Hello All,
Here is my (long awaited?) summary on the relationship question I posed:
what to do when a relative or friend tells you (in front of the restaurant) that
she cannot eat there. And you (that is me) had looked forward to eating at
that particular restaurant for several years, were from out of town, and had
driven over an hour to get to the restaurant. In addition, the restaurant
was well known as a nice place to have a gf meal.
I asked for your opinion on what you would do in this situation. The vast
majority said I should have found another place to eat (about 30). The other
suggestion made (about 10) was to get take out and find somewhere to eat
outside. Only a couple of you said that, because of my long desire to go to
Storytellers Café (SC), that it would be OK to “go it alone.”
Finding another restaurant:
When I called Julie the night before and asked, “Would you like to meet us
at Storytellers for lunch?” I thought of SC as more of an event or
destination, like going ESPN Zone or the Hard Rock Café, rather than just a place to
have lunch. But I realize (especially now) that she didn’t know that. Somehow
the name “SC” itself, the beautiful menu cover with pictures from different
stories which I had seen years before, and that in recent years I learned
from this list serve that SC happily accommodates a gf diet -- all these things
motivated me to want go there. When we met up in front of the restaurant, I
continued to have this idea fixed in my mind. Looking back, and after reading
your opinions, I wish I had been more flexible when Julie said she could not
eat at SC because of the smoke from the fireplace.
I was aware of one other restaurant at the Grand Californian. Chances are
it also had a fireplace. Although I did not go through this scenario in my
head at the time, it probably would have been difficult to find a restaurant
in which to eat. Julie has such severe sensitivities that, when she drives
cross country to visit relatives, will book hotel rooms but not stay in them.
She only uses the toilet and sleeps in her vehicle (a small camper). Only
rarely is air in the hotel room and bathroom “clean” enough for her to spend
the time needed to also take a shower. If we had gone to another restaurant
and a customer there was wearing perfume, she might have to leave that place
as well.
Get Take Out:
Some suggested getting take-out and finding a place to eat outside, but
take-out would not have worked this particular day because it was an unusually
cool (almost cold) and windy day in the Disney area.
…………………………..
The suggestion to go elsewhere, or at least to try to (whether the effort
was successful or not) is probably the best thing to do in such a situation
(given that the weather was not cooperative). Even if we didn’t find another
restaurant which was suitable, I would have at least made the effort to
accommodate Julie.
Lisa from Chicago wrote, “I hope things resolved all right, but I'm
guessing from your posting the situation to the group, it didn't. I hope you are
able to resolve the situation. :-)” She was right. Next, "the rest of the
story."
Rose
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