A Florida couple was charged $50 (£41) for being ‘unable to parent’ their children by a restaurant apparently out of patience with unruly youngsters.
Diners opening their menus at Toccoa Riverside Restaurant, tucked inside Georgia’s Blue Ridge Mountain, are greeted by a simple rule: ‘No respect, no service.’
And this comes with a price, as the menu’s bill of fare says: ‘Adult surcharge: For adults unable to parent $$$.’
Toccoa Riverside has long been a hot spot for vacationing families keen to tuck into rainbow trout and enjoy the sweeping vistas and meandering nature of the surrounding mountain range.
Among them was Kyle and Lyndsey Landmann, who when they swung by Toccoa Riverside earlier this month thought the surcharge was a joke at first.
Lyndsey, 36, told TODAY.com: ‘I remember thinking, “No way is this real.”‘
The Landmanns visited the waterfront restaurant with four other families, with 11 children aged between three and eight sitting around the table.
After finishing their meal, the owner, Tim Richter, beelined it to them with the menu in his hand, Lyndsey says.
‘At first, I thought he was gonna compliment us and be like, “But you won’t be charged because your kids were so well-behaved,”‘ she told the morning news programme.
Instead, Ritcher informed them that they’d be charged $50 per bill for breaking their ‘unable to parent’ rule.
‘He got in our faces and told us that we belonged at Burger King and not at his restaurant,’ she claimed.
‘We asked to speak to the owner and he said he was the owner. I looked around the restaurant and everybody was frozen watching this show he was putting on.’
Reviews on Google for the restaurant shared similar stories.
One diner who ended up with the surcharge on their bill wrote: ‘If you have children, absolutely avoid this place at all costs.
‘Holy moly – the most disrespectful owner made a huge scene in front of the entire restaurant because our children were “running through the restaurant” – they were down by the river.
‘We were told we need to “go to Burger King and Walmart” and that we were bad parents.’
On Google, the restaurant has a 4.1-star rating based on more than 2,000 reviews.
A Toccoa Riverside Restaurant employee told TODAY.COM: ‘We’re not going to comment on a policy we’ve had for years.
‘We just want to live in the woods and cook.’
Toccoa Riverside Restaurant has been contacted for comment.
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