I took my four-year old daughter to Chocolati Greenwood a few weeks ago, and after getting sick to my stomach, I'll never return. After seating my daughter in the middle room, I looked up and saw, right above her head, a "painting" of blood-splattered characters holding blood splattered knives, meat cleavers, swords and other weapons. As a parent, I was appalled to think of my daughter seeing this. As an adult and an artist, I was disgusted.
I'd been going to Chocolati only because it's near my daughter's dance class. Every time, I've had basically mediocre and sometimes shoddy service: looooong wait times, even when there are multiple baristas and cashiers at work; bitter coffee; overpriced drinks (really, nearly $5 for a cup of green tea?); adult hot chocolate where the flavors collide but never merge, and the sludgy chocolate is bland; kids' hot chocolate too hot for kids; and chocolate milk that was mud-like. I had coupons for the place; my daughter liked the creaky, stained and thread-bare armchairs (they spin); it was convenient; and I thought it was a reasonable place to take a child, but no more.
Chocolati Greenwood is inviting families into their store with a kid's menu, but they are indifferent to the atmosphere they're providing for children and families. It took a Herculean effort to contact the store's owner and the manager (lots and lots of emails and unreturned phone calls over a few weeks), but in the end, they said they liked the picture. What's next on their walls? Child pornography? Snuff flicks?
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