Disclaimer: When I
review the accessibility of any business or venue, I do so only on the basis of
my own experience with my walker and cane. I don’t know enough about the
experiences of other populations with specific needs such as people who are
blind or deaf to comment on how accessible a place is for them, but I welcome
people who do know to leave comments about their own experiences with the same
location.
Last night my friend who’s a gigantic beer geek was in my
area and he dragged me out to
The Independent Brewing Company, on Shady &
Forbes Aves in Squirrel Hill. In proper Pittsburgh fashion I’ll describe a location
by what used to be there and say that it’s in the place where Fanattics
<sic> used to be. You remember
Fanattics, right? Gross sticky smelly smoky dirty dive bar where they still
allowed smoking and didn’t believe in mopping? Yeah, that place. I’m sure
you’ll understand, given my dislike of the previous establishment, why I
haven’t been in there to check out the remodel under new ownership.
Fortunately I was very pleasantly surprised by the new
space. The Independent Brewing Company has a very comfortable atmosphere,
lived-in but clean, loud but friendly. The space is a bit cramped, though one
of the owners (who happens to be my friend’s cousin) said that they are in the
process of converting the adjacent business (formerly a real estate office) into
a sister business featuring all of their cocktails, allowing The Independent
Brewing Company to focus on its beer and hopefully spreading the crowd out a
bit. I can’t speak for the food because we’d already eaten, although the menu
looked delicious, but my friend vouched for their beer selection’s being pretty
awesome and I loved my Arsenal cider.
From the perspective of my own mobility impairments, I think
The Independent Brewing Company did a fabulous job with their space. Outside
the bar is a set of outdoor tables, most of which are at bar height with
stools, but there is a low-level table there for people using wheelchairs or
who otherwise cannot sit at a bar. It’s not often that I’ve seen that level of
consideration given to people with mobility needs and I was very excited when
the owner was telling us about it.
When I got up to use the lav, I saw a step down from the
front part of the bar to the indoor dining area and, behind that, the
restrooms. Disappointed, I edged around the bar while pondering how best to approach
the owners about the idea of putting in a ramp. I got to the second doorframe
heading down to the dining area… And there was a ramp! Oh frabjous day! I was
super excited to see that the owners had put some thought into making their
restrooms accessible as there are far too many businesses that claim to be
accessible because people with disabilities can get in who do not have
bathrooms that all of their patrons can use. I cannot speak to whether the
width of the door into the bathroom was ADA compliant, but I would definitely
have been able to bring my walker in and have plenty of room to turn it around
and maneuver.
The two negative things I can directly say about The
Independent Brewing Company are that it’s a rather cramped space so making it
through the crowd to get to the ramp down to the dining area and bathrooms
would be difficult for someone using a larger wheelchair, and the main bar
inside is entirely at a standard bar height. I didn’t think to ask if they had
a braille menu, so I would recommend that anyone needing one call ahead to ask.
Overall, I would recommend The Independent Brewing Company albeit
with some small bit of caution for people with disabilities. I’ll certainly be
going back there in the future!
