# First time you ate in a restaurant

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-time-you-ate-in-a-restaurant/980394>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [February 26, 2023, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-time-you-ate-in-a-restaurant/980394 "2023-02-26T12:44:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\
**Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-time-you-ate-in-a-restaurant/980394/41 "2023-03-08T08:53:36Z")

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According to my parents, it was at the Second Avenue Deli, in Manhattan’s East Village, circa 1977. I was three years old. I had a knish.

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**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2023, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-time-you-ate-in-a-restaurant/980394/42 "2023-03-11T01:43:20Z")

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I was small enough to be in a highchair and not talking much, so probably a year old or less. My parents liked to tell 2 stories about my early restaurant experiences, which seemed to take place in pancake places, so most likely IHOP and/or Bickfords:

1. I like lemons. I have always liked them, and used to freak out the waitstaff by eating lemon slices without frowning.

2. Waitresses would _always_ ask my parents if they could give me Saltines while we waited for food, and Dad would tell them that they could if they wanted to but I would make a mess. They never believed him and I would methodically crumble them up and delicately drop the pieces in a circle around the highchair. The waitresses were dismayed.

Years later Dad and I watched **Supernatural** , and after a plot involving salt lines I amused him by asking him if he and Mom ever considered that I was trying to form a protective circle around the highchair to ward off ghosts 😄

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**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2023, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-time-you-ate-in-a-restaurant/980394/43 "2023-03-11T11:53:33Z")

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> [@elfkin477](#):
>
> used to freak out the waitstaff by eating lemon slices without frowning.

Both of my grandkids like to suck on lemon slices. I have to wonder if it’s a case of their taste buds not yet being fully developed. At least they’re not licking the salt shakers…

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**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2023, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-time-you-ate-in-a-restaurant/980394/44 "2023-03-11T14:58:16Z")

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It was the Paramount Steakhouse at 44 Charles Street in Boston’s Back Bay, at the foot of Beacon Hill, 20 miles from home, around 1958, after I got my first (hand me down) car (a '50 Ford). Ate there a couple more times, not back to that restaurant since that time period.

The restaurant is still there according to Google street view.

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