You don’t want to make a dragon angry. You should also think twice about ticking off the owner of Dragon Pizza in Somerville, Massachusetts.
Charlie Redd made the news in Summer 2023 after he and One Bite reviewer Dave Portnoy got into a shouting match outside Dragon Pizza. This past week, Redd (or, at least, someone on his team) got fed up with some parents who allegedly let their kids run wild in the restaurant—and gave those families the boot. But was it a wise move to go public with the incident?
In a March 15 post on Instagram, Dragon Pizza announced that it had ordered “a group of negligent parents” to leave Dragon Pizza the previous day. The post said the families “were disrespecting our dining room, other guests and our team.”
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“Our restaurant, or any restaurant, is not a place for unsupervised children to play,” the post continued. “It is here to share dining experiences.”
The post included a manifesto of sorts, urging customers to keep a closer eye on their children. It read:
“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 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.”
Dragon Pizza noted that “this was the only time we had to ask a family to leave. It makes us very sad, but we refuse to allow entitled parents to damage our reputation and the overall dining experience for all our guests.”
The post concluded: “Respect restaurants. Bring your family to them. Raise your family in them. We are your community too.”
The post appeared to be well-received, garnering 407 likes and 110 shares, plus 14 comments of support (although one follower took issue with No. 6, asking, “Why can’t parents give their kids pizza as a cheap, easy option?”)
Curiously, however, Yelp has placed an “Unusual Activity Alert” on Dragon Pizza’s page and “temporarily disabled posting of content” there. It’s unclear whether that’s related to the March 15 post. But it’s not the first time Yelp has suspended reviews on Dragon Pizza’s page. Which leads us back to the Portnoy kerfuffle.
When El Presidente visited Dragon Pizza in 2023, Redd famously stepped outside the pizzeria to tell him, “Enjoy your pizza…but I don’t appreciate what you do coming in and judging a pizza from one bite,” he said. He went on to add, “I hope you enjoy your pizza, but I don’t appreciate what you do to small businesses.”
After Redd went back inside, a now angry Portnoy, who had given the Dragon Pizza pie a score of 6.4 (too “floppy” and too much Parmesan for his taste), reacted predictably. He turned back to the camera and said, “I’ve actually helped so many small businesses….Now I can say, peacefully, this pizza’s trash.”
Redd then came back outside again and told Portnoy to leave. F-bombs were hurled back and forth between the two men.
After that video was released, Portnoy’s fans quickly swamped Dragon Pizza with negative reviews on Yelp, which issued an “Unusual Activity Alert” and temporarily disabled posts on the page. Within a day or two, though, customers started turning out in droves to show their support for Redd’s pizzeria. Dragon Pizza announced on social media that it had sold out of food on September 2 and 5, even closing down for a day on September 6 to prepare for the new deluge of guests.
At present, with another “Unusual Activity Alert” in place on Last Dragon’s Yelp page, one has to wonder if Redd’s public stance against unsupervised children has proven costly again—and, if so, will other customers rally to his defense once more?
