If you want to order gluten-free food at The White Moose Cafe in Dublin, Ireland, you'd better be prepared to provide a doctor's note — that is, if you take the owner's recent social media posts seriously.
"This morning a girl asked us if we did gluten-free pancakes and when we asked her if she was a coeliac, she didn't even know what the word meant and then proceeded to order regular, gluten-rich pancakes anyway," the cafe wrote in a Facebook post Saturday. "From now on, guests who demand gluten-free food are required to produce a doctor's note which states that you suffer from coeliac disease."
The statement caused an uproar on Facebook and Twitter.
White Moose owner Paul Stenson is no stranger to social media controversy. He has "threatened" to charge a corkage fee to breastfeeding mothers, give Valium to screaming babies and shoot vegans. Stenson told CNBC that people are taking his posts too seriously.
"I planned on enforcing the doctor's note just as much as I planned on enforcing a corkage fee for breastfeeding mothers or indeed giving Valium to screaming babies. In other words. No," he said in a Facebook message.
Of course, not everyone has been put off by The White Moose Cafe's posts.
"Business has never been better," Stenson said. "Because of my colorful posts, people are vying to fly from as far as Australia and the U.S. to visit our quaint, 35-seater cafe in North Dublin. Of course we sometimes lose potential customers from those who choose to take offense to our posts, but these aren't really the type of people we want occupying our 35 seats. We'd much rather accommodate happy, positive, fun-loving customers."