Dallas Chefs Choose Sides in the Fray Over Children’s Menus and Kids in Restaurants
Chicken fingers to the left. Chicken fingers to the right. For years, the issue of kids in restaurants and children’s menus has divided chefs and patrons alike. From New York–where one Brooklyn pizza shop (yes, a pizza shop, for Christ’s sake) was forced to provide tike-specific dining options after the stroller set’s boycott almost closed the restaurant. Another NY chef refuses to offer a children’s menu. Instead, he gladly offers smaller portions of the regular menu’s dishes for the bantam guests. New York is also the place where — horror of horrors — New York Times restaurant critic Sam Sifton brings his daughters to “work” with books when they become bored of dining at some of Gotham’s finest eateries.
The Big Apple isn’t the only battleground over rugrats. In Columbus, Ohio, the chef at Latitude 41 banned chicken fingers, replacing it with organic chicken teriyaki. Some businesses, like Walt Disney Co., have capitulated half-heartedly by nixing the automatic fries from plates.
And of course, let’s not forget food blogs and discussion boards where writers and commenters release tirades behind the safety of electronic anonymity.
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