Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Ask George: Should restaurants offer discounts to guests who do NOT use their cell phones? —Rick R, St. Louis
When I first read about such a proposal, my reaction was, "Is it really coming to this?" Unfortunately, the answer is yes. It already has.
Several restaurant owners across the country, those who are fed up with their patrons preferring electronic communication over the face-to-face variety (to say nothing of their food), have started offering a 5- to 10-percent discount to tables who abandon their cell phones for the duration of a meal. A Vermont deli drew its line in the sand by charging an extra $3 if a cell phone was used at the counter.
In Israel, Jawdat Ibrahim, owner of Abu Ghosh in the village of the same name on the outskirts of Jerusalem, made international news by offering a whopping 50% off a table's bill if they'd all just stay off the pnone. Ibrahim claimed that the situation had gotten so bad some customers had requested to have their food re-warmed after hanging up their cell phones. Hence the retaliation and the hefty discount.
While a 50-percent discount is non-sustaining in a restaurant over time, I appreciate Ibraham's vigor and fervor. Restaurant owners and chefs desperately want their offerings to be enjoyed when they're served, and at the temperatures they were served--nothing makes them crazier. And while discounts will raise awareness to what's obviously become a problem, I don't think they're the answer.
A better solution is to have the owner/floor manager/supervisor simply ask the yammering chatterboxes to take their business into the hall, breezeway, or outside, "where they can have more privacy," when they really mean to say "quit being a pompous jerk." I've never seen an offending party get offended when approached in such a manner, even those who think they're entitled talk to whomever they want whenever they want, a percentage of the population that--like it or not--seems to be on the upswing.
The question of how restaurants are dealing with the now ubiquitous smartphone picture-taking is fodder for another Ask George.
