Serena Williams has criticised a Michelin-starred restaurant in Paris, alleging that she was not allowed to enter with her children. The Olympian said she and her family were not permitted to enter The Peninsula's rooftop restaurant, L'Oiseau Blanc, in a post published on X (formerly Twitter). Ms Williams wrote in the post that she had never been refused entry while her family was there.
"Yikes @peninsulaparis I've been denied access to the rooftop to eat in a empty restaurant of nicer places but never with my kids. Always a first. #Olympic2024," she said on the microblogging website.
Maxime Mannevy, a staff member at the Peninsula's rooftop restaurant, told Variety that Ms Williams appeared "unrecognizable" when she arrived pushing a stroller alongside another lady. "When she came there were only two tables available and they had been reserved by clients of the hotel," she said, adding that she was not working when Ms Williams visited the restaurant.
"My colleague didn't recognize her and feels terrible, but he told her what he would have told any other client, which is to wait downstairs in the bar for a table to become available. That was absolutely nothing personal."
The restaurant reacted to the Grand Slam champion's claim, with employees reiterating their reasons for turning away Ms Williams and her children from a table. "In response to Ms Williams' tweet, for whom we have the utmost admiration and respect, as we do for all our esteemed guests, we reiterate our deepest apologies that we were not able to offer her a table at our rooftop bar when she arrived with her family and without a reservation," the hotel said in a statement to the New York Post.
They said, "We do always try to make space for walk-in guests but sometimes this is not possible."
"On August 5th, our rooftop bar was indeed fully booked, and the only unoccupied tables at that time belonged to our gourmet restaurant, L'Oiseau Blanc, which was also fully reserved. As an alternative, Ms Williams was offered an outside table downstairs at the hotel's La Terrasse Kléber. We have always been honored to welcome you and will always be to welcome you again," the statement added.
The 23-time Grand Slam champion initially came to Paris in late July, just in time for the "unforgettable" Olympic opening ceremony, which she attended as a torch bearer. Along with fellow tennis champion Rafael Nadal, nine-time medallist Carl Lewis, French greats Zinedine Zidane, Teddy Riner, Marie-Jose Perec, and Tony Parker, Ms Williams joined a long tradition of athletes carrying the torch. She has also won four Olympic gold medals over the course of her career.
