Adult Food Kid-Friendly Restaurants Do Exist

June 25, 2009

My toddler’s at the stage where going out to dinner with her can be quite a nightmare. Even though we’ve taught her the mantra, which she loves to repeat, “We eat our food; we don’t play with our food.” She doesn’t associate things like smooshing her peanut butter and jelly sandwich or making a choo choo train out of her raviolis with “playing.” “I’m squeezing it,” she’ll argue. “Not playing with it.” She’ll make a helluva a lawyer one day.

But I’m thrilled to learn that there are lots of creative restaurant concepts popping up all over the country that offer good food, healthy snacks and alcoholic beverages, in addition to a play area or some other type of distraction. These are not kid-friendly establishments that just provide kid menus or booster seats with about as much charm and culinary appeal as a Chuck E Cheese. Some are downright fine dining. Here are a few interesting one:

1) The idea for this blog post came from reading about Play Grounds in Boulder, CO. It’s a gourmet coffee shop with a really cool play space for kids. They also offer classes (Spanish and French for tots) and special events such as story hour and “Friday Night Dinner and Music”. It beats McDonald’s anyday.

2) The owners of The Little Gourmet in Napa Valley, whose tagline is “A kids’ restaurant that’s grown-up friendly,” said that the idea for their establishment came about when “[their] love for eating out, and life with [their] toddler, collided.” They don’t have a structured play area, but instead offer books and toys and coloring material for kids to wander around and use much like your own living room. They also have kids cooking classes and a delicious variety of affordable and healthy meals.

3) Café Bambini in North Miami Beach is almost like a daycare combined with a café because they offer SO much for kids. Not only do they have five different play areas, they also offer dance, art, yoga and music classes. Oh, and there’s panini sandwiches, salads, gelato, baked good and coffee too.

4) I love this one that entices children to eat sushi (I know most kids won’t even set foot in a restaurant that specializes in raw seafood). The Marssa Sushi and Pacific Rim Restaurant at Loews Lake Las Vegas Resort has special "learning chopsticks" that are easy to hold and maneuver because they are connected at the top and SushiSKool sushi-making classes on Saturdays for kids to get them accustomed to sushi, fish, Japanese words and the environment. Both of those features sound adult-friendly too.

5) Lori Farris owns two upscale Italian Restaurants Arcodoro in Houston and Arcodoro & Pomodoro in Dallas that offer kids the opportunity to actually make their own pizza. “We dress them up in an apron and pull up a bar stool and the pizziaolo gives them some dough to roll out and then they tell him what they want on their pizza,” she explains. “This is a good half hour diversion for the parents and they are thrilled to have their children entertained and enjoy their dinner.”

One of my favorites that is not as elaborate as some of these others is California Pizza Kitchen because of the crayons and coloring book/game book they hand out to every kid that walks through the door, and they have a nice wine selection.

What are your favorite kid-friendly restaurants?

Comments

[Jo isaac]

Unfortunately, Play Grounds in Boulder has closed down...my 3.5 year and i made a trip out on the bus to get there (after looking up the website, which is still functional), only to find the premises closed down and up for rent...Needless to say, my child was unimpressed. Just a warning!

[Corrie Gibbson]

Are the Gosselins supposed to read this in order to know how best to help their children cope with the divorce that TLC helped them need?