Brewpub Uses Facebook to Shame a Dine-and-Dasher

For one Reno brewpub, Facebook is about more than making friends – it’s also about collecting unpaid tabs. The Brewer’s Cabinet turned to the social media site late last week to warn Reno restaurants of a dine-and-dasher. The suspect, Saul Gonzalez, had racked up a $100 tab at the Brewer’s Cabinet, before knocking the restaurant manager to the floor in order to escape, says Charlie Johnson, the pub’s brewmaster. “We’re a small business, so $100 is a big deal,” says Johnson. “It’s one of our employees’ paychecks.” Johnson says the brewpub first filed a police report, before turning to Facebook. The restaurant manager had snapped a photo of the suspect before the incident turned hostile, when Gonzalez first received the bill. “We decided to put it on Facebook as a warning for some of the other restaurants,” says Johnson, who adds some other restaurant owners on social media said Gonzalez had also dined and dashed at their neighborhood establishments. The Facebook post racked up nearly 600 likes. Johnson says the police were soon able to find the suspect, who had violated his parole, and placed him in jail. While Johnson says he’s pleased with the community’s response to the Facebook post and the fact that Gonzalez was caught by the cops, he says he wish the whole incident had never happened. “I don’t understand why this gentleman did that. My heart goes out to him,” says Johnson. Despite his compassionate stance, Johnson says he isn’t upset by the extra attention the pub is receiving on account of the Facebook shaming. “I heard people talking that they came in because of what had gone on, and that they wanted to support us, because we were taking a stand for ourselves,” says Johnson.