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Take My Kids to the Restaurant? Are You Kidding?
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17061 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
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8 / 1990 |
1,791 Words |
| Author
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Celeste McCall
Caleste McCall writes on food and restaurants for the
Washington Times. |
Are you one of those skeptics who equate taking children to restaurants with taking them to Europe - in other words, don't?
If that's your view, be advised that not only is this attitude no longer universal, it may be decidedly unfashionable. Dining out with children is actually becoming a 1990s trend. The dual-income baby boomers who postponed childbearing to pursue careers have finally become parents and have begun to develop new lifestyles. They have the means to dine out frequently, and although some continue to go the baby-sitter route, others have found baby-sitters increasingly hard to find, afford, or tolerate. So they have opted to take their children with them.
Many restaurants are responding with promotions, high chairs, special menus, and, most importantly, open minds. "Adding a children's menu was a necessary reaction to marketplace realities," says Vivian Deuschl of the nationwide Ritz-Carlton hotel chain. Washington's Ritz houses the deluxe Jockey Club restaurant, which has instituted a children's menu alongside its regular French fare.
Deuschl says the response has been good. "In fact," she says, "We've had adults ask if they could order from the children's menu. Our clientele tends to be a little older and better established, but their children are young." She explains that parents who are busy with their careers often don't have much time to spend with their children. And since Mom and Dad "want that time to be quality time," says Deuschl, "on weekends they take the kids out to dinner. I feel we are grooming the 'power diners' of the
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