DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION
We are regulars at Grazie. Last night I took my wife and mother there for the 2nd time in a week. My mother has a hearing disability and I made this clear when we entered the restaurant. I kindly asked if we could be seated next to a corner section or in the back to make it easier for her hearing. We could see there were still people eating in the back and right sections of the restaurant that appeared quiet. Angelo the front of house or manager took no concern of this placing us in the middle of the left part of the restaurant where there was the most noise. It was disheartening, but for the quality of the food we decided to sit until the noise became too much for my mothers hearing.
I had also asked a waitress for a wine menu and I was met with the reply "you need to ask your Maitre d!" I did not understand what the problem was with bringing one wine menu over!
We waited 5 minutes until Stephan our Maitre d came to our table who was very polite and courteous. By this time our experience was already ruined. My mum with her hearing disability was having extreme problems and had to turn her hearing aids off completely, at this point we decided to leave. As my family left the restaurant I took the time to explain to Stephan fully the reasons why we were leaving and was very apologetic and tried his best to make things right. However my family was already outside and the experience was very upsetting to all parties involved. I thanked Stephan for trying his best to help rectify the horrible incident. Stephan also pleaded with me kindly to express my concerns to Agelo the manager, who was sat at the bar using his cell phone.
Upon leaving to return to my family waiting in the cold outside, he saw me and approached me. I said to him the restaurant was too loud for my mother where he seated us in the middle of the restaurant with her hearing disability and his immediate response in front of Stephan and the other members of staff sickened me, "it is always like this, it is always loud!". I was genuinely in disbelief and laughingly repeating his exact words while looking at Stephan who could do nothing and had tried so hard to make things right for us. I then walked out of the restaurant.
This is completely unacceptable behaviour from anyone, especially someone who is supposed to be in a managerial position, and regardless of being regular clients or first time customers.