Apparently being at the epicentre of Bieber Fever works up a mighty thirst.
Justin Bieber was spotted cruising the ByWard Market Thursday afternoon, with fans clamouring for pictures of the pop star out for a stroll with a Tim Hortons ice capp in hand.
But for the hard-working folks at The Laff, a brush with the Biebs didn’t bring the pay day they’d hoped for.
Amid the inevitable social media frenzy that kicked off when Bieber touched down in the Capital — on the eve of his Purpose World Tour, which lands at the Canadian Tire Centre Friday — staff at famed Market watering hole Chateau Lafayette sent out a cheeky Tweet admonishing Bieber for forgetting to tip his server after apparently stopping in for a mid-afternoon refreshment.
Operations manager Deek Labelle said Bieber walked in and took a seat around 3:30 p.m. and had his handler order him a Bud Light.
“(His handler) didn’t even tip his server,” said Labelle. “I thought everybody knew that’s common practice. I was kinda surprised.”
Labelle said bar staff sent out a tweet making light of the snub after Bieber finished half the beer and promptly left.
“Twitter is blowing up,” she said.
Bieber, of course, is one of the top-selling pop stars of his era, and in 2014 was the highest-paid performer under age 30, making an estimated $80 million, according to Forbes.
Bieber sightings, meanwhile, triggered the inevitable social media explosion.
Fans snapped photos of Bieber walking out of a downtown Tim Hortons, sipping one of the chain’s signature ice capps and wearing the baggy one-armed denim overalls that earned him some scorn when he wore a similar getup to a meeting with former prime minister Stephen Harper.
Fans gushed on social media about their brush with pop royalty.
One user named Katie tweeted — in all-caps — that “Justin Bieber just walked past my restaurant and I am dying and now he’s gone forever OMG,” followed by a string of appropriately heartbroken emojis.
Another fan named Adri tweeted — again in all-caps, and without any semblance of punctuation — “Justin Bieber is in the Market right now and I am in the Market right now I don’t see him but I think I’m gonna faint.”
Bieber himself got in on the paparazzi action, snapping a photo of a skateboarder outside the Clarendon Lanes apartments on York St., and posting the photo to his Instagram account with the caption, “This kid is rad.”
The post racked up nearly 700,000 “likes” within the first two hours — he is one of the most-followed social media stars, with nearly 68 million followers on Instagram and 80 million on Twitter. Several keen-eyed fans identified the skater in the picture as Bieber’s videographer Rory Kramer, who describes himself as a “professional life liver” on his own Instagram account.
Another of Bieber’s close confidants has a direct connection to the city — his musical director and former guitarist Dan Kanter hails from Ottawa. Kanter, according to his own social media postings, was busy taking in back-to-back Pearl Jam concerts Tuesday and Thursday in Toronto.
Bieber’s casual stroll around downtown didn’t provide nearly the same gossip fodder as his visit to Boston 24 hours earlier.
TMZ had a field day after fans spotted a shoeless Bieber hanging out in the Boston Public Garden Wednesday afternoon, and apparently attempting to feed a squirrel in the park on Monday.
Following his concert in Boston, Bieber painted the town, according to a report in People magazine. He reportedly partied at Boston’s Storyville nightclub, dancing on the bar and downing tequila shots until the wee hours, and at one point kicked out VIP patrons so he could take over the section for himself and his entourage.
A day earlier, Bieber ranted in an Instagram post about fans constantly trying to snap selfies with him, saying “I’m done taking pictures… I feel like a zoo animal, and I wanna be able to keep my sanity.”
ahelmer@postmedia.com
Twitter: @helmera
