'Go Away and Don't Come Back' lost-in-translation sign has desired effect

It was a case of lost in translation for Fred Bennett, the owner of Brewers bar and restaurant in Nelson, New Zealand, when he decided to start selling Thai food. He hired a Thai chef and asked for his advice on choosing a good name.

The chef came up with a Thai phrase he said meant "Welcome and see you again", and Bennett duly had a sign printed and installed outside the restaurant. Months went by before he started wondering why he had served plenty of Westerners but hardly any Thai people.



The mystery was solved when his chef left and he hired a new one. The first thing she said was: "Why did you call your restaurant 'Go Away and Don't Come Back'?" "That's why it pays to research," Bennett said.

Mr Bennett is happy to have changed the wording, but regrets that since then he has heard of at least one woman who refused to eat there when she read his sign. "I'd like to apologise to the Thai community if I have offended them, which I'm pretty sure I would have," he said. He has nowbgone for a much safer name - Victory Thai.