POSTED: Tuesday, August 16, 2011 
 
 It may be the first-ever case of its kind: A diner was kicked out of a restaurant not for something she did, but apparently for something she said online. 
 
 The social media smackdown happened at the Down House restaurant in the Heights, located at 1801 Yale Street. 
 
 The Down House owner Chris Cusack said the customer called the bartender a "twerp" on Twitter, and the manager showed her the door. 
 
 One of the restaurant's managers, who wasn't working that night, read the "twerp" comment on Twitter. He called the bar and asked to speak to the customer. Over the phone, he asked her to leave. 
 
 "Any business is allowed to set the tone of their establishment," Cusack said. "If you go to someone's house and start calling them names, I wouldn't really expect to stay too much longer after that." 
 
 The kicked-out customer is Allison Hiromi. On her Twitter page, she described herself as opinionated, extroverted and feisty. 
 
 After being ask to leave the restaurant, she tweeted: "Left Down House in tears after the GM called up and asked the bartender to hand me the phone. He proceeded to curse at me and ask me to leave." 
 
 A lot of people on Twitter are talking about what happened. 
 
 One person said they'll never go to Down House again, and another customer called it a disappointment. 
 
 A third person wrote, "I think Down House owes Allison Hiromi a big apology. Welcome to a PR nightmare." 
 
 But Barbara Magana-Roberston, a public relations representative who owns Magana Media, said all the talk, whether positive or negative, may actually be a good thing for the restaurant in the long run. 
 
 
 
 Copyright 2011 by Click2Houston.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. 
 
 "There may be people who never hear about this restaurant or know about this restaurant," she said. "They do now." ||||| Ever since Te House of Tea and its sister restaurant, the now-defunct Saute World Bistro, signed up for Twitter accounts in August 2008 -- the first two restaurants in Houston to do so -- it's become not only de rigeur but almost necessary for a restaurant to have a Twitter account. 
 
 It's not enough now to have just a website or just a Facebook page: Customers want to interact with their favorite restaurants and chefs on Twitter, share mini-reviews or photos of dishes with their friends, namecheck hot restaurants and call out establishments that aren't up to par. 
 
 "Tweeting and eating go hand-in-hand these days," says Paula Murphy, whose firm -- Patterson & Murphy -- handles PR for a number of Houston restaurants. 
 
 "Restaurateurs and bar owners really want people to be in the moment and enjoy where they are and what they're eating and what they're drinking. Social media has changed all that," she elaborates. "Now, the way you show you're enjoying it is that you Tweet about it. You post it on Facebook. You have that other dimension of depth, the Twitterverse. But just as quickly as they could say something positive, they could say something offensive and negative." 
 
 So what happens when a customer is Tweeting something negative about a restaurant as they're dining in it? In the case of one local diner, it can get you kicked out. 
 
 
 
 Photo by Troy Fields Allison Matsu was having drinks at Down House on Sunday night when she posted a Tweet, since deleted, wherein she called a bartender a "twerp" for quoting Bobby Heugel -- the owner of Anvil Bar & Refuge -- and appended her statement with the hashtag #jackass #jackoff. 
 
 Matsu has achieved mild, local notoriety for her late-night Tweets, even recently winning a Houston Press Web Award for that very activity. Down House, for its part, has achieved a reputation in the short time that it's been open for having capricious service. The two collided in a Twitter-fueled spectacle that resulted in general manager Forrest DeSpain calling the bar, speaking shortly with Matsu, and asking her to be ejected from his establishment. 
 
 "She called him a twerp," DeSpain said by phone yesterday afternoon. DeSpain runs the Twitter account for Down House and was agitated that someone would bully his bartender, as he saw it, and took action despite not being at the restaurant that night. "I immediately called up here and talked to her for a few minutes and asked her if she had any kinder words." She didn't, DeSpain said, so he asked her to leave. 
 
 Matsu responded by posting a series of Tweets, most of them in the same vein: "Left @DownHouseHTX in tears after GM called up & asked the bartender to hand me the phone. He proceeded to curse a me & ask me to leave. Wow." 
 
 Asked to comment on the story yesterday, Matsu said she wouldn't be available until sometime today. If we get in touch with her, we'll update this story. [Edit: Click to the third page to see Matsu's full response.] However, she did post an update yesterday: "No surprise that @DownHouseHTX blocked and unfollowed me. I will NEVER return to that place as long as Forrest still works there." 
 
 Although it's far from the first time that a patron has been asked to leave for disruptive behavior, the incident on Sunday night marks one of the first times that a diner has been asked to leave for being disruptive online. 
 
 The incident also raises the question: Which group of people is more important to a restaurant? The diners who are physically present to witness another patron's disruptive behavior? Or the masses of potential diners who are virtual witnesses to that behavior on social media? 
 
 Both. ||||| It started off with what seemed like a run-of-the-mill Yelp rant: "Emma C." gave Nick's Riverside Grill one star for allegedly overcharging her for a drink and then failing to return her phone call. 
 
 But in a public response from a manager, things started to get messy. Really messy. 
 
 The manager, “Liz S.,” called out the Yelper for allegedly losing control of her bowels in the middle of the restaurant and sitting in it for the remainder of the evening. The restaurant claimed they had to reroute patrons so they wouldn't walk through the mess, and that the Yelper threw her underwear away in their trash can, forcing an employee to clean up her feces. 
 
 “Out of compassion and being decent human beings we did not charge you a waste removal fee,” the Nick’s Riverside Grill manager wrote, concluding, “We would be happy to refund your entire bill with the understanding you will never return to any of our establishments until you are potty trained.” 
 
