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A spat between a Boston chef with a history of making sizzling headlines and a dissatisfied LGBT activist from New York has whipped up a social media flame war that included death threats and the lingering bad taste of regret.
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Jen Royle, the owner of TABLE, shut down and/or made private her personal and restaurant accounts on Friday, following a dust-up with a former reservation holder named Trevor Chauvin-DeCaro after he took his beef with her restaurant to social media.
“Wild story incoming. Last month, we had to cancel our Boston trip after I was hospitalized,” Chauvin-DeCaro shared on X on Thursday.
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“As a result, I had to use travel insurance to get my money back on our hotel, train, and restaurant reservations. Today I got this message from @tableboston.”
The post included screenshots of Royle’s response.
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Chef Jen Royle is pictured in her restaurant Table on Aug. 29, 2019, in Boston, Massachusetts.(Chris Christo/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images)
“Hi Trevor. I own TABLE Restaurant in Boston,” she began in the segments shared on X by Chauvin-DeCaro.
“I just wanted to personally thank you for screwing over my restaurant and my staff when you disputed your cancellation fee [of $250]. I really hope in the future you have more respect for restaurants, especially small businesses such as mine. Pathetic.”
Chauvin-DeCaro then replied to Royle, sharing “disappointment and shock at the tone and content” of her outreach to him, according to the exchange.
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“My stomach turns with the gross decision to search for, find, and direct-message a customer like this,” he wrote in hs response. “The decision to reach out to a customer with such a scolding and disparaging message is, frankly, astounding.”
The exchange generated over 20 million views in the first 48 hours.
It also quickly turned ugly when death threats against both parties apparently resulted.
Trevor Chauvin-DeCaro of New York said he had regrets after his beef with Boston chef Jen Royle led to death threats for them both. (Screenshot of Trevor Chauvin-DeCaro post on X)
Chauvin-DeCaro appeared to suffer social-media regret amid the fallout.
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“I do not condone the onslaught of reviews, harassment and certainly not death threats,” he posted over the weekend.
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“I, too, am getting them and wish that on no one,” he also wrote.
“I am shocked to learn that Jen is also receiving death threats. I do not feel that way and reject these actions.”
Chef Jen Royle (far left), along with Pedro Martinez and Carolina Martinez, attend the Pedro Martinez Charity Feast With 45 at Fenway Park on June 29, 2018, in Boston.(Paul Marotta/Getty Images for Pedro Martinez Charity)
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The exchange led to debate about customer-and-small-business ethics while also presenting warnings about the power of celebrity and being outspoken in the digital age.
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Royle is a well-known figure in the Boston food and media scenes.
She once covered the New York Yankees for the YES Network and appeared as a contestant on “The Taste” on ABC and “Beat Bobby Flay” on the Food Network.
“Royle’s hair looks pretty fabulous when the former sportscaster with a megawatt smile and striking blue eyes storms out her bedroom in strappy high heels that Wonder Woman might wear down the runway,” Boston Magazine enthused in a 2021 profile.
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“I do not condone the onslaught of reviews, harassment and certainly not death threats.”
Her upscale restaurant in Boston’s North End, an Old World-style Italian neighborhood famed for its dining scene, seats only 32 people and has several no-nonsense policies.
“We do not accommodate vegans, vegetarians, pescatarians, gluten-free or dairy-free guests,” the TABLE website states.
The restaurant’s site also says that “there are absolutely no exceptions to our cancellation policy.”
It notes, “We are a very small restaurant. Please be considerate.”
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The restaurant has received a number of distinctions.
It was named a “top 50 restaurant in Boston” by Boston Magazine in 2021 and 2022, among other notices.
Fox News Digital attempted to reach Chauvin-DeCaro via social media, as well as chef Jen Royle through the restaurant’s website.
For more Lifestyle articles, visit www.foxnews.com/lifestyle.
BOSTON (WHDH) – Celtics star forward Jayson Tatum responded to the team’s shocking trade of forward Jaylen Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday, reflecting on the near decade they spent together in Boston.
Tatum posted a tribute to Brown on his Instagram story Friday afternoon, writing, “9 years! Forever grateful for all that we accomplished together, for pushing me to be a better player. From first round exits to winning a chip together I’m thankful for it all. Nothing but love and respect for you as a player and as a person! Looking forward to see how you attack this next chapter of your career and wish you nothing but the best for you! Continue to be special.”
