Mr. Purple — Restaurant in New York

This following review is based off of a situation that I encountered on the early morning of May 7th. To start off, I want to note that I was born with a very rare medical condition that causes me to limp. Thankfully, it is a mild case and I am able to still do daily activities and walk without any assistance (no wheelchair, no walkers, no crutches) or special accommodations.

This past weekend my friends and I celebrated my birthday in the city. After dinner and drinks on Saturday, we decided to go back to the hotel we were staying at, Hotel Indigo, and check out the popular rooftop bar in the hotel, Mr. Purple to continue a night of fun. Once stepping off of the elevator, I was approached by an employee right away who asked very condescendingly “What’s wrong with you?” I didn’t answer right away because I was shocked someone was speaking to me in a rude manner. My friends were telling him “No she’s fine she was born with a disability” He replied with “No, I’m talking to her. I want her to answer. So what’s wrong with you?” I said “I was born like this.” Right away, he said “No you can’t come in”

At that moment, another employee came and asked what was happening which is when my friends started to argue with him saying how his colleague was rude and disrespectful. The whole time, I was standing in shock and I started to cry. I heard him say “We’re so sorry, you can come in. We have space for you” after my friend started to defend me. So why did one say that I’m not allowed in but the other said that I am? But of course at that point, I wanted to leave. I was already upset and told my friends I wanted to go.

Again, I want to state that I do NOT require any special accommodations. I did not ask for a ramp, I did not ask for a wheelchair. I walked in on my own accord. I cannot help that I was born with a disability. We had even just come from a lounge before this where we had no issues. I was walking in and out of the establishment and no one was telling me I couldn’t go in.

In my 28 years, never have I ever encountered any sort of discrimination like this. I have gone to many bars, restaurants, and clubs with no issues. I have never felt so disrespected and singled out because of the way I was spoken to and being treated.

No one can help the fact that they were born with a disability, that doesn’t mean they should be treated any differently. If you are curious about someone’s disability, there are better ways to ask about it. One thing that people can control is how rude and disrespectful they are towards someone whether they have a disability or not.

I was excited to visit Mr. Purple since I’ve always heard great things about it and it’s upsetting I wasn’t able to have a great experience. I hope this brings awareness to everyone that there are nicer ways to go about a situation you are unsure about. Don’t ever be rude or disrespectful to anyone because you never know what they are...

I waited to share a review on the location as I initially reached out to management about the below, but as it was not addressed at all, I wanted to make sure others were aware.

I came to Mr. Purple a few weeks ago with a friend, as we were invited by someone who was hosting on behalf of Mr. Purple. My friend and I arrived around midnight, there was no crowd or line at the time.

Immediately upon arrival the bouncers were standoffish. They misunderstood that a man behind us was in our party and said that we couldnt come in as he was in sweatpants. When we clarified that he wasnt with us, the bouncer then just said "not tonight". We were pretty confused considering we had been invited by someone who was hosting the list. The bouncer then made a comment about our skin colors being part of the reason we werent allowed in. We were both very shocked. The bouncers continued to be aggressive while I tried to reach the person who had invited us to address the situation, effectively getting in our faces (it seemed like they wanted us to make a scene).

I reached out to someone I knew involved in management on the back of this, and was told they would look into it. It appears that the bouncers said "we were too drunk" which was completely inaccurate given we were denied immediately upon walking up, and had had one or two drinks before coming by. Ironically, the sweatpants guy was allowed when he went in with a group of non-POCs.... so clearly the attire policy was only relevant given he was with us.

If you scroll through other reviews here, youll see unfortunately many similar stories from other women and people of color, so I encourage you all to be careful if you do choose to come here. I've been going out in night life for about 10 years in NYC and never have had such an instance occur, but it seems that this has been escalating over the last few months at Mr. Purple as they have...

So much to say here. Friday night at Mr.Purple. First. Let's start with the hour wait just to get in. Which there is no reason for, because when you get up there its practically empty. Empty tables everywhere, I was trying to understand why there's such a long wait. Can't figure it out. Second. The staff is hit or miss. The waitresses are nice and helpful. But if you need something from the bar, forget it. Enjoy your 20 minute wait for the bartender to even acknowledge you. You can stand there till the next day, maybe then you can order. The female bartenders are nice. The male bartender was a jerk for no reason (there was only one male bartender). He ignored us for 30 minutes and had rude behavior. If he can't handle customers then he shouldn't be bartending. Also drink prices are 15+ with tax each, which is expensive in my opinion. If you need more staff, then the Mr.Purple management should hire accordingly. Now let's talk about security. The "security manager" is so arrogant and full of himself. He repeatedly told me he was the security manager, like he didn't have a name. He said the words security manager about 10 times in one sentence. Like I'm deaf. Not only is he Not managerial material, they prey on people to kick out for no reason at all. I feel if you don't fit into there "type" here, get ready to get kicked out for no reason. The views are great. But its not worth it for the experience I had here. I honestly regret coming. I didn't choose to come here, but we were here to celebrate a friends birthday. Final thought: if you want to waste your time and money, as well as to get disrespected by the bartender and security manager, then...