UES Eatery Bans Women From Eating Solo At Bar, Patron Says

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — A ritzy Upper East Side Italian restaurant has banned single women from eating at its bar in an attempted crackdown on hookers, according to a personal essay penned by a regular customer.

Clementine Crawford, a London resident who dines at Madison Avenue hotspot Nello when she visits New York, said she was asked twice to move from her usual spot at the bar to a table in a personal essay titled "The Night I Was Mistaken for a Call Girl" that was published in Drugstore Culture.

Crawford didn't name the restaurant in the essay, but later confirmed to Page Six that she was writing about Nello.

At first, wait staff told the customer that nobody was allowed to dine at the bar. But when Crawford saw a man enjoy a meal of spaghetti, she pressed a server for more information, she wrote.

"After further interrogation, it transpired that the owner had ordered a crackdown on hookers: the free-range escorts who roamed the Upper East Side, hunting prey in his establishment," Crawford wrote in her essay.

After learning the true nature of her bump from the bar to a table, Crawford wrote she felt the restaurant had "classified me, marginalized me, relegated me to the corner by the loos simply because I was an unaccompanied woman."

The branding executive goes on to explain that she attempted to speak with Nello's owner, which ended in an "explosive argument." The owner's take: It's his restaurant and he can run it the way he pleases, the essay says.

When asked about the new policy, an employee at Nello refused to comment and hung up on Patch.

Nello has been in business for more than 25 years on Madison Avenue between East 62nd and 63rd streets, according to the restaurant's website. Ownership describes the high-end spot as: "Where art, fashion, politics, entertainment, aristocracy, and finance converge to create a world of urbane sophistication, genuine leisure and cosmopolitan chic on Madison Avenue."

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