Man with a service dog denied service at a Naples restaurant, employee facing discrimination charge

A stop to grab a pizza ended with a man and his service dog getting kicked to the curb, as  Naples police say an employee at Rosati’s Pizza refused to serve the man because of his dog.

The owner of Rosati’s Pizza, Angelo Pilalis, says it won’t happen again at his business and that the employee involved has been let go..

Pilalis is now extending an olive branch in the hope of making things right.

“We know that [the employee is] wrong, we know we’re wrong,” said Pilalis. “And so we’d like to make it right.”

He is upset and angry that one of his employees could step so far out of line. He says his 19-year-old employee Carl Ohlhaber, embarrassed him, his business and his other customers. Most importantly, he embarrassed a man with a service animal who just wanted to place an order.

“What he did was wrong. And we apologize for that. It wasn’t a good thing that happened,” said Pilalis.

The police report says a man, who has a medical condition that his dog helps curtail, went into the pizza shop with that small service vest-wearing dog. They say Ohlhaber told him to leave.

“What he did was, you know, he humiliated people,” Pilalis said. And not only did he humiliate the man with a medical condition but many of Rosati’s other customers.