The case this week of a Pittsburgh-area restaurant planning to ban children under the age of 6 has produced widespread attention, even though the foodservice industry has seen cases like this arise with the periodic regularity of baby feedings.
The most recent instance involves Mike Vuick, owner of McDain’s Restaurant and Golf Center in Monroeville, Pa., who sent an email to customers three weeks ago stating that as of Saturday, his restaurant would ban children under 6 years of age because they disrupt other customers’ meals.
And like in earlier cases, from one in North Carolina last fall to another in Chicago in 2005, support and outrage ensued.
Vuick said he had received several thousand emails from around the world, running at least 11-to-1 in favor of his decision.
Vuick quietly announced the ban three weeks ago by sending an email to his loyal customers that said: “Beginning July 16, 2011, McDain’s Restaurant will no longer admit children under 6 years of age. We feel that McDain’s is not a place for young children. Their volume can’t be controlled and many, many times, they have disturbed other customers.”
One customer notified a local TV news team, and the ensuing story spread worldwide, Vuick said.
Public opinion seems to be on Vuick’s side. A poll by KQV-AM radio in nearby Pittsburgh, Pa., found that as of Thursday 74 percent of those participating agreed with Vuick’s decision and 26 percent opposed it. Similar results were found at a TV channel’s website that found of 10,000 people voting, 64 percent supported the ban, 26 percent opposed it and 10 percent didn’t care either way.
The cases of unruly children being barred or parents being asked to corral the kids pop up regularly.
Last September, the Olde Salty restaurant in Carolina Beach, N.C., posted a “Screaming Children Will NOT Be Tolerated” sign that angered some parents.
In fall 2005, a restaurant in Chicago’s Andersonville drew national attention when it posted signs that “children of all ages have to behave and use their indoor voices when coming to A Taste of Heaven.”
A Taste of Heaven staff member at the Chicago restaurant said Thursday that the two signs remain. “Parents were letting their children run about and they were slamming into the glass of the pastry cases,” he said. “It’s not much of a problem now.”
Other restaurant operators have found delicate ways to suggest to parents that children of a certain age would be better accommodated at less casual restaurants.
The Lake Placid Lodge in New York, for example, states clearly on its dining reservations website: “Kindly note: Children 12 and above are most welcome.” And the Blantyre restaurant in Lennox, Mass., suggests gently: “Children welcome from 12 years.”
Vuick said he hopes offending parents will get the message and “just like the tide turned in the smoking issue, where we went from 50 percent smokers to less than 20 percent, they will realize they are disturbing other people.”
For the first few days of the ban, Vuick said he will serve as the restaurant’s maitre d’, and he will explain to anyone with children the new policy. “I’ll give out gift certificates to people and invite them to come back without their children,” he said.
Tips of the trade
Restaurateurs who are dealing with “wild child syndrome” but don’t want to outright ban children have options, said Fred LeFranc, chief executive of the Charlotte, N.C.-based consultancy Results Thru Strategy.
1) Create a family room and special night for children. Even quick-service restaurants provide separate areas for children and adults. Upscale restaurants can think about using party rooms on off nights to encourage families to use their establishments when it’s easiest and most appropriate.
“At The Cantina restaurant in the Bay Area [of California],” LeFranc said, “we had a room set aside one night a week that we were able to block off, and we hired babysitters.”
Children were sent to the play area, given a meal and entertained with a movie or toys while the parents sat in different rooms for quiet, he said.
2) Provide a kids-eat-free night. LeFranc said customers were incentivized to come to a restaurant with kids when it made sense fiscally, through a “kids-eat-free” or similar program.
“We did that on a slow night of the week,” LeFranc explained, “knowing that parents in the area then had an incentive to come in those nights. All the screaming kids came in on one night and screamed together.
“Everyone was ready for it,” he said, “and we dramatically reduced the amount of kids who came in on the other nights.”
Contact Ron Ruggless at [email protected].
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