today i picked up leon from PADS at 4:30 p.m. he was very excited to be going home with someone :-) we got settled at home, and went for a little walk around the 'hood.
we were going out for vanessa's birthday and chose House of Tofu Soup as our location. it would be my first asian restaurant outing with a puppy....should be interesting! well, it was over so fast, i don't know really know what to call it except UPSETTING!
leon and i waited outside the restaurant until our table was ready, since it was a little crowded in the doorway. after a few minutes, we walked the 15 feet to our table, sat down, and then were promptly told to leave - we were upsetting other diners and no dogs allowed. we had barely been in the restaurant long enough for anyone to complain, let alone see leon! i kindly explained to them that the puppy was in training to be an assistance dog for disabled people and showed them the ID badge supplied by PADS (as if the bright yellow cape weren't ID enough!). well, their english wasn't very strong, so the waitress basically ignored me, so i asked to speak to her manager. well, apparently the waitress was only going to acknowledge priscilla (we think they thought she was korean, and would communicate on my behalf), but they were sadly mistaken. priscilla took the ID badge and relayed the same information to the owner, but he ignored her completely. we had a nice mother/son sitting behind us (did i mention that our table was isolated, and leon was sitting on the inside of the table and was falling asleep during the commotion), and they knew exactly what leon's role was, and offered to translate for us. it was a sweet thought, but the manager didn't want anything to do with them either.
since they obviously weren't going to serve us, we thanked the ppl sitting behind us for their effort, got up and proceeded to leave. i wanted to talk to the manager directly and explain to him that i would be reporting this incident to PADS, and that if a disabled person had actually come to the restaurant with an assistance dog, he would be obligated by law to accommodate them (i'm going to talk to PADS on monday and find out the exact rules/laws). however, he was hiding in the back kitchen, so i took out my frustration with the waitress who didn't understand english :P i was quite upset by the turn of events, and was raising my voice so everyone around could hear me. it was a quick education that these are not regular pets....they are assistance dogs who help ppl with disabilities to have as normal a life as possible!
i was curious to test out another korean restaurant nearby, but they had a rather large crowd already waiting at the doorway, so we left. earl's, here we come! as expected, we were welcomed with open arms and enjoyed a good meal while leon slept at our feet.
the problem i now face is "are all asian restaurants like this?" we go out to ethnic restaurants all the time....will we get rejected again? do we need to get our ethnic-cravings taken care of during the week when we are without a puppy? i'll update my blog when i find out from PADS how they deal with a situation like we experienced, and what the rules are about refusing service to someone with a service dog (regardless of whether they are able-bodied or not).
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