Re: melting pot

[Guest guest]

We had a similar experience at the melting pot in Boca Raton about

five years ago. My son was not being more noisy than anyone else.

He was however flapping his hands and rocking so he looked weird. The

manager sent a server over to " quietly " tell us that it is not a

family restaurant and that we were disturbing other diners. I did not

speak to the server but turned to the manager and that if he or anyone

else had a problem, he should come over himself and talk to us. There

were very few other people in the restaurant at the time and I looked

around to see who could have possibly had a complaint. A man from the

only table near enough to have seen or heard anything from our table

said that they had no complained and had not heard a thing. They

could not see JJ because we were in a booth and no tables faced him.

We continued to eat our meal and as the server brought our check the

manager came over and and said that we were welcome to come back but

not to bring our son. Up till that point, there was a soft buzz of

conversation in the room. I raised my voice over the din and told him

that we would not be back. I said a little more than that though I

don't remember what. Other diners asked us what had happened and

again in a voice just loud enough to be heard over the now quiet

restaurant, I told them what the manager had said. People started

asking across to other tables what my son had done or why we were

upset when an elderly lady piped up and said he is retarded. The

volume of the conversation rose and many people looked as though they

were being disturbed. I don't know if that was because of us or

because of the manager. I do know that I would never go into a

melting pot again. Not because of this little man, but because I

don't go out to cook my own dinner.

as

>

> First of all, thank you for the many who posted with support or

> describing similar experiences. One of the many benefits of this

> listserve is the community that it provides.

>

> Secondly, with more thought my husband and I realized that one of the

> reasons that this experience was so shocking is that we have been to

> hundreds of sit-down restaurants, including the Flying Fish, Emeril's,

> Gordon Biersh, Citrico's, Oceanaire's locally as well as Chicago,

> Colorado, the Bahamas, Disney World and the burg, VA inns.

> This has worked because we do make 5:30 appts, bring items, and take

> " walking breaks " if necessary. This is the FIRST time we have had

> anything like this happen to us. So thank you to all who have made

> efforts to educate the community, it IS working in many places.

>

> Yes, I agree, that obviously, other patrons deserve consideration, we

> respect their nights out too! However, all things being equal, if a

> restaurant CANNOT made accommodations such as this particular Melting

> Pot on Federal Highway in Ft. Lauderdale, I prefer to take my business

> elsewhere. It only makes sense to patronize restaurants who will make

> reasonable accommodations, so that we as a community have some options.

>