A Paris Cafe Refused To Let Billionaire CEO Marc Benioff Eat There

Marc Benioff has been spending a few months in Europe this summer, throwing conferences, attending the opening of the new Salesforce.com Tower in London, and building data centers in the UK, France, and Germany.

But neither his status as a world tech leader, nor his mission to bring jobs to the region, nor his considerable net worth ($3.2 billion) mattered much to the maître d' of a famous Paris restaurant.

The maître d' refused to serve Benioff lunch, the CEO tweeted on Friday, spotted by Network World blogger Paul McNamara.

Why? Benioff wouldn't say, no matter how many times he was asked via Twitter and Facebook.

Wow turned away by MaîtreD for lunch @ L'Atelier de Joel Rubuchon! "No Foie Gras Burger for you!" Real life Seinfeld! pic.twitter.com/BAQEvRMdWR

- Marc Benioff (@Benioff) June 27, 2014

Possible reasons include: He didn't have a reservation. He was wearing sneakers. The maître d' was just feeling ornery. In fact, that might be closest to the truth, since Benioff called the situation "Real life Seinfeld."

He was, of course, referring to the famous Seinfeld episode the "Soup Nazi," based on a real-life New York City soup vendor with strict rules as to how his customers should behave if they wanted to be served.

Tech blogger Robert Scoble couldn't help but to rub it in, leaving this comment Benioff's Facebook page, "Been there twice now. Love their cookies! #firstworldproblems Where did you go instead?"

The situation must have been extremely strange for Benioff, who has rock-star status in his own home town San Francisco, where the world-class are plentiful and they all know exactly who he is.