I’m always looking for a good restaurant to go to in Owen Sound, and based on reviews at another site Nathaniel’s sounds like a top-notch place.

Regarding the shaved-head waitress, and pace Arglebargle’s emotional Twinkie response below, the lady was not fired, and more to the point the owners have every right to run their business as they see fit. Whether it’s good PR is another issue, but quite frankly I’m getting tired of adults behaving like spoiled children. Her employers gave her advance noticed of their displeasure with the head-shaving idea, but she went ahead with it anyway and expected her rights to trample theirs.

An adult either would have given up the head-shaving idea and stayed with the restaurant, or would have stuck to their convictions and would have voluntarily terminated their employment in recognition of the employer’s right to their own views on the matter.

They fired a waiter because she shaved her head, raising 2700$ for a cancer charity.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/
20080605/cancer_fired_080605/20080605?hub=TopStories

You should not want to eat here after reading about how Stacey Fearnall was laid off just because she participated in a charity event (she looks fine anyways). Regardless of why she is bald (what if she HAD cancer), they had zero right to fire her.

Wow, talk about a pathetic excuse for a restaurant. Spitefull chef (let’s hope ALL he did was char the steak. Eeww!), and an owner who FIRES a young mother because he doesn’t like her haircut. I wouldn’t be caught dead in a dive like this.

The owner/chef of this restaurant seems to have reached an all time low by firing a waitress b/c she bravely raised money for cancer by shaving her hair. She should have been applauded instead of thrown out with the trash…..well we all know who the trash is now! You couldn’t pay me to go back to this restaurant.

Thu Jun 5, 2008 – 9:49 PM

TORONTO (CBC) – A 36-year-old waitress at an Owen Sound, Ont., restaurant lost her job this week after she shaved her head to raise money for a cancer charity.

Stacey Fearnall raised more than $2,700 for the charity Cops for Cancer, a local fundraiser for cancer research.

Then the 36-year-old waitress at Nathaniels restaurant was laid off when she showed up for work earlier this week with her newly shorn look.

Up until a week ago, Fearnall had long red locks, but she said she made the decision to have her head shaved because she has a friend battling cancer and she lost her father to the disease.

“I felt like this was a pretty easy thing for me to do to raise money to help people,” she told CBC News on Thursday.

She said she told her bosses what she was planning to do, but when she arrived at work at the restaurant practically bald, she said they sent her home and told her she wasn’t welcome back.

“’We’ll call it a layoff.’ That’s what he said,” Fearnall said her boss told her. “‘Spend the summer with your kids.’ I call it losing my job.”

Nathaniels owner and chef Dan Hilliard issued a statement late Thursday saying Fearnall did not advise him that she was planning to shave her head.

“Mr. Hilliard had indicated that this is an employer-employee matter and such matters are not to be dealt with in the public,” the statement said.

Her dismissal has already provoked an outcry from some in the community.

“You have to express yourself with your wallet,” George Brechin said. “I won’t be eating there in the future.”

’It’s not hurting anybody’

Rowena Pinto, spokeswoman for the Canadian Cancer Society, told CBC News her organization has never heard of something like this happening before in relation to any of its fundraising events.

“We want to underline that it’s supporters like Stacey that enable us to carry out our mission,” Pinto said.

Fearnall might have grounds to sue on the basis of gender discrimination, said Barbara Hall, chief commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission. Hall noted that bald men work at restaurants.

“If something were acceptable if done by a man but not by a woman, then there might be a basis for a complaint,” she told CBC News.

Fearnall said she isn’t sure if she wants to sue, but she doesn’t think she did anything wrong.

“I think it’s for a good cause,” she said. “It’s not hurting anybody and it doesn’t affect my ability to work.”

She said she is working at a new part-time job where her boss loves her new look and has offered her extra shifts.

Ref: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/cbc/080605/canada/canada_shaved_head

I’ve been given rave reviews of this resturaunt. It fell short. All I can say is that I went with a large group and with drinks etc it was about $75-125 per person.

The orders were wrong. Meat too undercooked, too well cooked, allergens included, special requests ignored – this was not the fault of the wait staff. It was actually ignored by the chef who was rude when we spoke with him!

And it to top it off the chef on duty was spiteful. Meat that was ordered medium came out bloody rare and had to be sent back. It was returned charred black! We were stunned. There were many other problems, but sufice to say our $2000+ was wasted there!

The only nice thing was the decor and the wait staff. The decor was nice, and gave a relaxed atmosphere. The waitresses wonderful!

It’s just such an expensive shame and disappointed to have a resturaunt hyped up so much and to have it be such a HUGE disappointment.

Maybe they were having an off night? I don’t know. All I know is save your money, do your research and GO SOME WHERE ELSE TO EAT!

We ended up tipping the staff heavily because we felt so badly for how poorly they were treated by the proprietor.

Shame on the owners/management of this restaurant! Would they also layoff one of their waiters/waitresses if they had to undergo chemo treatments and lost their hair? Woiuld they tell them to come back once they grew it back or wear a wif in the meantime? Obviously this has back-fired big time on them. It’s called karma! For shame!

As I’ve seen suggested elsewhere, they can try to make it up by the owners shaving their own heads for the same charity and donating the same or more amount of money that this waitress raised by her kind actions and making a public apology for their stupid decision!

To Whom it MAY Concern:

I think its a shame to do this to Lady who cares about others especially people suffering so much.

Please do the right thing and layoff her with pay till her hair grows back if that upsets customers, at least her would not get in the food.

