We see Michael O’Hare, the Michelin starred chef behind Gary Neville’s Rabbit in the Moon restaurant in Manchester and The Man Behind The Curtain in Leeds, has been causing more bother, following his recent run-in with the city’s bartenders.
In an email leaked to Confidential – reprinted below in full - the chef appears, during a dispute over terms, to not only brand a supplier ‘childish’ and ‘unprofessional’ for refusing his demands, but also a ‘dick’ for discontinuing a contract.
During an unsavoury exchange, O’Hare - who is due to open two more restaurants in Manchester as the creative director of Neville’s GG Hospitality - threatens to use his ‘big voice and influence’ within the industry, plus that of his boss, to make the Glasgow-based online reservations business, ResDiary, ‘suffer’.
Addressing the firm’s boss, Mike Conyers, directly, O’Hare writes: ‘…30k followers on my twitter account, 13.5k on the restaurants Facebook account, and my business partner Gary Neville has 3.2million. So you can be sure these frustrations will be heard…’
The email in full:
Dear Mike Conyers,
I find your stance on this incredibly childish and unprofessional, I see that because we are not happy with your service you wish to make our business suffer for this. Looking through our agreement I am sure you are well within your rights to do this.
If that is a route you are looking to pursue I can guarantee that I will happily go public about my problems and frustrations with res diary, I will simultaneously promote our new booking system tock to encourage other restaurateurs to make the switch.
I will keep it factual, I know the majority of my customers are frustrated by our booking platform and the hospitality industry is very close knit and I have a very big voice and influence within it. 30k followers on my twitter account 13.5k on the restaurants Facebook account and my business partner Gary Neville has 3.2million. So you can be sure these frustrations will be heard and your companies reputation will suffer.
We also have another restaurant (The Rabbit In The Moon) that we are happy to keep on res diary. However I will pull it off and you will lose both accounts if you continue to be a dick about it.
Alternatively you could allow us to continue on res diary until the 20th may 2017 and I will keep your name and the res diary name out of my mouth and we will end this business relationship like gentlemen and with decorum. Please let me know if you are happy to continue our contract until the 20th may as requested.
Regards,
Michael O'Hare
It’s an embarrassing leak for the chef and his boss, who will today headline a hospitality debate at the Northern Restaurant and Bar show in Manchester Central. Not only because the exchange exhibits a shocking and all too familiar attitude towards restaurant suppliers, or because his puerile threats of social media exposure echo those of the much-maligned freebie-hunter, but also because the chef appears to be completely unaware of the irony in labelling Conyer’s ‘childish’ whilst threatening to have a bigger boy, in this case Neville, do him in.
In reply to O’Hare’s email, the ResDiary boss writes: ‘Thanks for your mail – your comments and threats are noted… I have always admired Gary Neville as a player and as a human being and I would be surprised if he would endorse your behaviour.’
O’Hare’s response: ‘…with regards to Gary endorsing my behaviour, feel free to ask him, he is well aware of the situation… I have nothing to hide where this is concerned.’
We doubt that is the case.
This latest revelation promises to do little to help the Middlesbrough-born chef’s already wavering popularity in the city, following a mixed reception to Rabbit in the Moon and reported bust-ups over the launch of their next project in the old Stock on Norfolk Street.
