Dragon Pizza owner Charlie Redd took the unusual step of asking a family to leave his Davis Square restaurant on Friday, March 14 — “Pi Day, St. Patrick’s Day weekend, and a Friday; basically the Bermuda Triangle for a pizza shop,” he told the Globe later — and recounted the incident in vivid detail on social media, where he’s receiving praise and criticism for the decisive action.
“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. Our restaurant, or any restaurant, is not a place for unsupervised children to play. It is here to share dining experiences,” he wrote.
Redd’s pizza parlor is known for well-regarded pies and but also because it came under fire two years ago in a highly publicized argument with Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy.
In 2023, he and Portnoy got into a viral spat due to Portnoy’s “One Bite Pizza Reviews” video series, in which he walks into a shop, buys a slice, and samples it on the sidewalk outside. During the video, Redd appeared in the background — and things went downhill from there.
In this case, Redd posted his plea after being alerted that the family had shared the experience on local parenting groups, he said later. In the post, Redd offered a list of parameters for future diners.
1: We welcome all children dining in our restaurant with open arms.
2: We do not welcome parents who do not want to share a dining experience with the children.
3: We love sharing our games with children. Who wouldn’t?!
4: We loath [sic] parents who use our games as babysitters while they ignore their children and let them damage and abuse our games.
5: We think our pizza is the best, worthy of respect, and cherish children who agree.
6: 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.
We want to be clear this was the only time we had to ask a family to leave. 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,” Redd wrote.
Redd, a dad himself who used to run family destination spot Redd’s in Rozzie and will soon open a new restaurant in the Rudy’s space in Teele Square, said that he values well-behaved kids in his restaurants. He said that he has only had to ask guests to leave a couple of times, and only when they disrespected his staff or were disturbing other customers.
“I trained my staff in the very beginning that having kids in my restaurants is important. I made a transition when I became a parent because I cared to engage children and involve kids in my menu and in the dining room, this has always been a part of my business model,” he said later.
Redd also wants to be clear that he doesn’t blame the kids for unruly behavior.
“It’s not the kids’ fault. 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,” he said. “Kids belong in restaurants. It’s a lot of fun.”
Kara Baskin can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @kcbaskin.
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