This seems to be a perennial argument in the food service industry but it never fails to attract my interest. The Washington Post picked up the story of an an upscale Italian restaurant in North Carolina called Caruso’s. They had run into a number of issues with parents bringing young and too often horribly behaved children into the eatery for dinner who then wound up annoying the rest of the clientele. As they tell the story, the straw which broke the camel’s back was a young girl with an i-Pad who was playing videos at full volume despite being asked to turn it down (or off) and the parents were completely failing to discipline her or resolve the situation. Shortly after that they imposed a ban on bringing children under the age of five into the establishment.
The typical howls of outrage from some parents began immediately, but there was another reaction as well.
The ban — conceived by the restaurant’s owner, Pasquale Caruso — has led to a dramatic increase in reservations, said Nunez, who said Caruso’s has seen a spike in diners, from about 50 per day to around 80.
“Banning children has always been a topic in the industry and every owner says, ‘I wish I could do it,’” he said. “Our owner has the full support of the staff. We work here to make a living, too, and we support our owner 100 percent.”
Good for them. Too often you see only one side of this debate in the press and it centers on the parents who are complaining and saying that families are being stigmatized or punished or what have you.
(Excerpt) Read more at hotair.com ...
