Review of Bus Stop Cafe

My friend is legally blind and has other disabilities, and has a service dog without whom she would not be able to be independent. I met her at Bus Stop for dinner this week—a place we go often. When I arrived, her service dog was lying under the table. He sat up (NOT stood up) to greet me and then lay back down under the table—where he stayed for almost 2 hours while we ate and chatted. She got up to leave, and he stood up and lightly shook himself (after lying down for almost 2 hours)—an action in which he touched no one but me. On their way out, a waitress accidentally stepped on his paw and he yelped, but did not react in any other way. As we got outside, the owner of the restaurant confronted my friend and said, “That is not a well-trained service dog. If you want to come back here, you have to sit outside on the terrace.” She asked what he was talking about, and he said a trained service dog should not get up to greet anyone, should not shake himself, and should not bark. She pointed out that a waitress stepped on the dog’s foot, and the owner said, “No, she didn’t.” My friend said to ask the waitress. He said, “I don't have to ask her, I saw it. Plus he got when he shook himself, everything went flying.” I asked him what went flying. He said, “everything.” I asked what. Was anything knocked off any table? Was anything knocked over? Was any person touched by the dog? He said, “Everything, everything went flying.” My friend said it’s not up to him to decide what is or is not a trained service dog, and it is illegal to deny someone with a service dog access to a restaurant. He said, “No it’s not.” I said it was. He said, “No it’s not. And he barked, and he everything went flying.” And when I asked again what went flying and where, he again said “everything”—and did that thing people do when they double down on a lie: he kept repeating that it wasn’t illegal to deny us access, the waitress had not stepped on the dog’s foot, the dog was not well-trained, and had barked. I finally said to him, “You're a liar,” and he replied “Don't curse at me.” I asked, “When did I curse? What curse word did I use?” and he said, “You cursed just now. You called me a liar.” And he repeated that we may only eat on the retaurant’s terrace in the future

To set things straight, it is illegal to deny us assess to any part of the restaurant (https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/publications/serviceanimals-english.pdf). And lest the owner attempt to continue lying in a reply to this post, my friend’s service dog has been with her in far better restaurants than Bus Stop, to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MOMA, ridden in an ambulance with her, sat with her all night in a hospital emergency room, gone to the doctor, dentist, visited my home (and I have cats!) and has never had a problem.

We are contemplating whether we will file a complaint with the State Attorney General’s Office, but in the meantime we have no intention of ever returning to Bus Stop and supporting the abelist agenda of its ignorant and lying owner.

How confident are you that this establishment takes safety precautions against cross-contact?

— Not at all

Is there a gluten-free menu?

— No gluten-free information on the menu

How much of the menu is available gluten-free?

— Not Much/None

How would you rate the taste and quality of the gluten-free food you tried?

— Poor