The Midtown sit-down gourmet deli La Baguette is in the news today after a blind woman accused the manager of ejecting her from the establishment because she had a seeing eye dog. In a tearful interview with NY1, Irene Sirotta claims she showed documentation to prove Tyler, her dog, was a guide dog, but she was still thrown out, along with a human friend. "Why can't I go in there?" she asks while sobbing. "New York State law says I can. It's not fair. I'm sorry, it's not fair." But we spoke with La Baguette's manager, and he has a very different version of yesterday's incident.
Manager Steven Tasto insists that Sirotta and her unidentified friend went in there looking for trouble. He tells us he knows full well guide dogs and therapy dogs are allowed, and that nobody stopped Sirotta from getting her pizza and taking seat. But he claims that when he asked her friend if she needed help, the woman flew off the handle. "We didn't say anything to to the blind lady," says Tasto. "We asked if they needed help and her friend became very angry. She said, 'Why are you asking?' I said, 'I try to help you, what are you looking for?' She said, 'What are we not allowed to be here?'
"Her friend insulted me and said we're not Americans and we don't know the rules, and I'm a stupid idiot. So I went back to work and ignored her. They were here almost 45 minutes, then they came back to me and said they are going to call the cops. She had to call the cops three times before they came, and they told her, 'This is nothing, why are you complaining?' We saw she was a blind lady. Why would we argue with her? We have a camera that shows us leaving her alone. And she lied to NY1 and said she showed us her guide dog I.D., but she never did that, because we never had a problem with the dog in the first place."
Who to believe?! It may be for the courts to decide. Sirotta told NY1 she plans to file complaint with the state, and somehow we suspect a civil lawsuit isn't beyond the realm of possibility.
