Low Road Cafe owner defends insulting customer on Facebook

A Brisbane cafe owner who found herself at the centre of a heated row with a customer after an unfavourable review has hit back.

Earlier this week, customer Kylie Lindsay left a one-star Google review about Windsor’s Low Road Cafe for not having highchairs to use for her 15-month-old-son.

In a series of back and forth comments, which were shared by the Queensland mum on her Facebook page, the cafe owners branded her an “arsehole”.

The owners have since taken to their own Facebook to explain the struggles they face as a small business, particularly the power of negative reviews.

In a lengthy post, owner Naomi took aim at negative customers who had complained about the business in the past.

“I want to talk about power, and the way it is wielded by people that don’t like what you do and want you to GOD DAMN PAY FOR IT,” she wrote in the post which has been liked 2000 times.

“That kind of power can be so incredibly damaging and hurtful for a small business. It’s unregulated and impossible to remove. You literally wait on the kindness of strangers to rectify your ratings.”

Ms Lindsay said she initially received a “quirky but OK” response from the cafe when “politely” commenting on their page she was disappointed they didn’t have highchairs — but then said she was “attacked unmercifully” and called a “racist” and an “arsehole” when she sent another response.

In her post, Naomi said the cafe chose to use social media to send a message that “we won’t be bullied or intimidated by bullies who underestimate us”.

“Sure, it’s unprofessional — but have you MET us? And if some folk think we’re damaging our brand, to that I say at least it’s us who gets to do it, not some entitled ding-dong who storms out because we don’t have airconditioning or stock newspapers.”

The Windsor cafe owner concluded by thanking the community for its support after the backlash over the public row with the mother.

“So we try and take back the power. And we feel like it works for us. And do you want to know what that looks like?” Naomi said.

“It’s countless messages of support flooding our page and our inbox. It’s the beautiful family that don’t know us but drove all the way to Windsor to tell us they care.

“It’s the knowledge that despite the utter sledging we are getting, we have some control.”

WHAT HAPPENED BETWEEN THE CAFE AND THE MOTHER

Kylie Lindsay went for breakfast with her partner Luke and 15-month-old son to Windsor’s popular Low Road Cafe, but was told the business didn’t offer highchairs.

She left a one-star review and said when she “politely commented” on their business page that she was disappointed they didn’t have highchairs, “I was subjected to name calling and told it was my loss.”

“You are an arsehole, and when questioned you deleted all of your comments,” the cafe wrote in response to Ms Lindsay’s feedback on Facebook.

Ms Lindsay told The Courier-Mail: “They went to town on me and even complete strangers who dared to stick up for me.”

The cafe owners told Ms Lindsay in their original response they didn’t have highchairs because they were a hazard in their small cafe.

Ms Lindsay said she shared the cafe’s explanation about the lack of highchairs to an online parenting group as an “FYI to mums as I’d not come across a cafe … that didn’t have a high chair”.

A few days later the cafe also hit back at Ms Lindsay on Google, saying “thanks for your 4,900,000th opinion on the matter”.

“You’ve been kicking off on all sorts of social media trying to discredit us because you didn’t get your way, and now you’re here,” the cafe wrote.

“We don’t have highchairs. We explained why. We are parents ourselves. Please, for the love of God, have a glass of wine and pop some kind of nurturing essential oil in your diffuser and leave us alone.”

News.com.au reached out to the cafe owners, but a staff member said the couple had taken some time off.

Speaking to The Courier-Mail earlier, owner Naomi, who didn’t want to share her surname, said she felt she had responded to Ms Lindsay’s initial review appropriately — and everything she did was “tongue in cheek”.

Many have since come to the cafe’s defence, with one person responding to their most recent post, saying: “The Low Road Cafe is a fantastic place … but it’s not just a cafe. They have built a strong community around them and do much to support a variety of worthy causes which benefit disadvantaged men, women and children in their local community. Make no mistake, these are good humans and the world needs more like them.”

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