[QUOTE=Zoggie]
So your dog is a racist?
[/QUOTE]
My dog is, too, apparently. She likes to bark at black people. When I have black people at the house, she usually doesn’t treat them any differently, though, unless it’s a black person that’s afraid of dogs (for some reason, it seems that the number of black people who are afraid of dogs is higher as a percentage than every other race that I know).
[QUOTE=lobstermobster]
Kids are just so annoying and selfish. I mean I’ve met plenty of very smart and delightful well behaved children but honestly I’m just very bored by them. I have no idea why so many people want to have them. Especially since they are meat blobs for a long time that can’t talk, read, or do anything awesome.
[/QUOTE]
[Off topic]
While I agree with a majority of this statement, I have to disagree with the last point. Kids can do awesome stuff, but in my observation, it’s been the same stuff adults usually accompany with “Check this sh*t out. . .”, but do it because they don’t know any better.
And usually, it’s the older, male children (14-17) that do this “awesome” stuff. Sometimes it involves fireworks, and can be found on YouTube.
[/Off topic]
That’s all I got.
Tripler
Stupid teenagers are amuzing.
[QUOTE=MonaLizaT]
A local restauranteur…
[/QUOTE]
Nitpick: it’s restaurateur. No N.
[QUOTE=lobstermobster]
Kids are just so annoying and selfish. I mean I’ve met plenty of very smart and delightful well behaved children but honestly I’m just very bored by them. I have no idea why so many people want to have them. Especially since they are meat blobs for a long time that can’t talk, read, or do anything awesome.
[/QUOTE]
Hates children. Loves dogs. Damn! If you didn’t smoke, I might take you on as my minor wife! 
Even if you legally have to serve kids, you can probably make it non-appealing.
Don’t offer a kiddie menu…
Have a two drink minimum?
Have Michael Jackson as your lounge act…
I suppose you could probably enforce a ‘no crying or screaming at all’ rule and just bounce anyone’s party the moment it got violated, no second chances.
With babies or kids below age 10, that would probably clear 'em out in minutes.
[QUOTE=Mr. Slant]
Even if you legally have to serve kids, you can probably make it non-appealing.
[/QUOTE]
You’d be surprised. Witness the Grand Floridian resort hotel at Walt Disney World. I’ve been inside it several times, and I can’t imagine what it is about that place that could possibly appeal to children, unless said children are pretentious snobs.
Nevertheless, people insist on brining small children there.
[QUOTE=Mr. Slant]
Even if you legally have to serve kids, you can probably make it non-appealing.
Don’t offer a kiddie menu…
Have a two drink minimum?
Have Michael Jackson as your lounge act…
I suppose you could probably enforce a ‘no crying or screaming at all’ rule and just bounce anyone’s party the moment it got violated, no second chances.
With babies or kids below age 10, that would probably clear 'em out in minutes.
[/QUOTE]
The easiest way I’ve found to alienate families with children is simply to not provide high chairs or booster seats. Feckin’ annoying. I’d have rather seen a discrete and polite sign on the window than be welcomed and seated and smelled that delicious food (which turned out to not taste as good as it smelled) and then be told 10 minutes after we sat down that they don’t have high chairs or booster seats. I had assumed that the waiter, seeing me carry my toddler through the front door and helping me collapse the stroller for out-of-the-way storage during our meal might have gathered that she was indeed dining with us and he was getting a high chair as is usually done. Nope, he expected a 2 year old to sit on a folding chair (a fancy looking clear plastic folding chair, but a folding chair nonetheless) or be held while I ate bruschetta and pasta. WTF? Needless to say, we haven’t been back to La Cucina di Donatella on Howard Street in Chicago since, and I bash them to anyone who asks for restaurant recomendations in our area. Mostly because they’ve listed themselves as a “family” restaurant on every website I’ve found. Bastards.
(Go to Via Veneto instead! Amazing food, great waitstaff, and they’re real Italians - which means family friendly without being dumbed down. They have plenty of room and good architecture for both family eating and quiet intimate dinners. And there are always a few grizzled looking guys playing cards in one corner and a chef who send special tidbits (for free) to the table. Makes me feel like I’m in the old country!)
[QUOTE=lobstermobster]
I’m going to need the name of this restaurant, although I doubt any parents of brats think that their brat is a brat.
Kids are just so annoying and selfish. I mean I’ve met plenty of very smart and delightful well behaved children but honestly I’m just very bored by them. I have no idea why so many people want to have them. Especially since they are meat blobs for a long time that can’t talk, read, or do anything awesome.
