Neil Road restaurant announces closure, gets nasty message from US: 'Who gives a rats ass'

Jekyll & Hyde, a restaurant at Neil Road, announced last month that it would be closing for good after 10 years on Dec 31.

What owner Chua Ee Chien did not expect was to get a nasty message about it all the way from the US.

The email from someone named Jerry Barisano said: "Greetings from Texas! Who gives a rats ass about your overpriced crummy bar, located in a tiny hamlet called Singapore? Yeah!"

In response, Mr Chua posted on LinkedIn on Wednesday (Oct 4): "People can unfortunately sometimes be mean and unkind.

"One of the things that I have learned in the F&B and services industry is that the customer is always right until they are abusive to your staff and treat them with disrespect.

"We sent an email out recently informing people that our restaurant and bar is closing in the next few months. While we have had many messages and replies with people expressing their sadness and support. We also do get people who are less than kind in their replies."

Referring to the person who wrote the email from Texas, Mr Chua continued: "I understand from some research that this gentleman used to live in Singapore for a number of years, then moved back to the US."

People are entitled to their opinions, said Mr Chua, but it was not very kind or nice and he felt the need to stand up to "bullies and unkind people to protect my team.. whether in person or online".

While most supported Mr Chua in the comments, someone named Kevin wrote: "If you spam people, be ready to receive strong feedback. Spamming is wrong, you did it wrong and not surprising you don’t get any respect for it."

Mr Chua replied to the comment: "Thank you for the feedback, Kevin. I just checked to see if you were on our email list, which you weren't. But, apologies if you received an email from us. We also have a visible unsubscribe button to our emails. Sorry again!"