NEWSY BITS

Problem at Pokez

Pokez Mexican Restaurant came recommended to Brian Glass. So much for the advice of friends. Glass, an honest-to-god rocket scientist who works for NASA, traveled to San Diego in late February to review project proposals. His three sons had a school vacation that week, so the family decided to turn it into a holiday. On Thursday, Feb. 22, they went to Pokez for a late dinner.

The downtown restaurant, popular among the bohemian set, was half empty, Glass said. They easily got a table and prepared to order. One of Glass's three sons is 12-year-old David, a high-functioning autistic child, and that's where the problem began.

“David always orders his own food,” Glass said. “We've been to hundreds of restaurants with no problem. Sometimes he needs a little patience, but that's it.”

David was “mildly cranky” that night and repeated “no ranchero sauce” several times as he placed his order for an omelet.

The female server, Glass said, began mocking him, by inserting “What?” after each repetition.

“She snapped,” Glass said. “She put down her menus, reached over with her right hand, took his arm, leaned over, put her hand on his shoulder, put her mouth an inch or so from his right ear, started screaming at the top of her voice, ‘You can't have an omelet, I'm not going to take anything from this table anymore!'”

She grabbed her menus and stalked off, Glass said.

David fled into the street, chased by his mom. Glass approached the supervisor at the time, standing by the bar.

“I thought I was quite under control,” he said. He asked for another server and an apology from the supervisor.

The supervisor told him that if he couldn't control his son, maybe he should order for him. Then he asked Glass to take his family and leave.

A family friend eating with them that night, Cathy Mullican, corroborated Glass' version of events. Pokez did not respond to numerous phone calls made between Friday, March 2, and press time.

The family retreated to a nearby diner where Glass said his son ordered for himself with no problems from the server.

Glass posted his experience to the online community website LiveJournal, and his entry received hundreds of supportive comments. Other bloggers have picked up the news, from San Diego music blogger Catdirtsez to the local-business site Yelp.com to aggregator Digg.com. Many of the commenters have said they will no longer go to Pokez despite liking the place in the past.

“This is coming from all over the world,” said William Cary, a former board member of the San Diego Autism Society. “Some people are calling for a boycott, but there are others of us who would like to go with our children, and see how they're going to respond, or reevaluate how they treat people.”

The Centers for Disease Control estimates that about 4 million children are born with autism every year, and one in 152 8-year-olds are autistic. Cary believes the Pokez incident tapped a deep reservoir of frustration in the autistic community.

“Everyone has a horror story,” Cary said. “I once had a supermarket clerk ask if my son needed an exorcism.”

Glass filed a police report and has been in contact with the City Attorney's office. At the moment, he doesn't plan to sue, but that could change.

“What I really want out of this is an apology for David,” he said. “He needs to know he didn't do anything wrong.”

-Eric Wolff