Back in March, I wrote a blog post about our decision to stop allowing children in the bar at night – you can find it here:
“Change in Policy RE: Children”
We were getting negative feedback from guests who were put off by having kids running around while they were trying to enjoy an adult beverage and conversation, and then we had a potentially dangerous incident with a parent leaving his three young kids unattended during an evening show. We made the decision to stop allowing anyone under 18 in after 4pm when happy hour starts, and I posted it on our website and at the front door.
Five months later, we are still being challenged on this policy regularly, which is super-frustrating.We recently made an exception for a particular show because we had a child performing that night – and it was a good reminder of why we made that policy in the first place.
A gentleman arrived with his young son, who was probably around 7 years old. He came to the bar to order food and immediately announced, “My son will not eat anything on this menu”.
Well, that’s not surprising… we didn’t design it for kids. We know that school-age children likely won’t eat a charcuterie board, a Mediterranean hummus platter or paninis with funny ingredients in them – but school-age children are not our target audience.
Our “kitchen” is a 48″ cold prep table behind the bar, and we barely have enough room to stock the regular items for our small menu. We definitely don’t have the space to store American cheese and white bread, and we can’t cook things like chicken tenders and fries. We keep exactly what we need for a shift in that cooler and nothing more.
As the bar filled up with adults looking for cocktails, I was trapped in a lengthy negotiation about which sandwich we could customize to suit his son’s picky tastes. And predictably, his son turned up his nose at it anyway when it arrived.
During the show, I noticed the child was sprawled out full length on one of our couches, but it wasn’t a full room and everyone had a place to sit, so I let it go. – at least he wasn’t bothering anyone.
Then I got a text from my husband. We have security cameras inside and outside the bar, and on nights when he can’t be there he checks them every once in a while. He asked me to go out on the patio ASAP because there was an unattended kid out there wreaking havoc.
I headed outside and nearly tripped on the kid, who was sitting on the sidewalk alone playing a game on his tablet. I stepped over him and turned the corner to the patio to find that he had tossed the patio cushions around and made a mess of the candles.
Not the end of the world, but candle wax is a pain in the ass to clean up and he easily could have burned himself – many of our tables are at about the same level as his face.
The security camera caught him playing around with the large speaker.
And stuffing something into the socket of the string of Edison bulbs.
Aside from the risk of damage to our equipment, he would have been seriously injured if he had pulled the large speaker and tripod onto himself.
I did a quick clean up and headed back around the corner to find him still sitting outside by himself. He was not in view of anyone inside the bar, so if someone passing by decided they wanted to take the kid, the electronic tablet or both, nobody would have seen a thing.
Think about that.
I marched him into the bar and pointed out to his father that Burnet Ave is probably not the safest place for a small child to be outside by himself. His father kept him inside for the remainder of the event, and he spent the rest of the night breaking things and dumping board game pieces onto the floor.
I understand that not all kids behave this way, and not all parents let their children run amok in public places… and I am not judging anyone who wants to bring their kids into an establishment that serves alcohol. I was a single parent and I did bring my son into restaurants with bars, but my rule of thumb was that the place had to have a children’s menu and highchairs/booster seats. I brought him into Empire Brewing Company for dinner, I did not try to bring him to Al’s Wine & Whiskey Bar or the Blue Tusk when I went out for cocktails – that’s what babysitters are for.
I found this excellent, common sense article on Houstoniamag.com as I was researching the subject:
“When Should You Bring Kids to the Bar? Ever?”
The 443 is decorated with vintage furniture and breakable tchotchkes. We do not have a children’s menu or the ability to customize our food offerings. We don’t have video games or even television sets. We do not have highchairs or booster seats. We don’t have enough space or the extra staff to accommodate children in any kind of reasonable, safe way. It is an environment designed for adults.
From a purely economic standpoint, it doesn’t make sense for us to sacrifice valuable real estate in our small venue to people who can’t drink and won’t eat anything on our menu, not to mention the negative impact on our other adult guests. We are dropping the “cafe” from our name and replacing it with “social club” to eliminate any ambiguity.
I checked with the liquor authority and while there is no law about children being in bars as long as they are with a parent, business owners are welcome to create a more restrictive policy.
It’s now been twice in the short time we’ve been open that we’ve had an incident that easily could have resulted in serious injury to a child and we’re not willing to risk it again. Our policy is no children under 18 after 4pm. Period, the end, hard stop. No exceptions. Please don’t argue, don’t threaten us, and don’t think we will make an exception because we’re friends, or because your child is well behaved. We simply can’t. We don’t have the staff to babysit and we cannot risk the liability and potential lawsuit.
I’m going to say this as gently and as kindly as I can – it’s our bar and our prerogative to set our policies. If you decide to invest every dime you have (and then some) and spend 90+ hours a week working your butt off to open a bar that caters to children, I will support you in that. It’s your choice, your money, your sweat equity, your venue, and your liability. The 443 is ours, and we politely ask our guests to respect that.
