Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Restaurants Let them eat Chuck E. Cheese's pizza
Posted by Cliff Bostock @cliffbostock on Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 6:55 PM
- www.mcdains.com
- No kids may disturb the fine casual dining
Pennsylvania restaurant owner Mike Vuick has had it with your obnoxious children, and as of July 16, kids under the age of six will no longer be welcome at his restaurant, McDain's. No exceptions. According to Vuick, bringing kids into his restaurant is "the height of being impolite and selfish."Of course, parents aren't happy, but Vuick doesn't mind: "You know, their child — maybe as it should be — is the center of their universe. But they don't realize it's not the center of the universe." So now adults of any age can enjoy their Shrimp Basket & Fries ($6.95) and their Fresh Alfredo Penne Primavera ($11.95, add $2 for chicken) in peace, free from the tyranny of shrieking, gurgling hellspawn.
This has occasionally come up at Atlanta restaurants, the most infamous of which, The Supper Club in Decatur, closed five or so years ago. That "ban" was understandable, since the restaurant created a highly romantic, adult ambiance. It was hard to picture kids running about in that exotic refuge.
But it's very difficult to understand why a restaurant like McDain's, associated with a golf facility of some sort, would banish kids. It calls itself a "fine casual dining" restaurant. I guess the picture of its dining room above illustrates that rather oxymoronic (and all too common) description.
I enjoy interacting with kids in restaurants, perhaps because my childless status doesn't require that I do so the rest of the time. The occasional blood-curdling screams are not exactly music to my ears, but neither is the ubiquitous cell-phone chatter of disassociated adults.
Comments (33)
Showing 1-33 of 33
I'm not a fan of this kind of thing either. While I don't particularly enjoy the company of small children, I've never been bothered by them in restaurants (nor in airplanes, for that matter). There are all sorts of momentary distractions in a public place -- but despite what people say and write, I've noticed that their parents are almost always on point to handle the situation properly.
I certainly wouldn't go out of my way to do business with a restaurant that bans kids. In fact, I might avoid such a restaurant out of concern that its overly-fussy nature might diminish my own dining experience.
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As a parent of a usually well-behaved child, I applause the ban. Children acting up in a restaurant, without repercussion, is a sign of bad parenting. Most restaurants are unsurprisingly uncomfortable telling parents that their pride-and-joy is a misbehaving brat, and it's the last thing that another dinner wants to do during diner. So maybe this will encourage some parents to take an active role in raising polite, well-mannered children instead of the ignored rabble that usually infests most mid-level restaurants, but I wouldn't count on it.
This wouldn't be a problem if people beat their children more. My kid never misbehaves in a restaurant. She knows better.
smitty you are old school...like Southside Steve's dad.
We didn't take 'em when they were tiny, and if they started the routine when they were a little older, we yanked 'em right outta there.
I can understand the ban. With today's indulgent, fawning parents and the free-range child rearing philosophy, tiny terrors often go unrestrained. I hate to see a policy but a critical mass of idiot parents has been achieved.
The Supper Club made sense. The caddyshack in the article, not as much.
Now it makes sense, Dave. You enjoy the open-minded stylings of the Regular Guys.
I've been on both sides of this. When I waited tables, the new no-discipline parenting crew seemed more concerned with their adult companionship (understandably, sorta) then watching their kids. Most of the kids in our restaurant acted like Viking berserkers. Running up & down aisles while servers had to step over them with heavy trays, raping & pillaging any napkin holders or paper products. These parents wouldn't even clean up after them. Terrible. They weren't concerned with any possible danger to the staff or their kids. As a parent, I'm probably overly conscious of not negatively impacting other folks' enjoyment at a restaurant.
Look if a restuarant does not want your kids there then F them in the A and take your order of chicken fingers down the street. Easy enough. It is not like there is a city or state wide ban on your brats going to eat some place. Just this joke of a place. They should ban kids from Hooters.
I'm curious what kind of restaurants you guys are talking about, because I just don't see kids out of control much anywhere. Are these mainly suburban restaurants or places that actually cater to families (Applebee's, etc.)? Or do I not see it because I typically eat around 9?
I can say that I've been hearing about "liberal" parenting in this context since I was a child myself, so I'm suspicious of this description. Thinking back, though, I remember not even being permitted to leave my seat in restaurants when I was a kid.
But I do enjoy it when a kid wanders up to my table and starts conversing. I guess, as I said, that's because I don't get the chance to interact with them much.
