‘Tipsy’ Wellington mayor defends herself after leaving restaurant without paying
A city mayor has been filmed in extremely awkward “tipsy” rant at a restaurant before skipping out on her bill.
A mayor in New Zealand who was accused of being drunk and asking restaurant staff “do you know who I am?” before skipping out on the bill has defended herself against the allegations.
Wellington mayor Tory Whanau has admitted she was “tipsy” at the restaurant on Friday night but denied she ever asked staff, “do you know who I am?”, despite a waiter claiming she did.
She also claimed not paying the bill was an “honest mistake” and that it was paid the next day.
When asked to describe “tipsy” on radio station Newstalk ZB on Monday, Ms Whanau said she was “a little bit merry after a few wines and a hearty meal”.
The 40-year-old denied she had slurred her speech or that her eyes were bloodshot when asked by radio host Nick Mills.
“I wasn’t wearing makeup, maybe that’s what half the problem was, because it was a nice casual Friday,” she said.
Shay Lomas, the manager of Vietnamese fusion restaurant The Old Quarter, told Wellington newspaper The Post the mayor was already a “bit tipsy” when she arrived with a friend at about 7pm on Friday, and that staff considered not serving her but decided it was OK because she was ordering food.
Ms Lomas explained why she thought the mayor made the comment about being recognised.
“I’d say she was trying to be funny but also not really – it was a mixture of serious and a bit ditzy, there wasn’t anything really disrespectful about it, it was just like ‘do you recognise me?’,” she said.
Andrew Jenkins, the waiter who served her, told the newspaper at one point she held a bottle of wine as she asked him “do you know who I am?”.
When he didn’t know exactly but thought a politician, she allegedly said “I’m the mayor, can you do your thing?”.
It was reported staff had decided to “cut them off” but then realised Ms Whanau and her friend had left without paying.
Sharon Campbell was dining at an outside table on Friday night. She said she overheard the commotion about not paying the bill.
“The waiter came out and was like ‘she skipped out on paying her bill,’” Ms Campbell said.
“Then I heard him say to the table ‘she asked for special privileges as well’ and the table she was with just kind of laughed it off, they didn’t seem too fazed.”
On Monday, Newstalk ZB played Ms Whanau an audio recording of Ms Campbell claiming she also heard her say “do you know who I am?”.
Ms Whanau denied it and said there had been different versions about what she had allegedly said.
As for not paying the bill, Ms Whanau said it was “miscommunication” between her and her friend both thinking each other had paid.
“Mortified, absolutely embarrassed the next morning to realise we hadn’t, so she paid it immediately,” she said.
She concluded that she had “no regrets” about anything but she would be conscious about people recording her in the future.