Accessibility Is a Right. This Restaurant Treats It That Way.

Contento, in East Harlem, sets an example for an industry that is rarely welcoming to diners with disabilities.

As I write each week’s restaurant review, I call an owner to ask whether somebody in a wheelchair would be able to enter the dining room and enjoy a meal. By that time, I’ve already eaten there and spent a few minutes looking around for features that might make a space inaccessible, like steps, narrow passageways and small restrooms. When I file the review, I will summarize minor obstacles (“A short step up from the sidewalk can be bridged by a movable ramp”). If the obstacles are major, as they sometimes are in a city full of old, narrow buildings that can’t easily be altered, I’ll write that the restaurant is not accessible. Night after night, I see restaurants that are theoretically wheelchair accessible. What I rarely see are wheelchairs. And I’m ashamed to admit I never thought very hard about that until my first meal at a new restaurant in East Harlem called Contento. Two of its owners use wheelchairs, and they designed Contento so that they and others like them would be as comfortable as possible.