 Owner Greg Casten says he allowed his manager to write the response, which has started to make the rounds on social media thanks to a post from fire and EMS news site STATter911. While Casten says he never wanted the Yelp response to go viral, he did want to set the record straight from the restaurant’s point of view. 
 
 “As a restaurateur, I wanted to (1) respond to an untruthful review and (2) be sure the patron knew what discomfort they had brought to some very hard working people,” Casten tells Y&H; via email. “Considering I knew the details — I thought the letter was forceful, truthful, and I thus said OK.” 
 
 UPDATE (6/1/16): Emma C. has contacted City Paper to say that she is not the woman in question. "It was merely a coincidence that I was at the bar the same night as this other girl, who I feel bad for since she is also being publicly dragged through the media," says Emma, who wished not to publicly disclose her full name, in an email. "I just wanted to clarify that I’m just a dissatisfied customer who is now being accused by this establishment of being someone that I’m not, saying some very nasty things about me and also insulting this other girl who could potentially have serious health issues... It's ridiculous, irresponsible and extremely upsetting." 
 
 Emma adds that she did not see or know the other woman, although people she was with did see her there at the same time. 
 
 UPDATE (6/2/16): Casten says he will research the incident again. "I do not want to accuse anyone of anything they did not do, and since this is her response, I will detail what I discover, as I did originally," he writes in an email. "As stated I did speak with a number of the staff and did view the film, and before her response, my employees remain confident. All that said - mistakes can happen - so will let you know." 
 
 UPDATE (6/3/16): Casten now admits a case of mistaken identity and apologizes. Read more here. 
 
 Emma ultimately took down her Yelp review because of mean comments from strangers, but STATter911 captured the exchange: 
 
 NEVER GO AGAIN！WORST SERVICE！I went there for happy hour and they hold my card at the bar. Charged me two drinks and more while I only ordered one hh drink. I asked the bartender, he said he didn’t have the right to change the bill and asked me to call the managerlater since he’s out. I called and they just said manager is really busy and will call me back. As u can figure, no call at all. And they post the charge without my signature! I didn’t sign the bill!! If u swipe my card wrongly for someone else, I’m not the one paying for it. 
 
 And here's the response from "Liz S." of Nick's Riverside Grill: 
 
 Hi Emma, We would like to address your complaint from the other evening. First of all, a manager did call you back, left a message and you chose to not return that call, probably because you didn’t want to discuss the event’s that occurred at our establishment that evening. We spoke to both bartenders and they are both confident that you did in fact have 2 happy hour drinks. You aren’t hard to forget considering… Out of compassion and being decent human beings we did not charge you a waste removal fee. We were trying not to cause anymore embarrassment or humiliation to you. But after receiving your phone call and seeing this review on yelp, we feel we are justified in defending ourselves. The fact of the matter is you lost control of your bowels in the middle of our restaurant, and you proceeded to sit in it for the remainder of the evening, making more of a mess. We had to reroute our other patrons so they didn’t walk through your mess, causing quite a scene. You then proceeded to throw your underwear away in our trash can and our poor manager working that night was left to clean up your feces. So for you to have the audacity to leave this review when we went above and beyond to make sure you were taken care of is petty and ridiculous. We hope in the future you will think before you act. We would be happy to refund your entire bill with the understanding you will never return to any of our establishments until you are potty trained. 
 
 Owner Greg Casten elaborates to Y&H;: 
 
 While an unfortunate incident in general, the woman and her friends left a real mess, included numerous towels we had provided discarded in the restaurant, dirty clothing thrown away in the bathrooms, a ugly, smelly mess just outside our front door and some very distraught employees. The incident involved the Fire Fighters- EMT's (with whom she refused to leave the scene in an ambulance, signing a form saying she would not depart with them), we have the woman on film, we have two bartenders who recognize her (and her picture on the yelp review) and identified the exact number of drinks she consumed - two beers, she did not appear intoxicated to the bartenders although the manager saw her walking in a very awkward manner just prior to the incident. After the incident the woman returned to retrieve her credit card, and it was at this point that she complained about the overcharge (forgetting one's cared left for a tab at our outside bars is a common occurrence at out patio bars) and she requested a manager contact her. She also called later to speak with a manager and provided a phone number which we did attempt to call several times - no answer - no return call. She then, evidently, wrote the yelp review - which was not true (as noted above). Perhaps she had a situation, perhaps not, but the yelp review was a bit much for the staff after all that had occurred. And so yes I allowed the response as it was truthful. Did I want it to go viral as they say - no - but as a restaurateur I wanted to (1) respond to an untruthful review and (2) be sure the patron knew what discomfort they had brought to some very hard working people and considering I knew the details - I thought the letter was forceful, truthful, and I thus said OK. 
 
 Emma C.'s response:
– Watch what you tweet: A diner was kicked out of a Houston restaurant for calling the bartender a “twerp” on her Twitter feed, the establishment’s owner tells KPRC Houston. When a manager with the night off saw the comment, he called the restaurant and asked the woman to leave. “Any business is allowed to set the tone of their establishment,” says the owner. “If you go to someone's house and start calling them names, I wouldn't really expect to stay too much longer after that." For her part, Allison Matsu tweeted: “Left Down House in tears after the GM called up and asked the bartender to hand me the phone. He proceeded to curse at me and ask me to leave.” Now, Twitter is all a-twitter about the incident. “I think Down House owes Allison Hiromi a big apology. Welcome to a PR nightmare,” noted one user. But a PR expert says the discussion will put the restaurant on the map. See HoustonPress for more.