Plantastic Indy in the eye of the storm: Indiana vegan restaurant in the media pillory because it does not allow breastfeeding and children under 5 to enter.
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The news
A controversy has arisen in the veggie world overseas and not only. In the past few weeks, in fact, the decision made by the owners of Plantastic Indy - vegan restaurant in Indiana - to ban breastfeeding and not to accommodate children under the age of five in their venues has caused quite a stir and raised a media fuss.
Opened in 2022, Plantastic Indy immediately gained praise from the public; there were many more or less loyal customers eager to try vegan specialties inspired by various world cuisines. Everything seemed to be going well until a few days ago, when the owners posted on Instagram a communication for all customers, taken up by yourtango.com: "Gary and I have invested our life savings, our careers, our health and our pending dreams to accomplish a mission bigger than ourselves. Fighting climate change through food. By God's grace, we have this restaurant on the Avenue, a super sleek, clean and tidy place to make sure that anyone who decides to come feels welcome in our cozy space. Unfortunately, we can no longer accommodate toddlers, infants or anyone under the age of 5 to maintain and preserve our hygiene standards.
I know many moms will be upset, but you should not be disappointed by us, but rather with those moms who have come and left dirty diapers on the table or exposed breasts in public to nurse their baby. This is not the Plantastic Indy experience we want for our customers." Needless to say, the web went wild accusing Tania and Gary Bartlett, owners of the restaurant, of discrimination. "This choice breaks my heart as a nursing mom. Discrimination is at its peak here,” commented one TikTok user. “Wait, I'm open-mouthed.... It's their problem rather than a child's problem. It's disgusting," wrote another. Even some of Bartlett's colleagues - that is, other vegan restaurant owners - have spoken out against the couple's choice. “I would never tell a mother that she has to cover up. I would never tell her she can't bring her child into my restaurant,“ said Heather Dame, of Lucky Lemon Bakery, a restaurant that sells vegan baked goods.
Gary and Tania tried to justify their choice, by asserting that it is a matter of hygiene; their words, however, proved to be completely vain. Despite trying to calm tempers by stating their point of view, the controversy did not cease, and the owners were even forced to close the restaurant the next day due to death threats received. On a legal level, Bartlett's decision is in line with current regulations, in fact - according to the Indiana Constitution - any person with a business can choose not to serve people under a certain age. “There are no legal consequences for a private owner to prevent families with children under a certain age from entering their restaurant. So, if a private entity has banned breastfeeding to children under a certain age, and it is assumed that you usually end breastfeeding a child at age 5, then that in itself is not an explicit ban on breastfeeding, but it is a practical ban on breastfeeding," law professor Jody Madeira explained to Wish TV8.
