'It Was Alarming': Restaurant Charges Family With Children $50 Fee, Lists Reason as 'Adults Unable to Parent' Toccoa Riverside Restaurant is located in Blue Ridge, Georgia.
By Emily Rella
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
If you hate dining with loud and energetic children nearby, maybe head to this place in Georgia. The restaurant owner is allegedly reprimanding families with overactive children at the table — and charging a $50 fee for "adults unable to parent."
On Reddit, a post documenting the Toccoa Riverside Restaurant's list of additional fees is going viral with added gratuity, including charges for separate checks and birthday parties.
This restaurant charges you extra for bad parenting
byu/LPineapplePizzaLover inmildlyinteresting
Is it too far or a good idea? Many weighed in on the "absurd" list of fees.
"Being a Karen goes both ways, and this restaurant is giving me Karen vibes," one user quipped. "Passive-aggressive menu, lack of consistent formatting or capitalizing, complicated pricing, etc."
"The number of red flags on this menu, I'd just go ahead and say no thanks," another said bluntly. "I don't have a lot of faith in the quality of their supply lines, or in the rigor of their kitchen safety procedures."
One family who visited the restaurant with four other families said that they were hit with a $50 charge for dining with 11 children aged between 3 and 8 years old.
Related: 'Criminal' and 'Absolutely Obscene' Photo of $28 Beer on Menu at Airport Sparks Outrage
"I remember thinking, 'No way is this real," Lyndsey Landmann told Today of the incident, alleging that the owner came over to their table to explain the fee and began talking to them in an "alarming" manner. "I looked around the restaurant and everybody was frozen watching this show he was putting on. He was yelling."
Landmann said that the children at the table were "well-behaved" and "quiet" and that the fee was completely uncalled for.
"If you have children, absolutely avoid this place at all costs. Holy moly," one one-star Google review says. "Terrible business practice, we will never be back."
Toccoa Riverside joins the ranks of dozens of restaurants being slammed for extraneous fees in recent months, many in part due to the pandemic and inflation-related costs.
Toccoa Riverside Restaurant did not immediately respond to Entrepreneur's request for comment but told Today in a statement that the restaurant was "not going to comment on a policy we've had for years."
