Heh. Above the age of five (and maybe even below it) my kids were never as obnoxious in a restaurant as my step-mother at 80 is any time, not to mention my step-sister. My kids never complained at the top of their lungs and they never treated the waiters as their personal slaves.
God yes.
There is a family-oriented pizza place near my house. The pizza is decent, but I tend to not go there because the place is full of screaming children and there are a lot of places I can get a pizza which are not. Like at my house. Once, a BF and I decided to go there. We found a tiny little bar in the back of the place where nobody was sitting. Turns out, if you belly up to the bar and have a few drinks, you can tolerate damn near anything. The little no-necked monstahs (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof reference) usually aren’t allowed anywhere near the bar and if they come within three feet of me, I reserve the right to offer to buy them a drink.
That’ll keep 'em away from my 'za. 
Ooo! And do they *all *have to be tuned to a sports channel?
Just once, one time, I would like to walk into a bar or restaurant and find something other than a sporting event on the monitor. Hey, I like sports and watch them on TV at home. That’s why I went out to the bar in the first place… I got sick of sitting around at home watching friggin’ sports on TV! :smack:
Walt Disney World of all places has a restaurant for adults only. It costs over 100 dollars per person, but the fact remains, it is adults only… at a Family Vacation spot of all places.
I’ve dined there. It was excellent.
Also the Disney Cruise Line offers an adult-only dining option. I hear they are quite strict about it too. One month to your 18th birthday? Tough Luck.
I find that expensive dinner restaurants usually don’t have any children there anyway, or maybe I just don’t notice them.
I like this answer. I would just like to have a restaurant that lets it be known that it expects its patrons to act respectably, including parents monitoring children’s behavior, groups recognizing that their celebrations may be getting out of hand, old ladies talking about their innards, and profane drunk guys. We want your business, and we will try to help you have a pleasant time. In return, you will comply by the house rules.
This answer is my answer and it’s the reason I chose “it’s not that black and white.” The child-free thing isn’t the only criterion to consider. If it’s child-free and has excellent food, hell yeah I’ll go, but the draw will be the good food. The child-free thing is just a bonus.
I’ve never really been bothered by kids in restaurants. As the father of two young children, I’m not offended by the idea, but a child-free policy by itself would not make me more or less likely to eat there. It’d really be about the quality and price of the food.
This is close to my answer - maybe I’m just lucky, but screaming kids has not been a huge issue for me. If a specific location had a reputation for screaming families then I might avoid that, but otherwise I don’t feel strongly about this policy.
The Vortex in Atlanta actually does this, they don’t allow anyone under 21, but I think it is so they can allow smoking. The smokiness doesn’t appeal to me very much, but despite this and their child-free policy I still go because I really like the place.
My problem is that 18 is too high a cutoff point. The annoying kids are mostly in the sub 14 group. I don’t see any reason why a well-behaved 16 year old should not be able to come.
The way I would actually get this to work would be to provide daycare facilities for the under 14 crowd. That way, even people with kids are not really going to be put out by it. We do this at my church a few times a year (Valentines day is one), and it works pretty well. We charge $5 a person for a steak dinner, and we still come out on top. (Of course, we get some of the food donated. But, without donations, I’d say it’s in the Outback/Applebees range.)
Absolutely. I’d eat there exclusively if the menu was varied enough. I’d just tag along with Cat Whisperer (and I’d even let her pay for my meals because I’m just that nice. 
).
Would I go? HELL, YEAH!, DUH! I think 18 is a good cutoff point, snorfing, farting-around, guffawing, shrieking 14 year olds throwing ice cubes at each other are as annoying as 4 year olds crawling under your table.
I voted “something else”, for much the same reason as BigT: I think 18 is too old to serve as an absolute cutoff point. The problem with the little ones is that they’re unpredictable; even the best parents can have a two-year-old go ballistic at a moment’s notice. By around 13-14, the kid should be relatively consistent in his/her behavior, as well as capable of following verbal instructions.
If I had to set a minimum age, I’d set it at 13, but I’d rather just have a rule that disturbance-causing patrons of any age would be ejected forthwith (NO EXCEPTIONS), and a management staff with the stones to enforce it as written.
Be careful what you wish for. We ate at Friday’s last week, and I the whole time I was trying to enjoy my steak the TV in my face was showing bloody bodies being dragged out of the rubble of Haiti.
I would patronize it… i have a 10 and a 12 year old and thankfully they know that i would knock the hell out of em if they ever got stupid in a joint… since everyone is playing the “my kids are great card” i’ll own up that once at a Fridays’ i almost committed felony murder… but other than that incident they are fun and good to go…
If a owner wants to try it… several i think do… earlier mention of the Vortex here in the ATL… the smoking and s/m costumes of the waitstaff… Some dude running a coffee joint (not starbucks) did it in chicago i remember reading… i concur with that too. when i’m at a coffee joint two year olds running around is annoying…
If it was smoke free! My child is 17, so in a year I’ll answer yes. heck, my son even dislikes being around kids and has never made a peep in any public place.
It’s a date! 
No. I can’t, I’m seventeen. 
But seriously, what Big T said. 18 just seems like an arbitrary line to me. What will hapen to me in three months that magically renders me fit for adult company? And when it’s happened, why would I want to go somewhere that keeps out most of my friends and will calculate my age to the day before letting me in?
Another factor is that I simply don’t go to restaurants very often, and when I do it’s almost always with other minors along. For example, last time I ate out was at a sort of get-together for family and close friends. I, my fifteen year old brother and my thirteen year old sister were welcomed by our companions and I’m fairly sure we didn’t disturb any of the other patrons. The time before that was an end of year break up for the Guide leaders in my area. Two of them brought their young children along. So I can’t really picture a situation where an 18+ restaurant would be the choice for me.
I think the concept makes more sense in a resort or on a cruise ship, but I wouldn’t have any problem eating at an adults-only restaurant. However I wouldn’t actively seek out one (unless it had some kind of adult theme or entertainment).
Not as strictly described in the OP. A low-to-mid-range place is where we go to eat out with the kids.
But a nicer place, the sort where you go for a special event like a big (adult) birthday or anniversary dinner without the kids anyway? The no-kids rule certainly wouldn’t stop me from considering it.
Frankly, my concern with a no-under-18s rule in a relatively inexpensive place is that it would be overrun by obnoxious 19-to-25s
Child free might be a plus in their favor if all other things were created equal. I’m still going to chose the option with the best food and service. Child free alone is not enough to get me in the door.