Happy Meals at Haughty Places?
When my oldest son was one, I wrote a story for our city magazine about fine dining with children. I dragged Declan to five white tablecloth restaurants and tried to enjoy myself. Just because Declan didn’t eat foie gras, I reasoned, didn’t mean I couldn’t.
I think I wanted to prove to myself more than anything that I could do it, that my life didn’t have to change completely just because I had a baby. And I did do it, even if it wasn’t always relaxing.
Over at Gourmet.com, they have an article that offers similar advice, though they stress that you should not bring your baby to a fine dining restaurant.
“Despite what some people would argue,” author Genevieve Ko insists, “anywhere with crisp white
tablecloths, beautiful glassware, and $20-plus entr
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We have asked for the check and “to-go” boxes to arrive with our entrees. This way if someone is about to have a melt-down, we can make a quick get-away. (Although, honestly, we hardly ever take the kids anywhere with tablecloths.)
The best idea we ever had when taking our three small children to a fancy restaurant was to order them dessert first. They got their ice cream and cake quickly which made them happy. They were then fine to pick at their real food more slowly while we enjoyed our entrees, and a dinner I’d been worried about worked out much better than I’d hoped.
My absolute favorite restaurant, with its $20 and up entrees, is the bustling cafe type, and the waitresses actually ask WHERE our daughter is when we go on date night. They scold us for not bringing her.
We shoot for early dining too, so it’s before the crowd comes in and before she starts to get antsy.
A tip I’ve used to decent success (if you can call it that), is, if it’s clear the babe isn’t going to do well, get your food packed up to go ASAP. Most wait persons would much rather get the food boxed up than deal with your cranky child. And assuming there are two adults in the mix, one person can take the baby outside while the other can wait for the food.
It’s not as good as actually having dinner there, but it’s a decent option when you follow the rules and the kid still can’t make it.