After receiving several complaints from loyal customers, the owner of an upscale Italian restaurant in Mooresville, North Carolina, has taken the controversial decision to ban children under the age of five. And, despite facing some backlash on social media, he claims that business has grown significantly.

美国北卡罗来纳州穆尔斯维尔市的一家意大利高级餐厅在收到老顾客的不少投诉后，店主做出了禁止五岁以下儿童入内的决定，这一新规引发了争议。不过，尽管这一决定在社交媒体上引发了一些网友的强烈抗议，但店主却声称客流量有了大幅增长。

Caruso’s describes itself as a “traditional, classy, intimate” restaurant but young children crying, screaming or playing on iPads at full volume and disturbing the other diners apparently² didn’t fit in too well in that picture. So the owner, Pasquale Caruso, adopted a “no child under five” policy in January 2017, to ensure that his upscale eatery lives up to its reputation.

Caruso's餐厅对自己的定位是“传统、高档、私人”，但是儿童的哭喊、尖叫、全音量外放平板声音明显会影响其他顾客，这就破坏了餐厅的理念。所以在2017年1月，店主帕斯奎尔•卡鲁索制定了“五岁以下儿童不得入内”这一规定，由此保证他的高档餐厅名副其实。

“I had several customers complain, get up and leave because children were bothering them, and the parents were doing nothing,” Caruso told the Mooresville Gazette. “It started to feel like it wasn’t Caruso’s anymore, that it was a local pizzeria instead.”

“因为熊孩子打扰到了别人，但是父母又不管，所以我的一些客人就投诉或起身走人。”卡鲁索告诉《穆尔斯维尔报》，“让人感觉Caruso's餐厅变了，变得跟普通披萨店没什么区别。”

Caruso added that he didn’t like taking this kind of decision, but in the end, he had to do what was best for his business. ‘I try to please everyone, and create a nice atmosphere, keeping the restaurant elegant³. I want it to be a place where couples and friends can have a nice evening out,” he said. “I was starting to lose money and customers, because I had very young children coming in, throwing food, running around and screaming.”

卡鲁索还说，其实他也不想做这种决定，但是最后为了餐厅，他不得不采取最佳解决方案。他说：“我试图让所有的客人都开开心心的，给他们创造一个精致的氛围，优雅的环境。我希望情侣和密友能在这里享受一顿愉快的晚餐。之前，这里有很多小孩子，他们乱丢食物，跑来跑去，大声尖叫，很多客人都不来了，收入也少了。”

Yoshi Nunez, the restaurant’s manager, told the Washington Post that the final straw was a little girl using an iPad with the volume on high. Despite repeated requests from the staff, her parents refused to turn down the device, so they had to ask them to leave. “They were upset, but they didn’t seem to care about what the other guests thought. We tried to be nice about the situation, but we’re here to take care of customers and we can’t tell a parent how to control their kids,” he said.

餐厅经理廖申•努涅斯告诉《华盛顿邮报》，他们最终决定采取这个措施是因为有个小女孩在餐厅里用平板电脑，声音开得特别大。工作人员提醒多次，但是小女孩的父母不愿意调低音量，所以工作人员就请他们离开了餐厅。“他们挺不开心的，但是他们似乎不关心别人的感受。我们尝试友善地处理这个问题，但是我们要顾及所有的客人，也不可能告诉父母要怎么才能管好他们的小孩。”他说。

So in January, Caruso’s made the decision to ban children under the age of five. Since then, people have been voicing their opinions on the restaurant’s unofficial Facebook page, with many labeling the policy as a form of discrimination.

所以在1月份的时候，Caruso's就决定禁止五岁以下的儿童入内。自那以后，人们就在餐厅的非官方脸书主页上留言，很多人给这条规定贴上了歧视标签。

“How you are legally allowed to discriminate⁴ amazes me!” one person wrote. “Next you will be kicking out all the elderly because they take too long to eat. Slippery slope!”

“你们怎么能正大光明地允许歧视呢？难以置信！”一条留言如是写道，“下次你们就会因为老年人呆的时间太久把他们赶出去了！道德沦丧！”

“Now that you have banned small children, who is next: blacks, Jews, native people? Shame on you!” another Facebook user commented.

“你们这次是不许小孩子进来，下次又不让谁进呢？黑人？犹太人？土著人？真可耻！”另一位脸书用户评论道。

But for every critical comment, there are several that congratulate Caruso’s for taking such a brave, albeit⁵ controversial decision. “Thank you for taking a stand,” several people wrote on its Facebook page.

除了这些批评指责，还是有一些人认为这一规定虽然备受争议，但是餐厅做得非常勇敢，他们对餐厅表示祝贺。“谢谢你们能站出来反对这件事。”一些人在该餐厅的脸书主页上写道。

“I’m the parent of 5… don’t bring little ones to a nice restaurant and expect them to quietly sit still for an hour. They CAN’T DO IT,” one person posted.

“我是一个五岁孩子的家长……别把小孩带到高档餐厅里去，别指望他们能安安静静地坐上一个小时。他们做！不！到！”有人发表评论说。

“When my husband and I go out to dine¹, we also do not want to hear children crying or misbehaving,” another said, adding that the limit should be upped to 10-year-old children.

“我跟丈夫一起出去吃晚饭的时候，也不想听到有孩子大哭大闹，不想看到他们胡闹。”另一个人说，他还说年龄限制应该提高到十岁。

Pasquale Caruso claims that the online support for his controversial policy is reflected in the success of his business. The number of reservations has risen significantly since words got out about the restaurant’s no-child rule, and the number of patrons⁶ has gone from 50 a day, to around 80.

帕斯奎尔•卡鲁索说，虽然这一规定备受争议，但是他的生意越来越好，能看出来人们还是支持他的。对儿童的限制政策传出后，预约人数大量增加，以前一天有50位客人，现在能到80位左右。

“People don’t want to come in and spend money on a nice meal and an evening out, when there’s constantly food on the floor, loud electronic devices keeping kids entertained, and small children screaming. It was just the right decision for my business,” Caruso concluded.

“如果地上都是食物残渣，孩子们为了开心又把电子设备的音量调到很高，小孩子大叫大闹，人们就不会想进来花钱吃一顿精致的晚餐，不会想来这里约会。这个决定对我的餐厅来说，是正确的。”卡鲁索最后说道。

According to Eater, Caruso’s isn’t the first restaurant to adopt a no-child policy. Restaurants in Texas, Pennsylvania, California and countries like Italy, Australia or Korea have also banned young children or implemented⁷ measures for their control.

根据芝加哥美食杂志《Eater》的报道，Caruso's不是第一家禁止儿童入内的餐厅。德克萨斯州、宾夕法尼亚州和加州都有餐厅采取了这项规定，意大利、澳大利亚和韩国的一些餐厅也禁止儿童入内或对儿童采取限制措施。