The trade will become official Monday once the league-wide moratorium is lifted. The Celtics will welcome nine-time NBA All-Star Paul George, who they received from the 76ers, as well as new signings Mitchell Robinson and Mike Conley Jr.
(Copyright (c) 2026 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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Amid several reports that said Brown didn’t request a trade and that Boston actually thought Derrick White was the best player on the 2025-26 roster, an already motivated Brown now has an even larger chip on his shoulder after the Celtics dealt him away.
“The message was received,” Brown said. “I wasn’t thrilled with the amount of respect that was shown throughout this process. I think there was a bit of a lack of respect. I think it was fine at one point, then out of nowhere, things just went left. I think Brad [Stevens] is getting a lot of the criticism. I wasn’t thrilled with the way he facilitated some of the conversations.”
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After the Celtics fell short in their pursuit of Giannis Antetokounmpo — Brown was the centerpiece of Boston’s trade package — Stevens was noncommittal when asked about Brown’s future in Boston.
“Jaylen Brown is a big part of us,” Stevens said. “I’m never going to predict the future, but every indication, everything that I think about over the past few years has been building around those guys, right? So obviously, you never know. But at the same time, the one thing I want to make very clear is how valued he’s always been.”
“He’s been amazing. He’s been an amazing teammate, a great person to be around. And whether that run ends 10 years from now when he retires, or before, there’s a lot to celebrate. We have a great relationship, an open relationship where we talk about everything. But I don’t want to predict the future. I look at it as, this is our team.”
Stevens traded Brown to the 76ers on Wednesday in exchange for Paul George, two first-round picks, and two second-round picks. The deal was widely criticized.
For Brown, the most puzzling aspect was the lack of an explanation.
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“I definitely think there’s more to it,” Brown said. “I just wish that more to it could’ve been explained to me. Because I think if more to it was explained, I would’ve understood. I thought I earned the respect to get that explanation. But hey, obviously, I was wrong. That’s life. You move on.”
Brown will now join a 76ers team that, with Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid, and V. J. Edgecombe already in place, could be poised to leapfrog Boston in the Eastern Conference.
“I don’t want [any] special treatment, I don’t need no handouts … I plan on earning my respect one day at a time by putting in the work,” Brown said of playing for Philadelphia. “I’m looking forward to getting in the gym, the whole process.”
“The hard part is, the last 10 years, I’ve been programmed to hate Philadelphia. The history of the rivalry, the playoff battles … I’ve been programmed to think like, ‘[Expletive] The Process’. It’s funny, now I’ve got to reverse-engineer it. But I’ll be ready to go by the time the season starts.”
Conor Ryan can be reached at conor.ryan@globe.com.
A broken elevator has left some residents of a Boston apartment building unable to leave, but a new stairlift has brought temporary relief.
When 80-year-old Silke Evans, who lives at the Villa Michelangelo Apartments in the North End, spoke with NBC10 Boston last Wednesday, she had been stuck inside for weeks.
“I feel imprisoned. That’s it,” she said at the time. “I feel like I’m in prison.”
Silke Evans, an 80-year-old woman living at the Villa Michelangelo Apartments in the North End, has been unable to use the elevator at her building for three weeks.
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“She was stuck up on the third floor for a total of three-and-a-half weeks,” her daughter, Katharine Clark, said Thursday.
Thursday, Metro Management, which runs the building, installed the stairlift as a temporary solution while waiting for elevator repairs.
It allowed Evans to leave for the first time in nearly a month.
“They had food, and got to eat out, and just feel like a normal person,” Clark said. “She’s been looking kind of sad for weeks, so it’s the first time I saw some pictures where she was genuinely smiling.”
The fix brought major joy to Evans, with hopes of a long-term solution in the future.
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“We’re not out of the woods. We still have a broken elevator. Hopefully, it’s not too many months with just a chairlift,” Clark said.
Jeff Buono, director of property management, told NBC10 Boston last week that the process to repair the elevator has been difficult.
“They’re estimating four to five weeks to get the parts and then four to five weeks for the install,” Buono said in a phone interview. “It’s tough to get parts in general. It takes longer to get them than it ever has before. So the systems now just need to be modernized. I mean, it does take a toll on our elderly population — it really does. And we do feel for them. They’re likely family to us.”
NBC10 Boston reached out to the management company for further comment Thursday, but staff had already left for the holiday weekend.