Village Cafe Apologizes After Asking Wounded Veteran to Remove Service Dog

A disabled war veteran was asked to take his service dog outside The Village Cafe in Centreville Wednesday.

One of the owners told the veteran that he could not sit inside with the dog, Patch has learned. The Americans With Disabilities Act requires that service dogs be allowed inside public establishments. After Patch contacted the restaurant, the owners of the family-run establishment apologized. 

"What we did was wrong. We fully admit that we made a mistake," said Sherwin Aminifar, who runs a Village Cafe food truck. He was not present this afternoon and was unaware of the situation until Centreville Patch informed him.

Patch was able to verify the incident, but the veteran involved has not returned requests for a comment. 

Aminifar called the incident "an honest mistake." He said that the person who asked that the animal be removed has a phobia of dogs, had little knowledge of service animals' functions and was unaware of the Americans With Disabilities Act requirements. 

"What we did was wrong, we fully admit that we made a mistake," Aminifar said. 

Within hours, though, a furor had erupted online. By 5 p.m., nearly 50 angry notes were posted on the Village Cafe's Facebook wall (most of which were no longer visible by time of publication).

"Boycotted!! You people are a joke!" wrote one Facebook user. "You Don't serve army Veterans With Service Dogs. Shame. You Will Not Get My Business!!" wrote another. 

Aminifar said that he was stunned by the venom in some of the notes, directed at a small, Mom-and-Pop style restaurant that's been in the community since 1996. 

"Our wall has been blowing up. It's been crazy actually," he said. "I've never seen anything like this in my life."

Aminifar said that he has tried to reach the veteran via Facebook to apologize, and that anyone who has a service dog is welcome at the Village Cafe. 

"We just made an honest mistake and all we can do is ask for forgiveness from the people," he said.