On a Friday night around 8p.m. in the West Village, Julia Foster and her boyfriend Brandon were just about to indulge in a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon in the candle lit dining room of Via Carota. The couple had been apart for weeks as Brandon travelled for his work as a golfer, and they were looking forward to a romantic meal.
They’d made the reservation at the rustic trattoria more than a month in advance, and had Foster, 29, been dreaming about the $25 lemon risotto, while Brandon, 26, was looking forward to the $65 Branzino. But their perfectly plated entrees came with a bitter pairing – screaming child.
“Someone’s kid was complaining that there weren’t any chicken nuggets on the menu. They were throwing a full-out tantrum,” Foster, a consultant, told The Post. The child’s parents continued to sip their cocktails. “I was like ‘this is ridiculous.’ I was like, ‘there’s no way they’re going to have chicken nuggets on the menu, hunny’ … the suburbs is for that.”
Adding to the annoyance, the tot, who appeared to be about 5, was glued to an iPad whose bright glow threw off the romantic vibe.
“The city has fewer kids out,” said Foster, “that adds to the sophistication of going out.”
Earliest this month, Nettie’s House of Spaghetti in Tinton Falls, NJ, made a controversial announcement: They will no longer serve children under the age of 10. The declaration made news well beyond the Garden State, dividing parents and their childless peers. Many New York City restaurant goers and those in the hospitality industry couldn’t help but cheer. Dining in the Big Apple is a sophisticated, adult experience, they say; if they wanted to eat meatballs and hot dogs surrounded by screaming rugrats, they’d be living in the suburbs.
“When I go out to eat, especially at a nicer restaurants, I’m hoping for an elevated, sophisticated experience,” Foster scoffed. “When kids are there, that kind of takes away from it. Having the no-kids policy would probably pull me toward a restaurant.”
Ambiance is everything at restaurateur John McDonald’s portfolio of restaurants, including sexy seafood spot Lure Fishbar in SoHo and intimate French restaurant Bistrot Leo. He does not discriminate against the pint-sized crowd, but he does try to get them in and out quickly.
“At my restaurants, we do our best to seat the room in a manner that those tables have a lower chance at impacting the ambiance and we work on fast tracking their meals to avoid longer table times,” McDonald told The Post. The restauranteur has two boys aged 5 and 7 and says that he “personally wouldn’t drop them into a prime 8 p.m. dinner where it would negatively impact nearby tables if they were to misbehave.”
It doesn’t help that New York City kids tend to be especially precocious.
A former server at an upscale seasonal Italian restaurant in brownstone Brooklyn recalled the “typical chaos” that would ensue during what she and fellow employees would call “baby-sitting hour” as families came in for early suppers. One time, a 6-year-old threw a full-blown tantrum when she was told there her favorite octopus special wasn’t on offer that evening.
“Her face just crumbled. She started weeping about there not being octopus on the menu and the parents were trying to figure out what to do,” the server, who asked to remain anonymous, said. “I didn’t have octopus until I was 26 years old and working at this restaurant.”
She recalled that she and fellow waitstaff would agonize over having to stay late to clean up the crusted high chairs and miscellaneous wipes and wrappers. And, sometimes parents would expect her to discipline their munchkins.
“Parents would be like, ‘can you tell my kid not to climb on a chair? He’ll listen to you,” she said. “I thought, ‘I’m both bringing you drinks and parenting your child.”
Still, many argue that restaurants should welcome patrons of all ages, especially given how expensive childcare is.
Brooklyn-based marketing executive Michelle, a mom of two, who declined to give the Post her last name, said she’s taken her brood to fancy dining rooms like Carbone in the West Village.
“People hate you for it,” she said. “But my sitters are $25 an hour — I’m not paying that,” she said.
As for Foster, who is unsure if she herself will ever have kids, her $200 plus Via Carota meal did not end well.
“It crescendoed into screaming and yelling,” she said. “We didn’t stay for dessert.”