Yesterday afternoon my friends and I traveled to Home Plate in Taunton to meet my good friend Deraman for lunch. I heard about this place from Kellie and Deraman as they have been here before and they said I should check it out. Well I was very pleased to find Home Plate is fully wheelchair accessible and very wheelchair friendly:>)
When we arrived we noticed the beautiful, huge wheelchair accessible ramp located in front of the building. The ramp has rod iron railings on both sides for added safety. There are five handicap accessible parking spaces located in the front of the parking lot on the inside area of the building.
Inside the entry door, there are stairs leading up to the hostess counter. I traveled up the spacious ramp and got to the top where there’s a large deck area and another set ofentry doors.
In the summer time this area is filled with wheelchair accessible tables and two flat screen TV’s to watch different sporting events while enjoying the food, drinks and weather. You can see a nice pond accross the street from here which is really a nice view.
The hostess happened to be standing by the entry door and opened the door immediately upon our arrival for none of the four doors are automatic. Once inside, I was pleased to see that the hostess counter, which is located at the top of the stairs is of a decent wheelchair accessible height.
Inside Home Plate is very nice and spacious, with plenty of room for me to maneuver my Power Chair between tables. The hostess told us we could sit at any available table. In the center of the room there is a beautiful fireplace and there are two table-booths located on each side of it. These table-booths are very accessible; they have a booth seat on the rear side and accessible seating for a chair or wheelchair on the outside. Other customers were eating at these accessible tables so we sat at another accessible table in the dining room.
Our waiter was very courteous and friendly, taking the time to take my order. The food is reasonably priced and delicious. There are many other accessible tables in the middle of the dining room as well. It’s a very cozy atmosphere. There are many flat screen TV’s located on the wall in various areas of the dining room, the bar and the lounge. All the TV’s are easy for me to see.
We were greeted by the manager Tom Downey a very nice man who also took the time to show us around and answer all of our questions. There’s a really cool baseball bat display located right outside the Men’s room which is very easy for me to view from my wheelchair.
The Men’s and Women’s room are fully wheelchair accessible and ADA compliant. The handicap stall is large with two safety bars located at a perfect height on the side and rear wall of the toilet; the accessible sink is of a perfect height for my wheelchair with the pipes underneath covered which is now ADA required; the faucet, automatic soap dispenser and automatic hand dryer are easily within my reach.
From here, Tom Downey led to the bar room. The bar is not wheelchair accessible, as most bars are not; and the tall tables in this room weren’t accessible either. However, Tom immediately placed an accessible table that was of a perfect height for my wheelchair next to the tall tables. Tom told us that he will leave this table here for wheelchair seated customers to use. My friends and I were really impressed with the immediate change!!
We were also pleased to see that there are plenty of accessible tables in the lounge area by the bar where the Karaoke stage is located. There are accessible tables as well as more table-booths that are very accessible.
Before we left, we stopped by the bar; I elevated my wheelchair seat on my Permobil C350 Power Chair to see if I could fit my chair at the bar. I was pleased to see that I could. My friends and I really enjoyed the great food and atmosphere at Home Plate.
I give Home Plate FOUR STARS for wheelchair accessibility, as they would need to install an automatic entry door to earn the Fifth Star. I give Tom and his employees FIVE PLUS STARS for outstanding customer service and the courtesy of immediately placing accessible seating in the bar room for persons with physical disabilities. THANK YOU TOM!