Caruso’s, an Italian fine dining establishment in Mooresville, North Carolina — “Traditional, classy, intimate,” its website declares, in a fancy script font — has decided to ban children under 5. (“No Children’s Menu Available,” the site underscores.)
The restaurant’s manager, Yoshi Nunez, told the Washington Post the motivation for the drastic move had been building for some time, as families increasingly failed to prevent their children from running around the premises and disturbing other diners. But the final straw, he said, was one set of parents who declined to act when the staff asked them to turn down the volume on their young daughter’s iPad.
The restaurant’s owner, Pasquale Caruso, said he felt the need to do something because he was “starting to lose money and customers” due to unruly young kids. It was starting to affect the “elegant,” date-night ambiance of the place, he told the Mooresville Tribune.
“I had several customers complain, get up and leave because children were bothering them, and the parents were doing nothing,” he told the local paper. “It started to feel like it wasn’t Caruso’s anymore, that it was a local pizzeria instead.”
Initially the move proved controversial, but recent comments on the restaurant’s Facebook page seem to overwhelmingly applaud Caruso’s decision. “Thank you for taking a stand” is a recurring refrain.
And it has reportedly been good for the restaurant’s bottom line as well. Nunez told the Washington Post that reservations have shot up since the ban went into effect late last year, and the number of diners on an average day has climbed from around 50 to about 80.
People shelling out $24 for Caruso’s Salmone Bella Vista apparently prefer to do it without a bella vista (or brutta earful) of someone’s rambunctious bambino.
Photo: iStock
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No-Kid Policy Pays Off for ‘Elegant’ Italian Eatery