Italian To Go / Bit Of Italy — Restaurant in Nampa

My name is Steve Neff and the following is my experience with this restaurant: I called for a reservation on the 13 of October at approximately 3 PM for 3 people and 1 Service Dog. The young lady that took the reservation said happily that she'd see us at 5:30 PM. We were in our vehicle heading for the restaurant at 5:15 PM when I received a call that we, the humans, were still welcome but the dog would not be allowed entrance to the restaurant. I informed them that I was a 100% disabled American veteran and my dog was a service dog. Service dogs, according to the Americans With Disabilities Act, and Idaho Law, are to be allowed entry to any facility that I am permitted to go. The young lady who called to tell me about the refusal didn't have an answer as to why my service dog wasn't allowed and passed me on the another young lady who stated that they had a "right to refuse service to anyone". Kind of odd as they hadn't met me or were willing to listen as to why I need a service dog. And they didn't appear to care. I was then given to a young man who stated that "we have a lot of people coming in at 5:30 for dinner and the dog would not be allowed in the restaurant." At this point he simply hung up on me. So instead of pushing it as my wife's daughter was here from North Carolina and dinner was our treat, we went to Chapala's where we have always been welcomed. I urged the restaurant to contact the Nampa Police as they surely would be able to explain the law to them better than I was doing.

I've had her in hospitals, my service dog was in the room where they did a recent heart procedure, my wife took her out for the procedure, but right back in after, then in offices, church, doctors visits, and nearly every restaurant in the city. Only 2 other businesses have either thrown us out or denied us entry. Imelda's in Caldwell and the barbershop next to Imelda's. I wasn't happy about it but let it go.

So here's the deal with Italian to go: If you have a service dog as a blind guide dog, you are not welcome, if you have a medical alert service dog, you are not welcome, if you have a service dog for any reason you are not welcome here. They could care less if you are a disabled combat veteran, person in a wheelchair, or have any disability that requires the use of a service dog simply go elsewhere. They were rude, blatantly disobeyed the law of the Federal government and the State of Idaho.

If you do go to this restaurant you are enabling the place to discriminate against those who not only have a right, but who have a medical need, to continue to be discriminated against. And the police will not help you. Even when I spoke to them about this incident they declined to issue them a citation.

Thanks for your time reading this missive. Steve

Mr. Miceli says he knows me. I've only been to this place once several years ago. Before I got my service dog. He has never met me and my dog is not a German Shepherd. As far as your attitude Mr. Miceli your responses fairly well equates to the nasty way you treated me. Quit bothering you? I have only just begun to expose your lack of knowledge about the ADA, Idaho law, and...

First off this place is completely horrible and I had really high expectations for it, my coworker said to go here because she had the best Valentine’s Day dinner ever. She said it was better than Olive Garden. But after waiting for my food for TWO hours, we had to ask for it to go because we really didn’t want to sit there for any longer. Our waitress also rarely checked on us and the male waitress that she was working with had gotten three tables in and out within the time period that we were there (which we didn’t even receive any food)

We sat down and for the first 15 minutes we didn’t receive any menus or any waters. Which I get that it’s busy so I wasn’t very upset about that I am understanding. She then brought us the menus after 30 minutes of us sitting there. Then gave us another 30 minutes to look over the menu which we done ordered. We waited 15 more minutes and we saw the other tables had received bread, so we were curious where ours was. My boyfriend had gotten her attention and she just blew us off, which she then walked by it several times knowing that we needed her service. She finally came back 20 minutes later and said “what was your question” my boyfriend then proceeded to say “oh we were just wondering where the bread was” she then got us bread. But this was an hour and 30 minutes after we had sat down, which we already ordered food and A normal time to be eating is within an hour so this being an hour and 30 minutes after we sat down and we haven’t even received bread yet was very concerning to us.

We then got really anxious because we had to leave to get to a movie on time, so we gave her 10 more minutes just to see if the food will come out because it had been almost 2 hours. The food didn’t come out within 10 minutes even though she said it was ready like 20 minutes ago. So we decided we would just pay the bill and leave even though we hadn’t even gotten our food and we just been eating bread the past hour (which they only gave us two pieces of bread) we tried to pay the bill with a different server because we couldn’t find ours anywhere, which they said that they couldn’t ring us up. So we just waited until we saw our server she finally brought the food in a to go bag because we just need to get out of there. We then saw her go over to ring us up, then they started laughing I don’t know why but we think it’s because we heard someone say “ two hours” then laughed. So we assumed it was about how we have been there for the past two hours and haven’t gotten our food and they were mocking us.

Not gonna sugarcoat it but we did tip zero dollars because waiting two hours for food and not even eating it at the restaurant is absolutely ridiculous, and to only get two pieces of bread after waiting an hour and a half at a table.. like really. We have never had worse service in OUR LIVES.

We ate the food in the car, it was good but not worth the wait of two hours. Maybe 20 minutes but still I will not be returning to this establishment unless they get their staffing under control and trained properly. Not to mention this was our 4 year anniversary dinner and it completely ruined...

Super disappointed in this place. I’ve always thought of it as a good option for gluten-free pizza, but this last experience was really frustrating. I ordered pickup, and while the prices seemed high, I brushed it off since everything is more expensive these days. Then I looked at the receipt and saw they had charged $4 for each small 5oz cup of ranch and $16 for what was supposed to be a simple side salad. On top of that, my pizza was already lukewarm—even though they called me to pick it up and I arrived just 3 minutes later.

This isn’t the first issue I’ve had. A few weeks ago, my partner and I came in after checking online to confirm they offered gluten-free options. The first waitress told me flat-out that they didn’t have any. When I mentioned what Google and their website said, she went and got another waitress. Thankfully, the second waitress was kind and explained that they do have gluten-free options, and that the first was just being difficult. I was grateful because this was the third restaurant in downtown Nampa we had tried that night to find somewhere safe for me to eat.

Eating gluten-free isn’t a choice for me—it’s a medical necessity. If I get exposed, I can be sick for days and it damages my body. That’s why it felt uncomfortable and honestly scary to have my allergy dismissed like it was just an inconvenience.

I hope this business learns from this. If you’re going to advertise gluten-free options, please make sure your staff is trained and treats those requests with respect. And let people know up front if you’re going to charge $4 for ranch or $16 for a salad—it shouldn’t be a surprise after the fact. My husband called and the waitress agreed the ranch prices were ridiculous and apologized and offered to refund for the ranch but needed my card to recharge the other food, and she read my card number and security code out loud assuming at the front register in from of other customers. This whole experience made me...