Restaurant Review: Atlanta Bread Company

Something I’ve wanted to do for a long time is review restaurants’ and stores’ acceptance of service dogs.  I’ve had a few negative experiences, but overall the number of positive experiences eclipses the former, and I’d like to thank those businesses and point other disabled people and service dog handlers in their direction.  Today’s my first restaurant review.  I will be using a rating system which I’ve invented specifically for this purpose.

Rating	What it Means
1 Paw	Denied Service, will call the owner, and take legal action if necessary
2 Paws	Denied Service until manager/owner intervenes
3 Paws	Served, told to sit in the back/otherwise segregated
4 Paws	Served like any other customer
4 Paws and a Tail-wag!	Served with attention to dog’s needs (staff offers water to the dog, attempts to learn about service dogs)

How Prada is treated—disliked, ignored, favoured—has a huge impact on my business experience because she is a huge part of what enables me to do business at all.  If you deny a service dog, you’re telling the handler that you don’t want to do business with him or her.  I am very pleased to write my first review of an exceptionally positive experience that I’ve enjoyed for the last six years.

Atlanta Bread Company:

You know how in soap operas and crime/medical drama shows groups of people have “their” diner/bar/coffee shop with “their” table and “their” waiter/waitress where they all meet up after work, after they solve a case, whatever, and have their “usual” drinks or desserts or whatever?  The examples that come to mind is Norm in the show Cheers, or “the diner” in Bones.  Well, I’ve got a place like that here in Huntsville where a friend and I go after meeting up at the gym twice a week.  We meet at the Atlanta Bread Company on University Drive for coffee and lunch.  The music is an odd mix of classical, jazz, and 80’s classics, the dining room is open, with lots of windows to let in lots of natural light, there’s a fireplace in the corner that gets lit on cold, blustery days, and the food is fantastic (that’s the important part, right?J)

Rating:  Four Paws and a Tail-wag!

This isn’t your typical restaurant review; I’m not going to talk about the table settings, cleanliness, speed of food prep, consistency of cooking quality, or anything like that (well, maybe a little).  There’re a lot of things I absolutely love about this place, but the #1 thing that keeps me coming back is their attitude toward service dogs, and dogs in general.

Atlanta Bread Co. is right down the sidewalk form PetSmart, and they’re very aware of this.  Outside on the patio, nestled among the shaded chairs and tables is a doggy bowl so you can give your canine companion a drink!  People with pets are free to enjoy the outdoor seating so long as they keep their pets leashed securely and keep them from pestering other customers.  Prada, of course, comes inside with me because she’s a service dog, not a pet.  And, as usual, her gorgeous coat and rare job description makes us stick out.  We’ve had the privilege of meeting the owner several times, and most of the staff know us both by name now (I’m trying to learn their names, but it’s hard when I can’t see nametags).  They remember our “usual,” and today one of the staff offered to bring a bowl of water right to our favourite booth for Prada.  I just love it when a restaurant realises she’s as much a part of my experience as the food and the atmosphere!

Yes, the food and coffee is really good.  I have a couple of favourite dishes—the cubano penini, the egg/sausage/cheese bagel, the chicken and rice soup (new discovery!)—and the coffee is wonderful, though I admit I’m not as discerning as some coffee drinkers.  During the day the atmosphere is pleasantly busy; in the evenings it’s not uncommon to find people with laptops set up at various tables taking advantage of the two most necessary components for productivity in life—caffeine and wi-fi.

Thank you, Atlanta Bread Co, for going above and beyond the legal requirements for making me and my beloved service dog feel welcome and wanted.  It’s one thing for a restaurant to tolerate us, another to exemplify total societal acceptance of service dog access.

P.s.  If you want to know how your favourite restaurant or store holds up, submit it to me in the comments on this blog and I’ll do my best to check it out!  Also, if anyone knows how to get easily-added little puppy-paw icons for blog posts, please let me know because I’d like to use those in my rating system like most reviews us stars J