A singer-songwriter from New Jersey was understandably upset when an upscale restaurant presented her with a birthday dessert that included an insensitive message referencing her wheelchair.
Antonia Sinbaldi was celebrating her 29th birthday at Blu on the Hudson in Weehawken, NJ, in June, enjoying a meal with friends and family. She decided to order an Apple Tart Tatin for dessert, only to find the plate adorned with the phrase, “Happy Wheel Chair Birthday”—all written in sauce.
In a video she shared during the celebration, a sweet dish that included puff pastry, vanilla ice cream, and salted caramel was presented with the cruel note. “Not to complain about a fairly new restaurant in my town, but why would you make my dessert say this?” she reflected on Instagram. “What was written on my plate probably set my employee off more than me. I would never expect that in my town.”
Sinbaldi relies on a motorized wheelchair and a ventilator after sustaining a cervical spinal injury from a car accident with a drunk driver when she was just two years old. The inappropriate message left her stunned. “My body started shaking, body started spasming. My body reacted faster than my mouth or my mind,” she recounted to WNBC.
After recovering from the initial shock, Sinbaldi and her companions addressed the restaurant’s management, which opened in 2023, about the inappropriate message.
She claimed her party was offered complimentary drinks to make up for the incident. “It offended me. This whole thing doesn’t sound real,” Sinbaldi expressed to the news outlet.
The restaurant explained that a misunderstanding had occurred among staff regarding the dessert order, clarifying that the birthday treat was meant for Sinbaldi, the diner in the wheelchair. “We sincerely apologize to the guest and to everyone who was hurt or offended by this incident which took place on June 20, 2026. Treating every guest with dignity, respect, and care is fundamental to who we are as a company,” the restaurant stated in a communication to WCBS.
They continued, “Our standard operating procedure is to use table and seat numbers on tickets to identify where each dish should be delivered. In this case, the term ‘wheelchair’ was meant as a reference to identify the guest. Unfortunately, that notation was misinterpreted and made it onto the plate itself. There was absolutely no malicious or disrespectful intent behind it. However, we fully understand how seeing that word written on a plate could be deeply hurtful and upsetting.”
Sinbaldi found fault with the restaurant’s explanation, branding it a “bs response.” “My chair is not my identity,” she stated on Instagram. “Like I said, my body was reacting faster than my mind so I couldn’t leave that fast.”
As a disability rights advocate, she urged others to learn from this birthday incident. “Don’t bring my disability [up] in every sentence, is what people, they should know,” she advised the outlet.
