Restaurants in This Swanky French Town Are Reportedly Requiring Diners to Spend a Minimum of $5,000 Just to Get a Reservation

One way to say "swanky" in French is "Saint-Tropez." You know, the top-shelf vacation destination on the French Riviera that's a long-time fave of A-listers like Jay-Z, Beyonce, and Leonardo DiCaprio. Saint-Tropez is the home of the luxe Nikki Beach Club — the kind of poolscape where you can choose from over a dozen different Champagnes  — along with some of the most expensive real estate in France, and even a new Louis Vuitton café. It's such a luxe place that some visitors are reporting being denied tables at its upscale restaurants because they can't guarantee a $5,000 minimum spend. 

"When booking, you're told: 'We have a table at €5,000 ($5,441), is that okay?'" one would-be diner told the local Var-Matin newspaper. "If it's not, well, there are no more tables." 

If you can't (or won't) tell the restaurant that you'll drop several thousand on a single dinner, then some eateries shrug and say they're sorry, but no reservations are available until sometime in September. Additional customers have reported that other restaurants are keeping records on their previous guests — including how much they've spent on food and drinks — and are basing their availability on what's in their files.

And, in perhaps the summer's most shocking incident, another diner said that his friend was literally chased into the restaurant's parking lot because staffers said that his €500 ($541) tip wasn't adequate. The Nice-Matin newspaper reports that he was instructed to return to the restaurant to pay another €500. "The waiter told him that [the original tip] wasn't enough and that he could still make a small effort to reach  €1,000 ($1,083) because it was more consistent in approaching 20 percent of the total amount of his bill."

As outlandish as these stories sound, the mayor of Saint-Tropez says that none of them are inaccurate. "These accusations are extremely shocking to me because they are unfortunately true," Sylvie Siri told reporters, adding that these "despicable practices" are "ruining the town's image." 

Siri says that any restaurant that is found to be guilty of "extortion and organized racketeering" — especially if they're among the locations that are stiff-arming patrons into paying high tips or keeping customer databases — could be in danger of losing their late-night operating licenses. 

The Guardian additionally reported, more than 1,000 stickers have been handed out in Saint-Tropez to remind both tourists and local residents to contact the town hall and the consumer fraud service if they'd been swindled, intimidated, or otherwise ripped off by a restaurant. 

"These practices are odious for the resort, and therefore for our clientele, but also for local people," she said. "We have already been driven out of our homes, and pretty soon we'll be driven out of our restaurants too, unable to dine out."