I know a lot of people that don’t like animals. They have made the life decision to not have pets and they feel very strongly that because of this choice, they should not have to deal with the by products of pet ownership. I know they are exasperated by having to be on a planet where my dog poops on the sidewalk (which I pick up but never seems to satisfy these types), barks at black people and kids on skateboards, and gets his leash tangled around them. I feel pretty much the same way about my life decision to be childless. It’s cool that other people have them but I would love a restaurant or sanctuary where I don’t have to deal with the issues that go along with children that of course children can’t help. The sloppy eating the crying and the whining is like driving daggers into my brain. Ever since my sister fired one out she talks of nothing else and I try to just not answer her calls anymore.
I was at the container store (mecca) and an unmonitored youngster was peeved about something and starting smashing glass jars in the kitchen section. When the mother got there and was informed that she was going to be paying for these items she noticed me standing there and shopping and asked me why I didn’t stop him. I mean I guess it was a little absurd that I just stood there and watched him laughing but it’s not my problem! I don’t believe that it takes a village. If I had done something I probably would have been bitched out for correcting someone else’s child. It’s always lose-lose for the old lobstermobster.
[/QUOTE]
Man, I know what you mean. I once knew this kid who grew up and started posting idiotic things on internet forums.
There are days I thank og that certain people decided not to reproduce.
Oh, and tell your sister I said hi :rolleyes:
[QUOTE=Una Persson]
I have to say, it really returns civilization to the prospect of “dining.”
[/QUOTE]
You must not hang around with very many adults who drink. Restaurants that serve booze can go hang.
“Yes, you apparently have no functional brain cells. Very amusing. Now sit down and shut up before someone turns you into a pre-med’s class project.”
[QUOTE=HeyHomie]
Nevertheless, people insist on brining small children there.
[/QUOTE]
And I thought that salty language was bad in a restaurant.
I don’t like kids and I don’t want them to be a part of my dining experience. That being said, I would never think of saying anything to someone who has a crying child on a plane or at the McDonalds as I understand I share a planet with the children and they will sometimes be sharing my space, but if I go to a restaurant and get charged $20 a plate or more I expect to be able to eat without the shrill cries of the baby at the table next door. I want to be able to eat dinner without the child at the next table banging his silverware around and crawling on the floor under my seat to get the crayons he dropped. If I could find a place that refused service to people under 18 or even just had separate seating areas so that I didn’t have to sit in the same room with a child during my meal I would never eat anywhere else.
[QUOTE=Valgard]
[QUOTE=HeyHomie]
Nevertheless, people insist on **brining ** small children there.
[/QUOTE]
And I thought that salty language was bad in a restaurant.
[/QUOTE]
It’s the only way to get them really juicy. The small ones are already tender, but they tend to dry out, especially when you try to get the skin crispy.
[QUOTE=commasense]
Nitpick: it’s restaurateur. No N.
[/QUOTE]
Nitpick back: Both are acceptable variations these days, as the version sans-“n” is directly from the same word in French, whereas the variation with the “n” is formed from the English word “restaurant.”
See, for example, Merriam-Webster Online.
[QUOTE=commasense]
No N.
[/QUOTE]
Isn’t it spos’d to be: No ‘N’
[QUOTE=Mr. Slant]
Even if you legally have to serve kids, you can probably make it non-appealing.<snip>
[/QUOTE]
Our favourite pub often has small, noisy children in it (children can be present in places that serve liquor here, unfortunately). The pub has no children’s menu, it has pictures of very scantily-clad women everywhere, it has loud sports on the televisions, it has people yelling unflattering things at the sports on the televisions, and, well, IT’S A FREAKIN’ PUB, and people insist on bringing their children to it. Some people just don’t have a clue. If we found restaurants that excluded children, we would patronize the heck out of them, too.
[QUOTE=WhyNot]
The easiest way I’ve found to alienate families with children is simply to not provide high chairs or booster seats. Feckin’ annoying. I’d have rather seen a discrete and polite sign on the window than be welcomed and seated and smelled that delicious food (which turned out to not taste as good as it smelled) and then be told 10 minutes after we sat down that they don’t have high chairs or booster seats. I had assumed that the waiter, seeing me carry my toddler through the front door and helping me collapse the stroller for out-of-the-way storage during our meal might have gathered that she was indeed dining with us and he was getting a high chair as is usually done. Nope, he expected a 2 year old to sit on a folding chair (a fancy looking clear plastic folding chair, but a folding chair nonetheless) or be held while I ate bruschetta and pasta. WTF? Needless to say, we haven’t been back to La Cucina di Donatella on Howard Street in Chicago since, and I bash them to anyone who asks for restaurant recomendations in our area. Mostly because they’ve listed themselves as a “family” restaurant on every website I’ve found. Bastards.
