The Last Run Lounge at Pico is by far the worst dining establishment in the area (and hands down the worst of all the dining establishments I've ever been to at any ski resort) for a multitude of reasons, particularly if you are disabled or a person of color.
First, when our server realized our table consisting of mostly Jewish folks and people of color was closing its tab, she adamantly demanded in front of the whole party that we tip on our full total, not the total after the discount we received for my husband being an employee over at Killington. (That's never happened before, and we had already intended to tip on the full check regardless. Bizarrely rude!) She also initially questioned my husband on the validity of his employee card, which has also never happened in our almost daily visits to the establishments there. How insulting...
After sharing a beer and eating the lounge's overpriced bowling alley food (I had already eaten at home.), I left the table and slowly sipped another beer for about an hour, watching the band. I'd stayed back, as my friends went back out for a couple of runs. Then I thought I'd be nice and pay the tab my friends had been affectionately arguing over before going out. (I thought that my husband had settled on keeping it open for me, but I would later find out from a very aggressive bartender that I was mistaken.)
I'm under 5 feet tall, so after standing and waiting patiently for almost a half hour at a bar that was not busy, I had to speak up and politely say, "excuse me," for the bar tender, Tommy, to notice I even existed. I also have high functioning autism, so I'll admit I'm a bit socially awkward. When he finally acknowledged me, and I asked to close a tab, he very aggressively came back and said there was no tab for our table.
Pleasantly surprised, I thought as an alternative nice gesture, I'd greet my husband after his last run of the day with a can of the beer he liked when he returned to the lodge. I guess this Tommy guy had never met a high functioning autistic person or had proper inclusion training, because he abruptly sniveled, "I'm not serving you," down his nose at me, and turned his back.
I said, "Excuse me, what did I do?"
He turned back around and replied, "I believe you're intoxicated."
"Because I'm autistic? I don't understand. I had a beer and a half over the course of hours." I asked him if it was my height and if he needed my ID? I'd waited almost 30 minutes just to be helped.
So, instead of treating me like a human being and interacting with me any further, he got his manager to come out and smugly grin at me as I explained what happened, trying not to cry, so nervous and confused that I was shaking. I told the manager that the restaurant should treat disabled people with some dignity. But I believe he assumed I was just a rich brat who wanted to beg for a beer the bartender denied me, and he dismissed me. As an autistic person, it's hard to communicate the way most people do in loud, busy environments. But he didn't believe me that I had a disability, and assumed I was just drunk, so he just rolled his eyes.
The racist waitress then chimed in with a highly inflated estimate of the amount of beers I'd had, actually mocking me when I corrected her on the number and explained I actually hadn't drank all of those two beers. (My husband always drinks part of my beer, because I don't like it once it gets warm.) She had already given our party a horrible attitude the entire time she served us, despite how polite we continued to be regardless.
When the manager asked me what I wanted at the end of it all, I wasn't even trying to fight being cut off from getting a beer. I was just so disheartened and appalled that they would treat a person with so much dismissive hostility and mocking judgment, simply based on the fact that they appear or communicate differently than what they're used to. It felt as though I'd been transported to some bygone era when that sort of discrimination was ok.
When my husband later came in to complain, Tommy's explanation for his behavior was that, when I came in, I "already seemed mad." This was blatantly false. (I stood there patiently for 30 minutes, and continued to be polite towards him even after he had become increasingly rude.) The racist waitress also changed her story about the amount she thought I drank. We still had our receipt. Apparently, it sounds as though they were nearly as mocking and dismissive towards him as they were to me, according to his account...
I'm sad to say that none of this is surprising, since every time I visit Pico, I end up being harassed by at least one staff member due to my disabilities. Last time it was out on the mountain. They see the characteristics of an autistic person as suspicious or insubordinate and we become targets of people on power trips. That's a pattern of discrimination. I feel very unwelcome at Pico as a person with autism. read more
