Café owner slammed online for forcing family to leave after child had tantrum

An Aussie cafe owner has defended his decision to kick out a family after their kid threw one hell of a tantrum.

Adrian Dalloste is the co-owner of Adele’s Cafe in Horseshoe Bay on Magnetic Island; he found himself going viral after a fellow visitor to his cafe filmed an interaction he had with a customer over her kid having a tantrum.

Dalloste says it's the first time in eight-and-half years of running the venue that he’s been forced to ask a family to leave.

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Speaking to the Townsville Bulletin, Dalloste said two children became upset after their parents told them they would be sharing one gelato between them.

He claimed one of the kids became so irate that they swiped at decorations on the counter and threw a steel flask onto the tiled file.

He says that in total, the tantrum lasted about 15 minutes before he decided to intervene.

Dalloste told the publication: “I only intervened because the children were vandalising the shop and disrupting other customers.”

However, a fellow customer branded the incident ‘absolutely disgusting’ and shared footage of it online.

Laura Edwards hit back at Dalloste’s decision to kick out the family, telling the news outlet: “It wasn’t a meltdown or tantrum; my kids make more noise than these kids do. It was just a grizzly kid needing some help to sort through his emotions at the time.

“The parents were sitting down with them; they weren’t running riot.”

Edwards ended up getting into an argument with Dalloste over the incident, during which she says he told her: “We’re not a creche.”

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He told the newspaper that he was confused about why Edwards felt the need to intervene and pointed out that she had only arrived at the café after he told the family to leave.

However, Edwards says that as a parent and customer she felt she was within her rights to speak up for the family.

Dalloste said the family initially refused to leave and he had to threaten to call the police to get them to shift.

Since the story has been shared online Dalloste has received backing from other members of the public, with one person saying: “Good on the business owner, I would have done the exact same thing. He has a duty to make sure everyone has an enjoyable experience. I have kids and when they were little, if they carried on like little brats I would have packed up and left out of the respect for others.”