The nursing mother accuses the restaurant owner of confronting her despite legal protection
Aris kopiec says he felt “bored” after filming a video of a man screaming in his sleeping bag inside a toccoari sleeping inside a toccoaride sleeping inside Tocco Riverside. (Credit: @ Ariskipes / Instagram)
A Florida mother says a man can’t believe the owner of a popular Georgia restaurant listened to her breastfeed her beg her baby who shows someone yelling, “Get out of here!”
The incident took place at the Toccoa Riverside restaurant in Blue Ridge, according to Aris Kopiec, and has since spread widely on the Internet, reigniting scrutiny of the business’s treatment of young families.
Kopiec told FOX Busing Business that she was eating with her husband, three young daughters — ages 4, 2 and 4 months — and family friends when her baby started crying.
He said that he was beating his child, he was immediately covered, he completely confirmed the opinion of anyone outside his table.
‘I felt I broke the law’
The Kopiec Family dined at Toccoa Riverside Restaurant with friends before the viral video events took place. (Courtesy of Shyla Shoots / Fox News)
“The only people who could see me was at my table,” she said. “I quickly covered myself.”
Kopiec said he pulled his shirt down and was getting ready to take his older children outside when he put a chair or another guest in the full deck. That, he says, is when the restaurant owner turned to him.
“He looked at me and said, ‘You can’t do that here,'” Kopiec recalls. “I wasn’t begging at all at that time. I was holding my baby in one arm and helping my kids with the other. He wouldn’t let me get any of my words out.'”
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A mother says she recorded a Georgia restaurant owner screaming after she breastfed her baby. (@ariskiskopes via instagram / fox news)
Kopiec said she and her friend took the older children outside to wait while their spouses paid inside. Kopiec said the staff apologized to the men on the team, but not to him.
He said that when he returned to collect his belongings, the argument escalated. He said he politely informed the man he called the owner that Georgia Law clearly protects breastfeeding in public places.
“I just told him, if he wants to protect his restaurant, he has to follow the law,” she said. “That’s when he lost his mind.”
Kopiec said the man refused to give his name. After a friend said he had a picture of him, Kopiec started filming.
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Kopiec told Fox Business that the restaurant staff apologized to her and her husband, but not to her. (Courtesy of Shyla Shoots / Fox News)
In a video shared with Fox Business, a man standing behind the counter yells, “Get out of here!” As Kopiec holds his children in his arms.
“It was fierce,” she said. “I knew I had to get my kids out of there.”
Kopiec left the restaurant in shock.
“Honestly, I felt like I was wrong,” she said. “My desire was to apologize. But I reminded myself – Women have a legal right to breastfeed.”
Public records and local business listings confirm 67-year-old Tim Richter as the owner of the Toccoa Riverside restaurant. In September, a Facebook post by the Fannin County Chamber of Commerce again identified Richter as the long-time owner and praised the restaurant’s hospitality, which many local commentators online disagreed with the new tone.
In a phone call with Fox Business, a man who identified himself as the owner of the restaurant declined to confirm if he was the person shown in the video. He defended the business, saying, “I’ve owned a restaurant for thirty-three years. We’ve been in business for thirty-three years,” and that’s when the incident clicked. “
The Toccoa Riverside restaurant offered no further comment.
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Aris Kopiec said he had never felt so “misled” as when a man believed that the owner of a Toccoa Riverside restaurant was forcing him to support his child. (Courtesy of Shyla Shoots / Fox News)
Georgia law says a mother can breastfeed “in any place where the mother and child are otherwise authorized,” protecting nursing mothers from being removed or barred from feeding their babies.
Etiquette expert and author Alison Cheperdak told FOX Business that hidden oil raises serious concerns. Sheperdak’s book is a book of daily situations, “was it something I said?” is set to publish next spring.
“Breastfeeding is natural and legally protected,” Sheperdak said. “Hospitality is about caring, not arguing, and raising one’s voice at a guest is never acceptable.”
He also added that the mother does not trust to apologize to her child.
“A calm explanation is appropriate, but the onus is on the restaurant to treat him with respect,” he said. “Even if the restaurant wants a quiet atmosphere, the policies should never reduce the basic respect of families.”
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Local Atlanta stores, as well as food and wine, reported in 2023 that Toccoa Rifverside raised eyebrows to send “the power of older people” that Backuy realized that “they can not go back.
A FOX 5 Atlanta report on the wewcharge controversy said the parents said the owner was too early for their children and was accused of making the 3-year-old cry.
Kopiec said he hopes the attention leads to positive change. “Every nursing mother deserves to feel safe feeding her child,” she said. “We have a legal right to breastfeed, period.”
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As for the restaurant, he said he chose not to hold grudges. “I chose to forgive,” she said. “But I’d really like to see them accept breastfeeding mothers.”
The video continues to circulate online, where commentators will raise the protection of breastfeeding and the treatment of young mothers and babies in public spaces.
