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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