Popular Maltese restaurant Vecchia Napoli has apologized for refusing entry to a blind man with a service dog last Sunday. 

The man, Leone Sciberras, was accompanied by Samuel Farrugia, who stole everyone’s heart with his touching interviews last year. Adding insult to injury, the group was also denied entry to another establishment in SkyParks, The Beer Kitchen. 

“This is utterly disgusting and unacceptable,” Leone wrote on Facebook on Sunday evening.

Although Sciberras did not divulge any names of the establishments involved, word on social media quickly spread, and both Vecchia Napoli and The Beer Garden were later identified as the restaurants in question. 

Less than 24 hours after the incident, Vecchia Napoli issued an “important notice”, specifying how they felt this was an unfortunate misunderstanding resulting from the lack of a specific policy on these issues. 

“Before this incident, we had no clear policy regarding guide dogs, and our staff did not know how to deal with it,” the post explained, admitting that the situation was clearly “tackled wrongly”.

They have also promised that they are “working on a complete policy regarding the admittance of dogs to [their] restaurants”, to avoid any possible misunderstandings.

“Before this incident, we had no clear policy regarding guide dogs, and our staff did not know how to deal with it.”

While some people are still upset about the whole situation (regardless of Vecchia Napoli’s apology), others have expressed their appreciation for the establishment’s quick response.

Oliver Scicluna from the National Commission for Equal Rights clarified that all shops are obliged by law to allow blind service dogs into their establishments, and that this law also includes restaurants. 

While places like Vecchia Napoli were very quick to clarify their position and revisit their policies, many people took the opportunity to call out establishments they had similar issues with in the past.

As one person pointed out, however, this should be less about concentrated rage towards particular establishments, and more about promoting awareness about these important, but too often overlooked, rights.

Share this post and let’s help promote awareness on equal rights.

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David Grech Urpani

Lovin Malta's Head of Content, Dave has been in journalism for the better half of the last decade. Prefers Instagram, but has been known to doomscroll on TikTok. Loves chicken, women's clothes and Kanye West (most of the time).