“So Frustrating” — Woman With Disability Denied Elevator Usage by Restaurant Employee

A restaurant patron with a disability was shocked by the response from an employee of the establishment after she asked to the use the location's elevator.

Jacinda (@jacindakkitts) said that she was visiting Zuzu, a restaurant in Detroit, with some friends where they dropped a lot of money on a group dinner.

Following their meal, she asked a worker in the restaurant if she could use the elevator, and instead of being directed toward the lift, she was met with some resistance. After some back and forth with her friend, one of the workers lectured her on not requesting to use the elevator unless she absolutely needed to.

Jacinda's viral clip on the incident accrued over 600,000 views and in it, she stressed how folks with disabilities that aren't readily visible will never ask for assistance unless they absolutely need it. Numerous folks who responded to her clip expressed their sympathy for the TikToker, and criticized the establishment for giving her a hard time about her elevator request.

Jacinda begins her video by recording herself walking on the street while speaking into the camera.

She explains that she has a disability but doesn't really share this information with people.

Due to her condition, she relays that walking up stairs is difficult for her, so she often opts to use elevators instead. Next, she states that she went out to dinner in downtown Detroit, Mich., at a restaurant called Zuzu. While she had complimentary things to say of the establishment's food, she wasn't as keen on the service at the restaurant.

Jacinda states that she and her party were having dinner downstairs and with everyone combined at the restaurant, they gave the establishment "thousands of dollars" worth of business.

After she and her table paid their bill, she stated that one person in her group asked an employee of the chain if there was an elevator she could take to get to the restaurant's second floor.

"The guy goes, 'Yeah, there's an elevator,'" the TikToker states, before explaining that she and her friends headed over there to make it easier for her to access the second floor of the restaurant.

However, upon reaching the area, Jacinda and her friend soon realized that there was an issue.

Next, she pre-empts what she's about to say in her video by saying that she can get up the stairs in a pinch if she needs to. This is why she didn't end up making a big deal about what subsequently transpired at the restaurant.

They didn't see the elevator at this part of the restaurant, so Jacinda's friend asks one of the workers of the restaurant where it's located.

"And the guy, like the bodyguard, the bouncer or whatever at the stairs goes, 'Sorry it's only a service elevator for employees.' And I go, 'No big deal, I don't want any fuss, you know. No big deal.'"

However, Jacinda's friend wasn't happy with that response and was intent on ensuring that her friend (the TikToker recording the video) was able to ride the elevator.

"And she goes, 'No, do you have an elevator, we need an elevator.' And he goes, 'No,' and she goes, 'We need an elevator.' So he gets someone else and then that person comes over to us and he goes, 'Who actually needs an elevator?' And she goes, 'We do.'"

Jacinda said that while she didn't want any fuss, she felt like that at this point in the conversation with the restaurant employees, both she and her friend felt "committed" to getting the elevator. "It's 2025, we're in Detroit we're in a big city, it's like, things should be ADA, you know, so, so I go, 'Yeah like can we use the elevator?' No big deal."

Finally, one of the employees of the business acquiesces to her response and he says, "Yeah, that's fine I guess."

However, his compliance wasn't without "huffing and puffing," she states. Further highlighting the ridiculousness of the situation, Jacinda says that they ended up walking "two feet" over to the elevator in question.

Next, she says, "He looks me up and down ... At this point he can tell it's me, I have a little bit of a limp, you know. He looks me up and down and he goes, 'Don't use an elevator if you don't need one.' And I said to him, I go, 'You are so lucky that I am so nice. I can tell that you have a heart of gold and you just, you don't know what you don't know.'"

She went on to scold the employee for his remark, saying, "You should never, if someone asks you to use an elevator, it's never because they're lazy, and you have treated me so unkindly that I truly pray that you learn from this because I have a disability. That you would never know about. And I just feel bad for you."

Jacinda went on to state that her "friends made a fuss about it" and that the comments from the employee were "very hurtful." Ultimately, she says that as a result of her telling off the employee and her friends' subsequent outrage at his commentary, she ended up getting "free Champagne" out of the exchange.

However, at the end of her clip, she urged folks who have disabilities to refrain from visiting the establishment due to the way that she was treated there.