Monday, September 5, 2011

REALLY...In This Day and Age!

So we went to D'Lanos to have a nice Sunday family breakfast. The first thing out of the managers mouth as we rolled in was "you'll have to leave the stroller at the door" (no good morning, no smile, no nothing)...I explained the situation with my two year old son Alistair being low muscle tone, special needs and needing the stroller......His response "We don't have any room" He left to have look and returned with ....."We don't have any room" He was not apologetic at all, actually seemed quite irritated with having to deal with us while the girl at the front desk was cringing. She tried providing suggestions but he wasn't accepting any of her ideas. We decided to try holding him while eating. Although I'm not sure why we even tried to accomodate! I expected the spots left to be really congested. We got to the very back of the restaurant and there was plenty of room to bring the stroller. Even the server thought so. Actually with our stroller in place a couple could have walked past hand in hand I'm sure! Anyhow, Alistair wasn't coping even after we tried the high chair but as usual he slipped out of that one. So I went and talked to the manager again about needing the stroller. His response again was "There is no room" So I said "Are you saying you won't accomodate us ?" He didn't respond, he didn't look at me, there was absolutely no attempt to accomodate us or apologize. The server was extremely apologetic. I couldn't believe it! I definitely let him know I wasn't impressed and that everyday I live with having a special needs child and the fact that he couldn't accomodate us would prevent us from ever returning again. He didn't look at me, didn't respond, didn't do anything.....and I even stayed polite yet curt with my response. As we left, the girl at the front desk apologized profusely saying she had a special needs kid as well....... So lets just say we had a fabulous breakfast at De Dutch. They were very accomodating and there was much less room there than at D'Lanos yet they still were able to squeeze us in. I just can not believe in this day and age that a manager of a restaurant would act so inconsiderate. There is so much awareness with disability and special needs that one would think that there would be some level of attempt to accomodate.

3 comments:

  1. Sorry to hear that happened, and glad that you left!

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  2. What a crappy way to be treated. If I was you,I'd write a short piece for the local paper. Let other parents of special needs kids, (and disabled people in wheelchairs, etc) know what kind of reception you got. Show him up for the jerk he is.... Grrrrr

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  3. I am glad you left and did not support a place that has that type of person as a representative. I agree with the above post!

    Valerie

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