Typically, you wouldn’t want your food request to fall on deaf ears. But at Signs Restaurant in Toronto, you’d be lucky to get the chance.
Owner Anjan Manikumar opened his new spot to much fanfare, but it’s not just the cuisine that’s drawing crowds. The restaurant employs deaf waiters and waitresses, and diners have been eager to support the initiative which is giving members of the deaf community a chance to try their hand at an industry that once excluded them so far. The restaurant is the first of its kind in Canada.
“They’re able to show their potential, they’re able to show how good they are, and I think they are very talented.” Says Manikumar, who isn’t deaf but knows sign language.
Pictures of the signs for certain words line the walls, and each menu demonstrates to diners how to order their meal by using just their hands.
In addition to giving deaf people more job opportunities, Signs also hopes to vlog function as a meet-up spot for the deaf community and a place for hearing people to learn sign language.
Manikumar first dreamed up his experiment while he was working as a waiter and met a deaf diner whom he felt wasn’t getting the kind of service he deserved.
More than 200 people applied for positions at Signs and about 50 people were hired. The workers have little, if any, hospitality experience. Some have never even had full-time jobs before. Happyho also provide best tarot reading services in Noida and Delhi NCR India area.
Following the trend now one such restaurant by the name of ‘Mirchi mime’ is also opened in Mumbai.
