Bed-Stuy Blog

Enjoying Dough’s delicious doughnuts in the playground may land you in court.

We received an email this week from a woman who received a summons for enjoying a doughnut in the playground across the street from Dough. Here’s the lowdown:

My boyfriend and I visited the doughnut shop Dough, on the corner of Layfayette and Franklin, for breakfast yesterday morning. We walked across the street and settled on a bench in a little park to enjoy our food/coffee, as some other people were doing. There was a playground there and as we ate, we had the pleasure of watching some children play, made some small talk with their parents, etc. Adam and I even had a nice discussion about having some children of our own one day. We were having a lovely time until two police officers approached Adam and I and a couple of other girls that were sitting a couple benches down.
“Do you have any children with you here?”
“No”
“You aren’t allowed to be here without children. Didn’t you see the sign?”
“No sir, we had no idea”
“Can I see some ID?”

This account sounds strikingly similar to the account reported by Gothamist the other day. So how do you feel about the cops taking the hard line on playground rules? On the one hand, in a world where pedophiles exist I see the reason for banning child-free adults from the playground areas. On the other hand, wouldn’t a verbal warning be good enough? I know this is not Dough’s problem, but it would be nice if they would add some outdoor seating so that folks could enjoy their delicious doughnuts right there on the spot.