Choose your side: Lying/shady gay male customer vs Psychotic female restaurant owner

[Dan Druff]

Trevor Chauvin-DeCaro is a married gay man from New York, who planned a trip with his husband to Boston, beginning on January 6, 2024.

The exact details and length of the trip are unknown, but involved taking a train from Boston to New York, and dining that night at an upscale restaurant called TABLE Boston.

The trip never happened, and a feud occurred between Trevor and restaurant owner Jen Royle, which has gone viral. The problem? Neither side looks good. From my vantage point, Trevor looks like a liar and possible insurance scammer, while Jen comes off as unhinged and customer-hostile.

On the afternoon of February 22, Trevor posted the story to his Twitter. He claimed that he had to go to the ER, and could not make the trip to Boston. Unfortunately, TABLE Boston had a $250 non-refundable cancellation fee. After the staff refused to waive it, even knowing he was in the ER, he chose to utilize his credit card travel insurance benefit.

However, somehow instead of refunding the $250 to Trevor via the insurance benefit, the credit card company charged back the amount to the restaurant. This prompted the restaurant owner Jen Royle to look up Trevor on Twitter, and send him a nasty message. A big argument followed, and three days ago, Trevor posted the story on Twitter in order to shame Royle and the restaurant, complete with screen shots.

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https://twitter.com/trevorshowvan/status/1760768763694112882

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https://twitter.com/trevorshowvan/status/1760769183078310031

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https://twitter.com/trevorshowvan/status/1760797531577942074

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https://twitter.com/trevorshowvan/status/1760901230748946867

Trevor claimed to be "unclear" as to why the credit card travel insurance usage resulted in a chargeback to the restaurant:

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https://twitter.com/trevorshowvan/status/1760891864394121242



At first, Trevor seemed to be mostly in the right:

1) The $125-per-person cancellation fee is insane, and not industry standard. This is especially true because it's the full cost of the meal, and yet the restaurant does not actually waste the food. In fact, given its downtown Boston location, they can easily find someone else in most cases to take their place, and basically double dip.

2) Royle tracking Trevor down on Twitter and writing nasty notes about a chargeback was unprofessional and inappropriate.

3) Lots of reviews of the restaurant were found where Royle was treating customers in an obnoxious and abusive fashion.

4) Trevor was in the ER, and the restaurant didn't have the slightest bit of empathy for him.



BUT WAIT!

Turns out our friend Trevor wasn't quite telling the whole truth.

Some digging into his Twitter revealed that on that same day -- January 6 -- Trevor was complaining that massive Amtrak delays were ruining his upcoming trip to Boston. He noted that he was going to be "out a lot of money" as a result:

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https://twitter.com/trevorshowvan/status/1743757994100129928

Whoops!

What happened to the ER? It's not mention at all on January 6, or anytime prior to his story on February 22.

The above tweet was at 5:14pm EST. There's no way he could have gotten to Boston by 8:30, once he wrote that tweet about Amtrak being unable to get him there.

So it appeared the restaurant cancellation was actually about Amtrak's problems, and not the ER.

But why would he lie about this? The Amtrak thing clearly isn't his fault, and arguably is a BETTER reason to cancel the reservation for free than health issues. What would be the point of changing the story?

I'll get to it in the next post, and it involves possible insurance fraud....

[Dan Druff]

It's important to understand that Trevor did NOT purchase travel insurance. Instead, he attempted to utilize the free limited travel insurance benefit that came with his credit card. Often these benefits are far more restrictive in eligibility and coverage, compared to regular travel insurance, because it's free.

Travel insurance typically kicks in when a covered event occurs which triggers it. That is, you can't simply choose not to go on the trip and collect the money back from the insurance company. It is possible that a train-related travel delay is not considered a covered event, so Trevor might have needed another reason to get the insurance to cover it.

It does appear Trevor was actually in the ER. After people raised issue with his ER story actually being a train delay, he posted this:

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https://twitter.com/trevorshowvan/status/1761032532093526360


However, notice the ER picture is dated January 7!

There is still no proof he was in the ER on January 6, or that it was responsible for him missing that 8:30 reservation. Also note the $400 "ER statement" is undated, other than having been generated in late January.

In the tweet above, he claims he "got sick" and "did a telehealth visit" while "on the way to Boston", and that telehealth advised him to go to the ER.

But that all sounds like bullshit. It looks like he was trying to manufacture a covered reason to get his money back for what was probably an expensive trip (not just that one meal -- remember, he was traveling from NYC to Boston!) He probably called Telehealth, who told him that they probably wouldn't be able to give him the diagnosis he'd need for what the credit card insurance wanted to see, and advised him to go the ER. Or something along those lines. I'm guessing he went to the ER, but probably didn't make it over there until either the next day, or well after 8:30 (the reservation time in Boston).

Either way, it is clear that the reason he didn't make it to Boston was the train failure, NOT anything having to do with the ER.

Shaaaaaaaaaady to spin the story that way.


