At Contento, a new restaurant in New York City, half the bar is low enough so that people in wheelchairs can come right up and order a drink, without the awkwardness of the bartender or the rest of their party having to look down at them.

"There's a power dynamic that's quite annoying," said the restaurant's beverage director, Yannick Benjamin, who uses a wheelchair, of typical bar setups. "I'm looking at you and I've got to strain my neck."

But at his new bar, it's going to be different. "Now we're actually looking eye to eye at each other," he said.

The restaurant, which opens in East Harlem on Thursday, was designed both by and for people with disabilities. (Benjamin's business partner, George Gallego, also uses a wheelchair.) The space between tables is wide enough to let wheelchairs pass through; there's a QR code on the menu that people with visual impairments can scan with their phones to have the menu read out loud to them; the bathroom is on the same floor as the restaurant instead of down a flight of stairs, for example.

"The key is that anyone who has a disability would be able to walk in here freely and comfortably," Benjamin told TODAY Food.

The idea was inspired by his own struggles navigating restaurants after getting in a car accident when he was 25 years old.

At the time, he was working as a sommelier at two high-end restaurants in New York City. One night, he was on his way home when he hydroplaned on the West Side Highway and crashed into a tree.

"I felt this incredible, weird feeling all throughout my lower body, almost this kind of magnetic pull — like when you're pulling open the refrigerator," said Benjamin, 43. "At that point, I tried to move and I was like, 'Oh my Lord, my legs are not moving.'"