According to its website, the Toccoa Riverside Restaurant in northern Georgia is “the Home of Mountain Time Seating.” We’re not sure what, exactly, that means, but it may not matter: after a Reddit post about the restaurant went viral last week, it’s now known as “the Home of the Surcharge for Parents.”
This all started when a Redditor using the name LPineapplePizzaLover posted a photo of the restaurant’s menu on the r/MildlyInteresting subreddit, writing, “This restaurant charges you extra for bad parenting.”
The picture showed a number of additional charges that Toccoa Riverside diners could face, including a 20% gratuity for parties over six, any tables that requested separate checks, or diners who order from the restaurant’s Birthday Menu. It also noted that customers who didn’t pay with cash would have 3.5% added to their bills … and then there was the charge for “Adults unable to parent.” The menu warned that adult diners could face an undisclosed fee — designated only as “$$$” — if their children were deemed to be poorly behaved.
The restaurant is in Georgia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, about 10 miles from the Tennessee border, and is a popular destination for outdoor lovers who can fish, raft, or paddle down the Toccoa River. The restaurant’s owner, Tim Richter, told WSB-TV that the parenting surcharge was implemented “a few years ago” during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. “We want parents to be parents,” he said, adding that he never even threatened to charge someone until “a couple of weeks ago” when a group with nine kids dined at the restaurant.
The charge, which some Google Reviews have reported as a flat $50 fee, has been reported several times in the past two weeks. “The most disrespectful owner made a huge scene in front of the entire restaurant because our children were ‘running through the restaurant,’” one recent Google Review reads. “[The children] were down by the river. We were told we need to ‘go to Burger King and Walmart’ and that we were bad parents. They have a $50 surcharge for ‘bad children.’” Another reviewer wrote that he was “disappointed” because although he says that his children “watched a tablet” until their meals arrived, his family was charged $50 “because of my children’s behavior.”
Another Florida family told Atlanta News First that he was among those who were told they needed to pay the $50 parenting surcharge. Bryan Caracciolo — who is a restaurant owner himself — told the outlet that a group of five families went to the restaurant during their vacation. Their group included 11 children, and, before they left, they were told that they were facing a “parent surcharge.” Caracciolo said that a restaurant staff member told the group, “he has raised his children, and he’s not going to raise ours.”
Richter told Atlanta News First that neither Caracciolo nor any of the other customers actually had to pay the $50 fee. Either way, it sounds like it’s up to the parents whether they want to reserve a table and take that risk.