He has since shut down discussion of the topic, and won't answer anyone's further questions.

In the meantime, Jen Royle has temporarily shut down TABLE Boston, as she is getting intense hate from the internet regarding the way she treated both Trevor and other past customers. Royle, by the way, was an MLB reporter for many years, prior to ending that career to start her own restaurant.

From the reivews, her correspondences with Trevor, and the obnoxious $250 cancellation fees, she seems awful, and exactly the type of businessperson you don't want to support.

But what about the chargeback? How did an insurance claim trigger a chargeback?

Trevor claims not to know, but that might be bullshit. It is possible they told him that restaurant cancellation fees are not a benefit of the credit card travel insurance, so he just charged it back. It's also possible that the credit card did this on their own without his permission, perhaps misunderstanding what he wanted to do. Either way, it's clear a chargeback actually did occur.

Royle actually posted a copy of the chargeback, which a skeptic of Trevor's from Twitter reposted (notice the gullible idiot defending him, btw):

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https://twitter.com/StickyKeys/status/1761130342994653455



Trevor now claims to "not condone" the death threats Jen has been receiving, and claims he's also receiving death threats:

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https://twitter.com/trevorshowvan/status/1761168076165239084



I'll post my analysis in the next post...

[Dan Druff]

Jen Royle seems like a shitty person.

Check out this review (and her subsequent response, calling the guy out by his full name):

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https://twitter.com/aplus_tweets/status/1761396437227557322



This isn't just a one-off. The Yelp reviews are full of awful reviews of Jen's behavior, even way before this controversy.

Regardless of Trevor's lies and his possible insurance fraud, Jen is an abrasive and abusive business owner, and nobody should patronize her. The $250 cancellation fee is so excessive that it borders upon a scam.


However, Trevor is a piece of shit here, too.

If you are going to take your sob story to social media and attempt to trash a business, you have to be TRUTHFUL. You can't lie about or embellish details in order to make the other party look worse. Clearly Trevor felt that a story about "the ER" would garner him more sympathy than a travel delay, so he used that. The fact that he completely left the train delays out of the story -- the REAL reason he cancelled the trip -- is lying by omission.

Furthermore, it appears the ER thing is very possibly a way to defraud the insurance company, who might have only covered health events but not travel delays. It's not like Trevor bought travel insurance and felt screwed by it not covering him. By his own admission, he was using a free benefit that came with a credit card.

The chargeback shit is verrrrrrry questionable. It's hard to believe he was unaware a chargeback occurred, and it's bizarre that he wouldn't make a simple phone call to his bank to clarify the matter, once this whole thing became so contentious. Instead, he just shrugs his shoulders and claims it's all the bank's fault. Sounds like bullshit to me.



To me, it seems like Trevor was tilted regarding Amtrak ruining his expensive trip to Boston, and the wasted money was really eating at him. Then he attempted to at least get the $250 BACK from TABLE Boston, only to have them tell his husband (whom he designated to call because he was "in the ER") to go kick rocks. I'm guessing he did do a real chargeback, and after owner Jen Royle tracked him down on Twitter and talked shit to him in DMs, it became personal. After awhile of arguing back and forth, he decided to shame the restaurant on social media, but changed around details of the story in order to either look better or protect his bullshit "ER" insurance scheme from being discovered. He must have forgotten that he made those tilt tweets on January 6 about the train and the Boston trip.

Upon the whole thing unraveling, he cut bait and closed the discussion.

Unfortunately, most people are unaware that Trevor lied here, and almost all of the vitriol is against Jen. I'd say about 10% of the vitriol is against Trevor right now.

This entire debacle ended up shining a light on both sides. Trevor looks like a shady liar and a vindictive drama queen, and Jen Royle looks like an abusive, bitchy, pretentious, entitled business owner who uses her restaurant as an ego trip, making many people miserable in the process.

[Dan Druff]

Here's the Boston Herald article about it: https://archive.ph/N19WU

[Texter]

He is in the wrong, he clearly knew about the cancel fee when he booked. The restaurant has obviously had people pull the, “I was in the ER” gambit before to try and get out of the fee.

However, she should have not gone to Twitter.

[Kuntmissioner]

Royle's restaurant is in Boston's North End neighborhood, not downtown but downtown adjacent.
The North End is a few city blocks loaded with historic buildings, Italian restaurants and tourists.
She is well known for her repetitive outbursts targeting customers who post bad reviews, this guy is just the most recent.

[Jayjami]

If the non refundable deposit was specified as “liquidated damages”, the restaurant is fully within its right to keep the $250. If not, the restaurant was under an obligation to mitigate its damages, which means if someone else later took that table, no harm no foul.

[Dan Druff]

Personally I refuse to dine anywhere with one of those lol cancellation fees.

Sometimes booking through Open Table, Caesars properties restaurants try to charge you $50 deposit for upscale restaurants like Nobu.

However, if you call the direct Caesars restaurant booking number, they don't require a deposit.