With reference to the article of a couple being thrown out of CUBANA, I can literally associate with the most barbaric behavior of some of the staff at Cubana.

On Sunday, 19 February 2012, my girlfriend and I went to Cubana in Cedar Square, Fourways to have dinner. After a long hot afternoon drive, we decided to go to Cubana to have dinner as we didn’t feel like cooking.

In that hot humid evening, I decided to put my linen pants and Roman thong sandals, as it was hot to put on shoes. To my surprise when we got to the door, I was told that I couldn’t come in because I wasn’t wearing proper shoes.

Now, this I found very strange. I'm a regular at Cubana. Whenever my colleagues and I would want to meet for business discussions, we would do it at Cubana.

Whenever either my girlfriend or myself would celebrate our birthdays, we would do it at Cubana. And now just because it was hot and I didn’t want to wear shoes, I was not allowed excess entrance.

What I found more appalling was when I asked to speak to the manager, he was more rude and arrogant than the waiters and the bouncers at the door. He told us that, he wouldn’t let us in and if we wanted to eat, we should go and sit outside and they will serve us from there.

This was quite amusing because the place was completely empty and there were a few scattered people in the restaurant.

I then asked him, why is there no notification of what the dress code is written anywhere in the restaurant, and I asked him why are they being prejudiced against men wearing decent sandals and would let a woman in wearing scrappy flops in the restaurant.

To my shock of which is something that I could have completely lost it, this guy rudely asked me if I was a woman or a man??? Now, if kicking somebody’s teeth out wasn’t a crime, I  would have beat that guy to a pulp, unfortunately being a professional that I am, I had to manage the situation not to get out of hand.

 There had been times whereby we would spend so much money at Cubana, a bill would come to a minimum of R2500 and we would include a 10% tip for our waiter, and now my money wasn’t good enough for them because I wasn’t wearing right type of shoes.

And what I find even more amazing, the restaurant has got a Cuban theme all around it. Apart from the military attire and cigars, Cubans pride themselves about wearing their sandals, and yet men cannot wear sandals in a Cuban restaurant.

The lack of etiquette and people skills that that manager showed me, leaves a lot to be desired. One thing that I told them was, its not like they are doing us a favor by letting us come to their facility.

Instead, they should know that, without our huge bills and tips that we settle, they wouldn’t be getting paid a salary. What the incident highlighted was, franchise owners can take any Tom, Dick and Harry, without any people’s skills whatsoever to run their business.