Watch: San Francisco’s first Deaf restaurant

Usually we wouldn’t link to a commercial video, but this one was too good to miss.

Deaf Americans Melody and Russ Stein have opened San Francisco’s first deaf restaurant, called Mozzeria. They employ a range of Deaf staff, and explain the reaction of the diners (when they realise everyone is Deaf and uses ASL!) in the video.

I’ve always wondered why the UK doesn’t have a well-known Deaf-run restaurant or bar. Surely London, or one of the other major cities has room for an eatery which employs Deaf staff who use BSL with the customers?

As the video shows, a well-run Deaf restaurant can be hit with customers (if your food is as good as Mozzeria’s clearly is) and also achieves the stealth effect of introducing hearing people to Deaf culture in a positive way.

By Charlie Swinbourne, Editor

The Limping Chicken is supported by Deaf media company Remark!, training and consultancy Deafworks, and provider of sign language services Deaf Umbrella.