Nathaniel’s restaurant was closed Thursday evening, the day the upscale Owen Sound eatery made headlines and newscasts across the country after

waitress Stacey Fearnall was laid off for shaving her head in a Cops forCancer fundraiser.

There are always two side so heres what staff are saying.

"Staff members said the owners are generous people who support numerous charities and always help their employees when needed.

“The character of these people is not mentioned,” said server Matt Daciw."

Bob Mah

I would NEVER support a restaurant who did what they did. I hope your dump in boycotted, and you go OUT of business.
I hope that she sues you for discrimination. Any of your MALE employees bald by chance?

As a surviving cancer patient, I am so glad and thankful that someone stepped up and helped out. To punish someone instead of praising them for some elitist standards is the height of hypocrisy. A person serving the public uncaring of the human condition. Fiddle on sir but something is burning.

I certainly hope that the people in and around the Owen Sound area run Mr. Hilliard out of business for the way he treated the employee doing charity work for Cancer Society. I’ll be making a special trip to Owen Sound and going out of my way TO NOT DINE AT THIS RESTAURANT.

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2008/06/07/5802586-sun.html

I live in Owen Sound but born and raised in Toronto. Coming from the “big city” to a small town really opened up my eyes of the mentality a small town can have. First off, I’m of a visible minority and was not treated nicely when I first came into town. The welcome wagon never showed up even though several people from work called on my behalf. People would drive by my house screaming racial remarks and it went as badly as a woman REFUSING to stand next in line to me at Tim Hortons because of the colour of my skin……but you know, I don’t let it get to me because it is THEIR ISSUE NOT MINE! Those who are ignorant sometimes don’t know it, so let them live in ignorance and I can live in BLISS! Moving to Owen Sound wasn’t my choice I was transferred. I am a professional with a great job, so my family and I moved up here. I realized many things about Owen Sound, first off, people here who have money or who are in a position of superiority have a chip on their shoulder. Even at the Home Depot, several funeral homes, private business’ etc. They have giant ego’s once they can manage people and let it go to their heads. I don’t get it. I probably make 2-3 times as much as these poeple and I would NEVER treat my staff as BELOW me but as equals, for that’s what they are. So I understand Hillard’s attitude, it’s like a plague in this town. Do I hate him….no, he is simply unaware of his actions. Maybe this will bring him into a new awareness, and if it does I hope he can apologize to her and her family. We can’t stone the poor man, imagine how miserable he must already be in his life if he treats human beings this way, heck I would hate to be his wife! All I hope is that he realizes his mistakes and takes ownership for it. If not he’s got a lot of learning to do. I hope this also a sign for the many many business owners and people in management positions here in Owen Sound that your staff are human beings as well and some things require a bend in the rules. Her father DIED OF CANCER. Remember, put yourself in another’s shoes, and treat others how you would like to be treated. Wouldn’t be so nice if it happened to you now would it? Come on Owen Sound, it’s time to GROW UP!

From a Torontoian living it up in the country

If you read the review written by the party that went there and got ripped off you get a good idea of what kind of restaurant this is. A pretentious rip off. To do what they did to Stacey Fearnall is inexcusable. This restaraunt deserves to vanish quickly. If you do decide to eat here, I hope you get cancer from the charbroiled steaks. Noone deserves to be treated like this waitress was treated but now it is the owners turn. As you showed no mercy, you deserve none. Goodbye Nathaniels.

Nathaniel’s is an example of what is wrong with some people. The darkness and evil that the owners have perpetrated on a generous employee deserves every unkind return.

Let’s all do our part and avoid eating at Nathaniel’s. The sad part is that other staff will be affected, so hopefully they decide they are better off at a more reputable restaurant.

I’d rather have read Nathaniel’s had a rodent problem than to hear about this behaviour.

SHAME!!

The actions of this restaurant are despicable. Do not give them your strong Canadian dollars.

I’d like to see the written policy that requires a certain length of hair be maintained by all employees. I’m pretty certain these morons have no such policy.

Would I, as a customer be repulsed by a nearly bald waitress? I think not. This could weel be the worst resturant public relations gaffe in recent memory.

After I read about Nathaniel’s letting go of a waitress because she donated her hair to a cancer charity, you couldn’t get me to eat their slop. Absolutely nothing at this place could taste good enough for me to pay my money to a bigoted geezer. Shame on Nathaniel’s for discouraging altruism, and take your rotten food and shove it.

i’ have been to fine eating establishments where i have been served by men with hair length ranging from bald to beyond shoulder length. not once did i consider their hair length critical to their personal appearance.

obviously the owners of nathanial’s have a narrow view of what the roles and appearances of women should be.

sorry guys but your sexist attitudes are likely to cost you your business.

I hope this place goes out of business!

so sorry to late
hope you go out of business

Can anyone imagine how much money could have been raised by Nathaniel’s Restaurant if they had only helped promote the waitress’ cause? They could have really done something useful instead of behaving like total butt heads. BOYCOTT!

these people are totally out of line…right up there with the people"who would be appalled" if they were served by a bald woman..
The human race makes me sick

gotta wonder..if this woman was undergoing chemo therapy and had lost her hair would they have laid her off?

boycott these worms!!

no food in the world is worth humiliating another human being!!!

Couldn’t stomach the food over the ignorance and discrimination.
This place will surely go down in infamy for the disgusting and heartless acts the management perpetrates upon its employees and its patrons. Cannot rate it low enough.