@Cliff
I ll give you 3 places i do not like to go to because of screaming children. Osteria in the highlands is unbearable. I have had two meals ruined so far at Big Tex Cantina. And Dakota Blue is my worst fucking nightmare. I just can not handle the piercing scream of a child. I tell you what i hate worse than dealing with children though is dealing with suburban tourists. Is there really no BBQ to eat in bumblefuck that you have to drive to Fox Bros? And anyone who ever needs more than 4 people at a table is an asshole.
RE: "And Dakota Blue is my worst fucking nightmare. I just can not handle the piercing scream of a child. I tell you what i hate worse than dealing with children though is dealing with suburban tourists. Is there really no BBQ to eat in bumblefuck that you have to drive to Fox Bros? And anyone who ever needs more than 4 people at a table is an asshole."
Speaking of screaming, obnoxious, whiny children...
"Viking beserkers" Hahahahahahahahaha
So true. I do enjoy, though, the precocious conversant child which is the flip side of the beserker.
It's not a liberal thing, Cliff. I know far right, I mean compared to me, even, families who practice the free-range child philosophy. It does seem to exist primarily, though, in the indulgent New Age tribes.
There's better BBQ in the burbs. The normals at Fox Bros. are there because it's cool. For my money, the best BBQ is Williamson Bros. in Marietta.
Irony much,
This is a forum for grievances. Now go get your kids shit covered fingers out of their water glass and dream of the days when your life didnt suck.
@Dave
I couldnt agree more. I just didnt realize that suburban church goers gave a damn about something being "cool". I like going to Fox Bros because its close to my house. I eat at at Williamsons when im in Marrietta. I dont go there to eat at Williamsons.
Eating at Williamson Bros. is the ONLY reason I'll go to godawful Marietta unless I'm booked to work somewhere in that armpit of a town.
I did enjoy seeing The Ramones at The Strand. When they were booking rock n roll there for that short period, there was another reason to go.
Anyone who has an obnoxious kid knows it and they owe it to the rest of us to go to Chuck E. Cheese.
Um, Cliff, I worked at the Brewhouse. Not suburban or a "kid place" by any stretch of the imagination. Do you go out to brunch? Brunch time is high noon for families eating out.
We also had the misfortune of saltine cracker packages. The stuff turns to a thousand pieces of dust in little hands & oddly defies any attempt with a broom.
And yes, no discipline parenting is sort of a new concept. It's not the kids' fault, I'm not critiquing kids who act up because their parents seem incapable of teaching proper behavior in public.
Any parent bringing their kid into Brewhouse (which i think is not even allowed anymore) is obviously not that responsible.
I had a father send his child up to me while I was having dinner to ask me if I was Santa. I looked at the father then whispered to the kid, " Santa is dead." That is the reason you should keep your kid at home so you do not run into a sick bastard like me who will gladly tell your kid something they do not need to know or hear at six. I like kids at the park or zoo or event sporting events. I just do not want some kid I do not know bothering me while I eat. But I am a jerk.
Cliff, it's not your dining hours: I eat much earlier (generally before 7). And I've been repeatedly to two of the restaurants that EDGEWOOD ADAM complains about (Osteria 832 and Dakota Blue) -- but I've never had a complaint about children in there. Minor inconveniences (I wasn't trying for the pun, but at least I noticed it) are, I think, something we should try to accept without complaint. And I have every confidence that the overwhelming majority of these parents are trying to teach their children proper behavior in a public dining environment
@America: Nope, I avoid brunch. The menus and the ritual never appeal to me.
The "no-discipline parenting" and controversy really is not a new phenom. It started with Benjamin Spock over 50 years ago. His emphasis on love and affection instead of then-conventional discipline was widely adopted.
But it was relentlessly controversial. During the '60s, Spock was even blamed for hippie and anti-war culture because of the methods he advocated.
I remember my mother talking about how my aunt had taken Spock's theories too far. (My, um, noisy cousins grew up fine.)
This leaves me wondering about the novelty of children's behavior now. Children are generally not treated very well in our culture.
I'm wondering, too, if "no discipline parenting," erroneously described as something new, might not be the problem. Is it possible that we as a culture have become more impatient of children ourselves?
@Edgewood Adam: Funny you mention Dakota Blue. We live a couple blocks away, but more often go across the street to Grant Central. That's where I most regularly encounter children leaving the table to play or visit other tables.
