Just so you know I’m not out to win any culture war between urban parents and their counterparts who don’t have kids — I’d prefer a truce, a mutual understanding — I’ll pass along a few links that may be of use to parents who take their kids to restaurants (and bars).

Francis Lam at Salon interviews food critic Robert Sietsema (who is very much in favor of eating out with (certain) kids) and directs us to Fat City’s Jonathan Bender who give us a thorough round-up and includes these ground rules, which he summarizes thusly: think of pool rules. Continue reading »

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The bars and babies debate has been unresolved and ongoing ever since babies started going into bars (like around 2006 or something). Patrons who showed up with just a couple of twenties and thirst for inhabiting their urban surroundings feel certain they shouldn’t have to share the darkened room with a screechy toddler one booth over. Screechy toddler’s mom (“He was just hungry! He’s fine now!”) argues her kid isn’t any more annoying than the drunk hipster speaking too loudly into his iPhone. Anyway, she’s also a paying customer with a thirst for inhabiting her urban surroundings. Maybe she shouldn’t have to share her toddler’s space with such a jerk!

And so it goes, this culture clash between urban parents and the urban unburdened. In bars. In restaurants. And, according to the Washington Post, in parks. Continue reading »

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When cities and states started requiring chain restaurants to list calorie counts on menus, a lot of people balked arguing it wouldn’t work, people would still order fattening food.

They were right, sort of. But so were the regulators who started requiring the information.

A new study from the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department in the state of Washington found that diners used calorie, fat and sodium information at least some of the time in deciding what to order.

Only they still often — unknowingly — ordered the wrong thing. They had the information, but didn’t know exactly what it meant. Continue reading »

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It’s always a challenge to take a baby or toddler out to eat. And that’s putting aside the (remote) possibility that the restaurant will go all whack job and boot your kid for not wearing shoes.

Aside from the usual dining-out quandaries — appetizer or straight to main course? Dessert or just post-meal espresso? — there’s a laundry list of other potential issues that a young child literally brings to the table: screaming, fear of wine glasses crashing to the bistro’s tile floor, fear of silverware doing the same, the possibility of flung gruyère mac and cheese, and on and on.

But apparently, Anne V. Nelson of The Boston Globe has mastered the art of enjoying great restaurants with a baby. Although she acknowledges that she and her husband have had to hastily end at least one dinner in order to avoid a mealtime meltdown, she describes some really excellent dining out experiences they’ve managed to have with a not-even-one-year-old.

It all sounds so blissful: being able to enjoy a glass of zippy Zinfandel or some butter-poached lobster, even with a tiny diner in tow. Honestly, it’s something that, prior to having my own child, I never thought I’d experience as a parent, mainly because I had heard so many young-kid-in-restaurant horror stories. Exhibit A: my brother once shared that he took my nephew for pizza when he was, I think, 3 or 4. “How did it go?” I asked. “Fine,” he responded, “until he barfed all over the table.”

Fortunately, my son has yet to vomit in the middle of a dining establishment (yet). But a barf episode before the entrees even arrive has to be the worst case scenario for parents who relish the opportunity to eat out. That said, you tell me: what’s the worst dining-out-with-kids story you’ve got, based on either your own experience or the experience of someone you know? What’s the best dining-out-with-kids story, assuming that you can make any of them sound as delicious as the Globe’s Nelson did? And hell, while you’re telling us stuff, please share your tips for making a meal out with kids go as smoothly as possible.

Image: canadianparents.com

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