Eatery no place for loud children

Facebook post prompts war of opinions

After enacting a sudden ban on “small screaming children,” a Cape Breton fine-dining establishment has unwittingly found itself at the centre of a nationwide tug of war over the place of unruly kids at restaurant tables.

“Effective as of now, we will no longer allow small, screaming children,” read a Sunday night post on the Facebook page of Cape Breton Island’s Lobster Pound and Moore.

An immediate barrage of “hate and threats” forced restaurant owner Richard Moore to reverse the policy and issue a lengthy plea for forgiveness. But his apology post was soon flooded with messages of support.

“Stick to your guns!” wrote a woman from Halifax. “If your kids can’t behave in a restaurant … DON’T TAKE THEM!!” wrote a mother from Ontario. “Don’t apologize for something we all think,” wrote a woman from Montreal.

It is scenario that has played out dozens of times before: A restaurant bans loud or misbehaving children — sometimes in a fit of pique — and instantly finds itself either lionized or vilified by opposing camps of parent and childless diner alike.

“Oh, it’s an asset,” said Brenda Armes, owner and operator of Olde Salty, a Carolina Beach, N.C., restaurant famous for a sign out front that reads “screaming children will not be tolerated.”

“Kids are going to be grouchy and fussy, but, you know, when that happens, you just take them outside,” said Armes.

In many cases, the springboard for a ban of children at a restaurant are the few parents who are seemingly oblivious to the travails of a bored toddler or screaming baby.

For instance, Roy Public House in Toronto declared itself an adult space after a string of incidents, including a baby in a tantrum who sent a salt shaker into another patron’s meal and an unsupervised toddler causing a server to drop bowls of hot soup.

On the other side of the coin are restaurants that seem unwelcoming — even hostile — to minors of any kind.

In 2013, a Vancouver new mom wrote a respectful note to Earls Restaurant noting that on her first post-pregnancy visit to its North Vancouver location, she noticed it didn’t have a high chair or baby change table.

In a response that soon made the rounds among Metro Vancouver parents, Earl’s head office replied that it was no accident.

“Our restaurants do not, as a rule, offer high chairs & booster chairs or changing stations,” read a reply, adding that Earls was a “place where everyone can take a break from everyday life.”