The shrieking would bother anyone but most of the parents I've observed whisk the offenders outside.
funny this posting coming up today- last night some friends and I wanted to grab a drink/dinner and both Osteria and Dakota Blue were both quickly discarded because of the kids there and the atmosphere that seemingly accepts them running around like crazy (esp. Dakota Blue - and you're lying if you say it's not that way). And I'm not anti-kid but let's call a spade a spade and recognize that some places are go-to's for parents with children because the establishment is comfortable with kids being there and some just aren't (and those are often places that allow smoking, etc). So just take your lesson learned, don't go to those spots, and hit up an 'adult' restaurant, or at least one that isn't up for kids making a mess. I'm not saying all do but c'mon. It happens. Same with children on planes. Sometimes it works out alright, sometimes it doesn't.
I agree and I don't go to Dakota Blue because I don't enjoy the atmosphere. I don't like chaotic adult places either. Il localina comes to mind. As far as airplanes go there really should be a no children option flight or at least no children ever on early morning flights.
@ Cliff: Ah, gotcha. I'm new to the game, so it seems a new age approach, if my folks were any indication.
Though, I don't know how you'd make the leap that they aren't treated well? Or less well than they used to be? It seems more often kids are treated like miniature adults when they may not be capable of making decisions in their ultimate best interest. Is that what you mean by not treated well? Have you seen Babies? We sorta got the lock on helicopter parenting.
And let me add that even if it's not new, the philosophy surely wasn't subscribed to by as many people as it is now. Parents are more permissive these days perhaps as a result of guilt.
@America: Permissive. That's the word I was looking for and was constantly applied to Spock's methods.
No, I don't think children are well treated in our culture at all. You can look at public education as an example. Or public health care. Both are being cut back and their quality was dubious to begin with.
If we don't like the way children behave, we put them on drugs or send them off to disciplinary schools.
We feed them garbage that makes them obese and sick. Or we starve them. I was a volunteer in the city's Head Start program when I was in high school. That was long ago, but it was absolutely shocking to see kids literally going unfed. It's happening again.
Children have zero rights. It takes the occurrence of monstrous abuse for the state to intervene. They have utterly no say in the way they are treated.
Truly the ideal is somewhere midway between free-range and regular beatdown, yes? You can screw up your little human by hanging around either end of that.
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I think we may be talking about 2 different things. I think what you say is true, but I think it's more relevant in a discussion on class issues versus strictly children issues. You aren't describing a culture exclusive to children. It's not as if the parents of those children you describe eat much better. People eat garbage because garbage is cheap. Because on the other end of the spectrum in the US, parents are highly enabling who appear to spoil their children with video games, ponies or whatever. The birth of the millineals. I also don't think it's exclusive to the US. It's actually probably better here than most countries, but by no means ideal. Historically there's always been a Little Lord Fauntleroy & an Oliver Twist.
Erm, that was a terrible analogy since both of those characters are in rags to riches stories. Sorry about that.
What I meant to say is that you are talking about Charlie & I'm talking about Veruca Salt.
@America: I'm simply making the point that as a culture we don't treat children very well. Part of that is unreasonable expectations about them resulting from an oversimplified view of the child.
I'm wondering if bratty behavior in a restaurant can be blamed on parents. Do kids act out any more than they ever have, or have our expectations about them continued to rise?
Here's a link to a column I wrote over 10 years ago. Scroll down to the second part, in which I talk about George Boas' book, "The Cult of Childhood."
http://clatl.com/atlanta/archetypal-advice…
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its the dumbass mexicans that let their kids scream unchecked normally. They should ban Mexicans haha!
Chuck e Cheese provides for a great family outing where kids can enjoy games and rides, parties and entertainment with animated characters such as Chuck e Cheese itself. All this while the family enjoys a great selection of food including meat, BBQ and Veggie pizzas with combos and soft drinks. Have a birthday coming up? Just contact Chuckie Cheese to organize a party event for your child and they will do all the work, relieving you off the work! Typically, birthday parties last 2 hours and provide for some great gifts and food that all attending children will enjoy. Cakes served include chocolate creamcakes and vanilla buttercream. Other cool food items served would include buffalo wings in 20 or 40 pieces, veggie/sandwich platters and more. Source: http://www.getfreeprintablecoupons.com/chu… Chuckie Cheese was originally founded in 1989 and has its headquarters in Irving, Texas. With over 509 locations in 7 countries, the mission of this company is to give people a memorable experience where they can enjoy their day with people they lost the most.
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