Restaurant Business Owner Business Alert - Pearl Cafe - Serviced or Scammed?
Florissant, MO (StLouisRestaurantReview) We work with many restaurants and witness, especially the ethnic restaurants, are commonly taken advantage of by dishonest service providers because they see an opportunity to make money by the owners' trust and lack of ability to properly understand things fluently.
We take a stand to protect all restaurant owners, but many ethnic restaurants need additional TLC due to translation. Therefore, we have issued the following alert and ask for feedback.
Parties to the Situation:
Advanced Safety & Fire Safety, LLC d.b.a. Frank Bahr
1947 Lunenburg Drive
St. Peters, MO 63376
Phone: 314-283-3624
Pearl Cafe
8416 N Lindbergh Blvd
Florissant, MO 63031
Phone: (314) 831-3701
Thai Kitchen
8458 N Lindbergh Blvd
Florissant, MO 63031
Phone: (314) 695-5039
Circumstances of the Alert:
On September 15, 2023, a representative of Frank Bahr, or Frank Bahr himself, entered the kitchen of Pearl Cafe and talked to an employee, saying he had been requested to service the fire extinguishers and issue new inspection tags.
The owner was absent; therefore, without knowledge of the situation, the employee allowed the representative access to perform the inspection. After completing the service, the employee issued a check for $250.00.
However, the owner, Scott, did not request the service. The service ticket was for Thai Kitchen, located at 8458 N Lindbergh Blvd, while Pearl, Cacated at 8416 N Lindbergh. Frank Bahr said that he was given the wrong address and accidentally went to Pearl Cafe rather than Thai Kitchen.
When the owner of Pearl Cafe returned, he discovered the situation. He called Frank Bahr and asked about the situation. Frank Bahr admitted to the mistake but has taken the position that the needed in need of service and was out of date, which according to the owner of Pearl Cafe, was not true. Scott provided us with pictures of the old, which were not outdated.
Frank Bahr represented that he would issue a refund to Pearl Cafe, but to date, no refund has been issued.
The owner of Pearl Cafe reached out to us, asking what could be done. For Scott, it's not about the; item; it is a matter of principle. $250 is not enough to get the attention of the police and is too small to file a lawsuit.
We called Frank Bahr on Friday, September 29, 2023, to discuss the situation with Frank Bahr. We conducted a professional discussion, and it is evident that Bahr was not willing to resolve the resolution with anybody; he told us the same things he told Scott, that he would go by and take care of it, but was not willing to give a date.
We assured Bahr that we wanted a peaceful resolution. He claimed that it was a mistake and that Scott was overreacting and needed to calm down. Again, he had told Scott that he would come by but always failed to show up. Additionally, we asked him if he would give us a time to would resolve this. He responded, "I'm not jumping through hoops now that you called."
One perspective is that it was a mistake and that Bahr will resolve the issue. However, the facts do not support that. In fact, as of now, the facts are that this appears to be a scam.
Are there other victims of this situation? We would like to know if other business owners, especially ethnic restaurant owners, have been a victim of a similar situation by Bahr. Please get in touch with us, and we will keep the information anonymous if requested.
Summary
Both restaurants are Thai restaurants, but the names are not similar, and they are several doors apart.
We verified with the owners of Thai Kitchen that they had requested the service; they confirmed that the service request was accurate and that they had received the service.
Bahrs' explanations about how the mistake occurred do not make sense, and he has displayed any effort to resolve the situation after making multiple promises.
Verification of information:
We have received copies of the following from Pearl Cafe:
- Copy of Frank Bahr Service Ticket
- Pictures from Pearl Cafe's security camera show the representative, who we believe to be Frank Bahr.
- We discussed the service request with the owners of Thai Kitchen.
- Professional discussion with Bahr.
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