Watergate: Esquires brand Durham student ‘pompous’ in row over free water

Esquires Coffee claim they had to remove a student who was “pompous and aggressive” in a spat over a glass of tap water. 

Dale and Clare Smith, defended their actions after a student accused them of not providing free water and barring him and his friends.

Dan Jones took to Facebook and Trip Advisor saying they had to ask three times just for tap water.

Esquires Coffee 

He wrote: “I went for a coffee with my girlfriend and we were planning to study there. After 15 minutes, a friend turned up. We all sat for an hour or so chatting and before we left, we asked for some tap water.

“I asked if I could just have three glasses, one for each of us at our table. The staff member told me that she wasn’t allowed to give me three glasses.

“The owner came and stood right in front of me and was a little hostile. They unwillingly gave us three glasses in the end and we sat back down to finish our conversation and leave.

“The owner approached us and his first words were ‘I would like to let you know that we do not offer free things in this coffee shop’. Our obvious reply was that he was either obliged to let us have some tap water (which they are, since they sell alcohol) or that it is common courtesy just to let us have some water since we paid for a coffee each.

Dan Jones’ post on Facebook

“His attitude in response was ‘his is my shop, and I will choose whether you can have free water or not’. He called us cheap, and told us that we should not be sitting in his shop for more than an hour and that we should leave soon.

“We were completely shocked and told him how ridiculous we thought that was. The owner was actually shaking and shouting at us. We were very calm and actually felt a little sorry for him, but we explained that it wasn’t good business to treat their customers this way. Then he lost it, and told us that we should leave immediately.

“We are planning to take this to the student union because we think it should be taken a bit more seriously.”

Maybe not

However Dale Smith, the owner of Esquires Coffee, claims the students were aggressive and says tap water just “isn’t an issue.”

He said: “He was honestly really pompous and arrogant. It doesn’t bother us, because we employ young people, and students.

“If you think about it, I mean, does it warrant all that anyway? It was just an arrogant thing to do, a silly thing.

“Lots of places won’t do it. We don’t have to do all these things [water, free wi-fi] but we do it because we want to.

“I think it’s because we make such an effort, it’s like being thrown back in our face.

‘He was aggressive to the staff, and if he doesn’t stop his troll bit we will be going to the police for harassment.

“We do our bit, and I’m a pretty big businessman so I know the score and I do like to give things back to the students.

“His pride is hurt, because he’s never had someone in his whole life tell him that it’s out of order. He probably doesn’t see it that way because he probably doesn’t come from that environment.

“They don’t live in the real world, that we live in. And they can’t just come in and abuse staff.”

….And his Trip Advisor review

Clare Smith, who also works at the coffee shop, added: “The water wasn’t the issue: it was the aggression. We have a zero-tolerance policy of aggression because I won’t have them being nasty or cold or rude.

“We have four lads the same age – from 28 to 15 and none of them, I can say hand-on-heart, none of them, would speak to anyone like that.

“He just said ‘fill that up and bring it over to me,’ for three glasses. Students come in here for hours and hours and we don’t say anything because they’re good customers.

“I think we were just quite hurt by him.”

Dale Smith said he wants to provide a safe place for students to work, particularly international students, whom he tries to greet in their mother tongue.

“Water is something which is incredibly close to my heart. 10p from every bottle we sell goes towards international charities, and we’re incredibly involved in Fair Trade.

“We have made a huge effort to make this a safe place for students to work, and we would hate for that to be ruined.”