A pizza shop owner is getting mixed reviews for kicking out a family that was dining in his restaurant recently, with some online critics saying he had every right to do it while others are outraged.
Dragon Pizza in Somerville, Massachusetts, became the topic of heated debate following the March 14 incident and subsequent social media posts.
The owner recently shared an update via Instagram, writing, “To all our guests with children: Anyone who has visited our restaurant knows we are a pizza shop that loves kids.”
“Sadly, we had to demand a group of negligent parents Friday to take their families home because they were disrespecting our dining room, other guests, and our team,” the post continued.
“Our restaurant, or any restaurant, is not a place for unsupervised children to play,” it said. “It is here to share dining experiences.”
Dragon Pizza listed six points on the incident, noting that they “welcome all children dining in our restaurant with open arms” and “we do not appreciate parents who treat our pizza as a cheap, simple option to feed their children until they can have their own dinner.”
The post concluded by saying, “It makes us very sad, but we refuse to allow entitled lazy parents to damage our reputation and the overall dining experience for all our guests. Respect restaurants. Bring your family to them. Raise your family in them. We are your community too.”
Restaurant owner Charlie Redd said in an interview with Boston.com that he is also a father and wants to make guests with children “comfortable.”
“It’s part of my philosophy to hospitality, for restaurants to engage everyone,” he told the outlet. “We’ve been very successful here at Dragon accommodating groups with kids.”
“The fault lies where the parents had to be spoken to multiple times and were ignoring our requests and our instructions to watch their kids,” Redd said. “Kids belong in restaurants. It’s a lot of fun.”
While many supported the restaurant in the comments, others questioned the decision to kick the family out.
“Why can’t parents give their kids pizza as a cheap easy option?” one Instagram commenter wrote, referencing one of the points made in the restaurant’s original post.
“Too many parents these days don’t understand that they need to actually parent their children. Good on you for sticking up for your staff and other patrons,” another person wrote.
Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, who had a run-in with Redd in the past, also weighed in on the situation with a profanity-laced post on X that read, in part, “This has created quite the (conundrum) for yours truly because I absolutely despise this dude (Charlie) Redd.”
“He probably blew this out of proportion because this guy just likes being an a**hole. This guy is a professional a**hole. There’s no other pizza place that keeps ending up in the news,” he went on.
Portnoy got into an argument with Redd in 2023 while visiting the restaurant for his popular One Bite Challenge, which involves him rating pizzerias. The social media personality described the slice as “super floppy” and gave it a 6.4 out of 10.
The owner told Portnoy he was in the wrong for “judging a business with one bite.” This led to a heated exchange that went viral at the time.
