Antonia Sinbaldi, a singer from New Jersey, had her 29th birthday ruined when a dessert arrived with a message that appeared to make her wheelchair the punchline.
The restaurant has now explained how the words ended up on her plate and apologized for the incident.
The songwriter was celebrating with friends and family when she received the dessert, and has since shared her experience on social media.
Highlights
- A New Jersey woman was shocked after receiving a birthday dessert reading “Happy Wheelchair Birthday.”
- Antonia Sinbaldi said her body began shaking and spasming after seeing the message.
- The restaurant said an internal table note had been misunderstood and accidentally written on the plate.
“Disgusting! Maybe someone you love or even you might use a wheelchair someday,” wrote one commenter.
A New Jersey woman was left “shaking” after a restaurant mentioned her disability in a message
While having dinner with friends and family, she ordered an Apple Tart Tatin, which comes with puff pastry, vanilla ice cream, and salted caramel.
But when the dessert arrived, Sinbali noticed something very different about her plate. Written in sauce were the words, “Happy Wheelchair Birthday.”
Sinbaldi has lived with a severe spinal cord injury since she was 2. She was injured in a car crash involving a drunk driver and has used a motorized wheelchair ever since. She also requires help with eating, drinking, and breathing, and has used a ventilator.
Sinbaldi said the message made her feel physically ill.
“Body started shaking, body started spasming. My body reacted faster than my mouth or my mind,” Sinbaldi told WNBC.
Later on the same day, she shared the incident on her Instagram, asking why her disability had been brought into what was supposed to be a birthday celebration.
“Not to complain about a fairly new restaurant in my town, but why would you make my dessert say this?”
She continued, “What was written on my plate probably set my employee off more than me. I would never expect that in my town.”
Sinbaldi and her friends asked the restaurant’s manager for an explanation
Sinbaldi said the group was offered complimentary drinks, but she was still confused about why the message had appeared on her dessert in the first place.
“It offended me. This whole thing doesn’t sound real,” she said.
The incident also sparked a debate among people who saw the story online.
Some believed the restaurant staff had made an innocent mistake. One commenter wrote, “Obviously that was a note saying which guest the cake was for, and the staff thought it was part of the message.”
On the other hand, some believed the writing itself raised questions, saying, “It looks like the word ‘wheelchair’ was photoshopped in there or was written by a different person. It is not the same handwriting.”
Others were far less forgiving.
The restaurant was forced to explain their actions after receiving backlash
On August 25, Blu on the Hudson released a statement explaining what had happened.
The restaurant said employees normally use table and seat numbers on their tickets to identify where food should be delivered.
However, in this case, the word “wheelchair” had been used as a reference to identify the table where the birthday dessert with a candle needed to go.
According to the statement, another staff member misunderstood that internal note and ended up writing the word on the plate itself.
“Unfortunately, that notation was misunderstood and was written on the plate itself,” the restaurant said.
The restaurant apologized to Sinbaldi and anyone else hurt or offended by what happened.
“We sincerely apologize to the guest and to everyone who was hurt or offended by this incident,” management said.
The restaurant also insisted that the word was not intended as an insult.
“There was absolutely no malicious or disrespectful intent behind the notation,” the statement said.
“We fully understand how seeing that word written on a plate could be deeply hurtful and upsetting.”
Lastly, the restaurant clarified that it had also taken steps to reinforce its procedures so a similar misunderstanding would not happen again.
The restaurant’s explanation did little to calm Sinbaldi
The singer described the restaurant's response as a “bs response.”
She also said the incident showed why people need to think carefully about how they refer to someone’s disability.
Sinbaldi went on to explain that she does not object to people knowing that she uses a wheelchair, but her frustration was that the wheelchair became the defining feature of her birthday dessert.
“My chair is not my identity. Like I said, my body was reacting faster than my mind, so I couldn’t leave that fast.”
“Don’t bring my disability [up] in every sentence,” she said.
She also said she did not plan to return to the restaurant.
"No malice intended." Viewers debated whether the message was offensive or not
