Cane Rosso owner Jay Jerrier doesn’t think he’s ever deleted a Facebook post. But he did on Tuesday, after the photo on the left sparked a comment fight on the Cane Rosso White Rock Facebook page.
The post explained that fountain was clogged because too much of the patio gravel, which is decomposed granite, had been thrown into it by the restaurant’s youngest patrons, and that Cane Rosso plans to replace the gravel and perhaps overhaul the fountain with its fire pit in the middle. Customers weighed in, some complaining their surprise that Cane Rosso wasn’t more kid-friendly to begin with considering how many young families are in the surrounding demographic. Others expressed their frustration that children are always running around the patio and asked why parents couldn’t keep them in check and stop them from throwing things in the fountain. One commenter even declared that his dogs were better behaved.
“I honestly just posted that picture because I thought it was funny,” Jerrier told us today. After the comment feud, however, he decided, “you know, it’s just not worth it. I’ll just post a picture of a pizza with hot dogs and French fries.”
Jerrier says the patio design was inspired by the courtyard at Austin’s Hotel San Jose. He loved its decomposed granite, but thinks that may have been the biggest mistake on Cane Rosso White Rock’s patio. Its texture tempts children to treat the granite as a sort of sandbox.
“It never occurred to me people would want to throw that stuff,” Jerrier says. “My girls are 7 and 10, so I haven’t been there in a while.”
He also didn’t expect that kids would be “basically crawling in the fountain” or that its fire pit would inspire any of them to “break branches off the trees and stick them in the fire.” Jerrier says he simply loved the aesthetic, “and then all of a sudden I see kids running around and think, ‘Holy cow! There’s a lot of sharp edges and things for kids to trip on.’ ”
He emphasizes that his main concern is the kids harming themselves, not the patio.
“I get it — kids are kids, and kids are going to do that stuff,” Jerrier says. “As long as kids aren’t throwing stuff and hitting other guests, what harm are they doing?”
The fire pit now remains off until 8:30 p.m. or so, and the gravel will soon be replaced, possibly with pavers, Jerrier says. Other tweaks likely will be made to make the patio “stress proof,” Jerrier says, “for parents, servers and customers.”
“I hate to say kid-friendly,” he says, instead preferring “more friendly to everyone.”
These days it’s so hot that no one wants to sit outside, lessening the danger to children who might want to splash in or drink from the fountain while it is being treated for mosquitoes. (Though Tuesday’s post is gone, a spirited discussion still remains on the Cane Rosso Facebook page concerning the photo to the left.)
Other than “a fictional battle zone on the patio” and some staffing frustrations, the new White Rock location has been great, Jerrier says. He is incorporating the experiences in our neighborhood into his business acumen.
“I’ve figured out so far that I can’t joke around with vegans, celiacs and parents of small children,” Jerrier says. “Everyone goes nuts.”