[/QUOTE]
Wow… This bothers me for a few reasons.
What, restaurants must advertise with a sign at the front or inform guests as to wether or not they have child seating? Should they also mention up front of all special equipment/facilites to make sure every potential kind of customer is well informed before they are seated? It just seems like a lot to ask from a business that exists to provide food. What about allergies or other ailments that are even more relevant to their actual service? The meet and greet would be lovely I’m sure.
To me it seems obvious that it is in the customer’s responsibility to inquire about any special needs, not the other way around.
Also, there’s a nice WTF about the waiter expecting the child to sit on a chair or an adult’s lap instead. How absolutely outrageous!!! He should have run out and bought a high chair/booster seat on the spot and apologised profusely for not immediately doing so at the sight of you walking in to the restaurant with a child. What a crappy waiter, talk about not caring about your job.
Okay, I know I’m being snarky and sarcastic but it just kills me to see the sense of entitlement people have for just being a parent and/or having a child in tow. What’s so hard about asking the host/waiter upon arrival if there are accomodations for young children instead of blaming the restaurant staff for not offering up the information up front? Secondly, what is the waiter to do and why blame him/her?
I can understand being peeved about the restaurant being listed as a family one if it does not indeed cater to them.
I am myself childless (surprise, surprise) and plan to remain so for a multitude of reasons. I have no problems dealing with kids in public where they are expected to be and behave as they do. When dining in a nice establishment though, I certainly don’t appreciate unruly children. I’ve had both the experience of being surprised by amazingly well behaved kids to which I’ve actually congratulated the parents for such a wonderful job with their kids. I’ve also witnessed a few occasions where kids were total brats and the parents even worse. I’m not shy about being vocal about my thoughts in those times either.
I’d love to see restaurants that exclude kids but I know it would also exclude a few well behaved kids from enjoying the experience too so I have mixed feelings about the issue. My parents started taking me and my sister out to nice restaurants quite young and I really appreciate those experiences. I got to develop a love for many types of wonderful foods and wouldn’t want to take that away from other young ones today.
I think restaurants in general have to grow a bit more of a backbone when dealing with bad parents. It’s not about the kids. That’s understandably touchy but I’m tired of being the only one with enough ‘nuts’ to call a parent out when their kid’s being a total brat and then be thanked later by the staff for doing so because they ‘couldn’t’. Not something that’s happened very often but a few times as I enjoy eating out a fair bit.
[QUOTE=featherlou]
Our favourite pub often has small, noisy children in it (children can be present in places that serve liquor here, unfortunately). The pub has no children’s menu, it has pictures of very scantily-clad women everywhere, it has loud sports on the televisions, it has people yelling unflattering things at the sports on the televisions, and, well, IT’S A FREAKIN’ PUB, and people insist on bringing their children to it. Some people just don’t have a clue. If we found restaurants that excluded children, we would patronize the heck out of them, too.
[/QUOTE]
Hmmm.
The pictures of the scantily-clad make me think of one time I walked into The Wing House in East Akron.
I ordered some wings and sat at the bar waiting for them to turn out.
I watched TV.
Here was the line-up:
I’m all for accepting sexuality as a natural part of life, but I don’t want watch the physical act of love during dinner…
[QUOTE=Unstable]
I can understand being peeved about the restaurant being listed as a family one if it does not indeed cater to them.
[/QUOTE]
That’s the answer to all the rest of your queries.
I don’t expect “special” treatment, but I expect standard treatment for the class and type of restaurant advertised. For a “family restaurant”, that includes high chairs and/or booster seats. Don’t want to stock them, 'cause you don’t want kids? Advertise as a “quite romantic” restaurant instead.
It remains the one and only restaurant I’ve been to in the area in three years without high chairs. It’s not exotic equipment.
[QUOTE=Mr. Slant]
I’m all for accepting sexuality as a natural part of life, but I don’t want watch the physical act of love during dinner…
[/QUOTE]
Well, so much for my live porn dinner theater idea. (Children excluded.)
Of course I myself sometimes enjoy the physical act of love during dinner.
Tastes differ.
[QUOTE=The Sonoran Lizard King]
Well, so much for my live porn dinner theater idea. (Children excluded.)
[/QUOTE]
No, I encourage you to try.