Actually, the same is true in New Orleans. Just ask for a “to go” cup, and you can take your liquid refreshment with you.
Here is a good example about bringing your own food. Read the part under Party Hard.
Some years ago, my husband and I, and our then-seven-year-old daughter were vacationing in Colonial Williamsburg, VA. A family we were friends with were vacationing there at the same time. The friend family and their (older) kids wanted for us all to go to a fairly pricey seafood buffet. We wanted to go and have dinner with them (hubby and I love seafood!) but our kid was a picky eater. We got her a Happy Meal (or equivalent; don’t remember) and took it into the restaurant with us. I had actually called in advance to make sure they wouldn’t mind. She wouldn’t have touched seafood with a ten-foot pole (still won’t, and she’s 18 :smack: ).
From the restaurant’s perspective, they got six paying adults, instead of none, which is what they may have ended up with if they had said, no, you can’t bring that Happy Meal in here.
To address some of Scarlett’s remarks: getting a babysitter was not an option, as we were out of town. And we made sure she had plenty with her to keep her occupied through a long meal (books, drawing paper, colored pencils; she was a pretty quiet kid anyway).
As to the OP’s question: well, it’s basically been answered. Businesses want you to buy what they are selling. However, I will add that several times, I’ve taken my 9YO to an outdoor celebration-type-thing our city hosts called “Friday After Five”; after 5PM on Fridays, it pretty much takes up the whole (tiny) downtown area, features live music, free admission, etc. We will often get outdoor seating at one of the restaurants and I will order drinks for me (alcohol; we walk downtown and home again) and appetizers for both of us, and let her bring a fruit smoothie from the cafe down the street. The outdoor restaurant we like doesn’t sell fruit smoothies. I don’t know if they object or not, but they’ve never said anything.
(Oh, and for anyone wondering, I always tip the waitress as if I had ordered a soft drink for my daughter, too.)
ETA: I posted this before reading the whole thread, and before reading Colibri’s instructions about hijacking; I hope my post didn’t contribute too badly to the hijack. My apologies if so.
I worked for a national chain restaurant. On one busy weekend night, two parents came in with four kids. Dad stood outside with happy meal bags for the four kids. Mom put their name on the list, took the pager and sat outside with the kids eating the happy meals. We figured it was just to pacify them during the wait. Then, when we sat the kids, their parents got them each a milkshake, then asked for freebies like crackers and such to keep the kids “distracted.”
The poor server kept running around to pacify these kids and neither her nor the restaurant made anything on keeping the kids appeased through allowing them to bring in their own food. (Actually they didn’t even bring it in; they sat outside with it.) They must have known better than to bring food into the restaurant… and that’s why we didn’t allow it. The servers are there to serve that restaurant’s food, not to baby sit.
I understand corkage fees and bringing in wine without liquor licenses… but happy meals to keep kids from misbehaving and to save mom and dad a few bucks… that’s not fair to the employees and the restaurant.
Wouldn’t you hate to be in a nice restaurant eating a porterhouse and having to smell Chicken Mc Nuggets from the next table? The places have their own menu and want to make money.
There are also local laws controlling alcohol all over the USA. Often the alcohol must be brought to the eating area by the staff, and you can’t leave the table with it or fines ensue.
There is a bar that I love in Portland (Milwaukie actually) called the Black Cat.
They serve food and drinks, have shuffleboard, some video games, tvs, etc. The also have a large area outside in the back with a gas BBQ. They allow you to bring in your own food if you want, cook it up, share with others, etc.
I wish I lived within walking distance of it, because we would go all the time!
I dont have a personal stake in this subject (no kids, I have never worked in a restaurant) but if I owned or worked in an eatery, (and by doing so depended on an abundance of customers for my livelyhood) I think I would rather have a party like I described in my initial post (parents eating, kids with “outside” food, everyone well behaved, the restaurant not busy at the time) come and spend SOME money in my place, even if they are not going to end up spending AS MUCH as if they would have ordered the kids meals at my joint, rather than just all eating at the burger joint, thereby cutting my place out of the picture completely.
If the situation I saw was different (say the restaurant was extremely busy, or the little kids were bratty hellraisers) I could certainly see objections by the staff.
Finally, this was not some chain family restaurant (which might be more set up to serve special kids meals?) this was a expensive, upscale place, and the staff seemed happy for the additional business.
It was just something I saw once and remembered it upon reading this thread.
The Boston suburb/minor city of Woburn, MA used to have an enforced law that you couldn’t stand up with a drink in your hand at any type of retail establishment. That isn’t so bad if are at a regular dining table but it is very strange if you are sitting at a bar and stand up off of your stool to talk to someone or if you just sitting at the bar waiting for a table. The staff would freak out if you tried to move your own drink from one place to another and you had to get someone to do it for you. That law was repealed in the late 90’s but I can’t imagine why anyone would have ever proposed it in the first place.
It would be a pleasant change from having to smell the people who’ve doused themselves in nasty cologne/perfume from the next table.
AMEN!
No it wouldn’t. Both are evil.
A lot of strip clubs around here get around the need for a liquor license by being BYOB. I’m not a regular patron of any, but I was at a friend’s bachelor party a few years back. There was a bar. But rather than alcohol it was stocked with ice, cups, and the non-alcoholic ingredients of mixed drinks (cream, tomato juice, lemon wedges etc).
An interesting variation on this is that many kosher/halal restaurants do not want you bringing outside food in because that may threaten their kosher/halal status.
Perhaps because you don’t live in Nevada?
[Actually, one old curmudgeon in Fallon, NV did prohibit coffee from the Starbucks across the street. He went bankrupt.]
Ask for it in a sippy cup. The reactions are priceless.
Pfft, don’t need no stinkin’ to-go cup in Vegas.
Technically, bottles and glasses (only the ones actually made of glass, not plastic cups or aluminum bottles or cans) are illegal to drink out of on the Strip. Its not the alcohol, but instead the potential problem of broken glass on the sidewalks, is how it was explained to me. Granted, this is not always too strictly enforced, but is still against the law.
Its the same way in the French Quarter, alcohol is no problem, but glass containers are illegal to drink out of in the streets.
A go-cup is a good way to avoid unwanted contact with an overzealous cop who may just be looking for a legal reason to stop you.