http://www.madison.com/archives/read...2:536668:FRONT
Crepes And Crayons
Unlike Chicago, Madison Eateries Like Kids\
The Capital Times :: FRONT :: 1A
Friday, December 2, 2005
By Samara Kalk Derby The Capital Times
As new parents, Benjamin and Christy Roberts were understandably nervous about toting their 4-month-old along on an anniversary dinner at L'Etoile.
But no one at Madison's most renowned restaurant even flinched.
That's because most of the city's restaurants are remarkably kid-friendly, even those with white linen tablecloths and $20-plus entrees. It's also because so many restaurant owners have their own young children, they point out.
Of course, now, as a father of three kids between the ages of 2 and 5, Roberts said he would never dream of taking children under 13 to the Blue Marlin, Restaurant Magnus, Cafe Continental or any of the city's other upper-echelon restaurants.
These days, it's either Pasqual's or takeout, said Roberts, who co-owns the Southwestern-style restaurants in Verona and on Monroe Street.
"There is no way I would take my kids to any of those other places now just for the sanity of the other guests," Roberts said. "I would be too worried that somebody was going to melt down. It always happens when you don't want it to happen."
The issue of bringing children into restaurants -- Chuck E. Cheese's notwithstanding -- boiled over in a neighborhood on Chicago's North Side when a cafe owner posted a sign warning that "children of all ages have to behave and use their indoor voices when coming to A Taste of Heaven." The restaurant's owner, Dan McCauley, told the New York Times last month that he posted the sign in the hopes of lowering the volume in his tin-ceilinged business, where toddlers are not always in control of their bodies and decibels.
Many neighborhood mothers were nonetheless offended, interpreting it as a message that their children were not welcome, or worse, a comment on their parenting.
"Part of parenting skills is teaching kids they behave differently in a restaurant than they do on the playground," McCauley told the Times.
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On a recent trip to Chicago, Finn Berge said he was taken aback upon entering John's Place, a well-known "family" restaurant in Lincoln Park. It had a 3- or 4-foot poster by its door instructing parents on how to control their children.
Berge, a partner in Restaurant Magnus, said that children have never been a problem at Magnus or any of his Barriques coffee and wine stores.
As a parent of young children himself, Berge said he knows how to handle little ones who may start to squawk by the time the second course rolls around.
"There are protocols to appeasing children as quickly as possible if the parents want to have a lengthy dinner," Berge said.
As he knows first-hand: "As soon as you sit down the clock is ticking."
While Magnus doesn't have highchairs, the staff will usually show children to its booth seats, which are higher and more comfortable, Berge said. The staff at Magnus, many of whom are also parents, will offer kids cheese and other foods and introduce them to items on the menu that can be designed to accommodate them.
Fyfe's Corner Bistro is another high-end restaurant that tries to make dining out enjoyable for children as well as their parents.
"I'm all for it," owner Keith Blew said about children dining in their parents' restaurants. When they opened Fyfe's 12 years ago they had two high chairs and two booster seats and never used them, Blew said.
"Now I have six high chairs and six booster chairs and there are certain nights when I run out," he said.
Blew, who is president of the local chapter of the Wisconsin Restaurant Association, said he is seeing a new generation of parents who are interested in taking their children out to nice restaurants instead of feeding them Chicken McNuggets.
Many of these customers began coming to the restaurant when they were dating, some even had their receptions at Fyfe's, Blew said.
"Now they have kids and are still coming. It's great," said Blew, who with his wife, Laura, adopted two brothers -- ages 2 and 4 -- from a Russian orphanage in July.
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Renee Swanek, host at the upscale Nepali restaurant Chautara, said the restaurant generally gets one table with kids a night.
Swanek said the children can get impatient and there is nothing the restaurant can do to get families in and out quickly. The kitchen prepares dishes as orders come in.
The staff generally offers crayons, markers and paper for the kids, Swanek said. They also stock sippy cups.
"It's more the parents that are a problem, not the child," she said. "When the child gets upset, they get upset."
Families are not only welcome at Pedro's Mexican restaurants, they are a market that the local restaurant chain courts, said owner Jim Martine, who had just left his East Washington Avenue location where a clown was twisting balloon animals.
In fact, Pedro's is in the process of expanding its children's menu and offering a special menu for pre-teens.
Parents feel so comfortable bringing their children to Pedro's it's not unusual to see a highchair in the lounge area during happy hour, he said.
Martine agrees that some restaurants simply aren't suited for children.
"It's rather evident in some of those places. They don't have a kids menu and you get charged $36 for a petit filet. Maybe that's the way to discourage it."
The longtime restaurateur --whose own children are 14, 11 and 8 -- is a pro at handing a kid in mid-meltdown. He instructs his servers to get something in the child's hands, whether it's a little Andes chocolate mint or more crayons or paper.
"First of all you try to tell the parents it's OK because they are sweating. My first reaction is to Mom and Dad, because I've been there."