MANSFIELD, Texas, April 26 (UPI) — A Texas restaurant said an attorney is demanding $2.25 plus $250 in fees after the eatery ran out of the soup listed as part of a Saturday special.
The Our Place Restaurant in Mansfield posted photos to Facebook of a letter dated April 18 and bearing the signature and letterhead of attorney Dwain Downing.
Downing wrote he ordered the Saturday special April 16 and he received his entree and two sides, but was told the eatery was out of soup.
The lawyer said his server and the on-site manager said it was against the owner’s policy to offer any substitutions or a price reduction for the soup-less special.
“The menu is an offer for a contract by you,” the letter states. “I accepted the offer. This action by you and I created a binding contract which is legally enforceable in a court of law. You then breached the contract by not providing the soup as promised by you on the menu.”
The letter accuses the restaurant of “deceptive trade practice” and threatens higher damages if the case goes to court.
Downing’s letter demands a $2.25 discount for the soup as well as $250 in attorney’s fees.
“In addition,” Downing’s letter reads, “I demand that you change your policy and if you don’t have an item, either offer a substitute side or a reduction in price.”
Benji Arslanovski, the restaurant’s owner, said Downing will be receiving a response from his lawyer.
The owner said he will not pay.
“I’ll take it to court,” he told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
“Isn’t it amazing?” Arslanovski said. “This could have been solved with a simple phone call, and he could have come by and gotten a free cup of soup.”
Downing said he firmly believes the restaurant’s refusal to give a discount for the missing soup “was a wrong and deceptive practice.”
“I don’t want to make a big deal of this,” Downing said.
The restaurant said on its Facebook page that it is holding a food drive inspired by Downing’s letter.
