Now On The Menu: A Plate For Your Cellphone

Photo by Lauren Lloyd

I'll have the Apple iPhone 4S with a side of Samsung Galaxy Nexus, please. It's the end of dining etiquette as we know it. Prompt check-ins on Foursquare and Facebook are obviously imperative to an enjoyable, fulfilling dining experience. And at least one restaurant in Los Angeles has surrendered to the smartphone and is catering to connected customers in an unbelievable way.

In a recent L.A. Times article, "When diners' eyes feast on their cellphones," writer Jessica Gelt uncovers Il Covo's new offering for digitally-obsessed diners. The Mid-City restaurant "has begun offering diners small plates to hold their phones in order to shield them from potential spills and dinner debris," writes Gelt. Really?

Yes, really. Il Covo General Manager Eric Rosenfeld told Gelt that "restaurants are now forced to incorporate how to deal with [cellphones] into the sequence of service and table maintenance." Rosenfeld said, "If a diner would like to have their phone on the table, we want to protect it as much as possible."

Can we not simply enjoy a meal without checking our voicemails, texts, emails and social networks - all those alerts that so wonderfully connect us to the world but also restrict us from good, old-fashioned human connection? Apparently not, and the service industry has raised the bar on hospitality. Gelt writes that "many restaurants in Los Angeles even keep a discreet stash of iPhone and BlackBerry chargers on hand and train servers on how and when to approach a diner on a phone and what to do if a phone is in the way when it comes time to deliver a plate."

Gelt is sure to mention other fine dining restaurants in L.A. that have declined to accommodate cellphone whores by banishing use of devices at the table, like Patina and Sushi Nozawa (which is closing at the end of February), via "no cellphone" signs and polite requests written in the menu to unplug while dining.

It's a busy world, true. But do we really need platters for our devices? What happened to purses and pockets and manners, L.A.? We'd love to hear your thoughts.

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By Lauren Lloyd in Food on February 1, 2012 11:00 AM 0 Comments

Comments [rss]

Menu printing

During the economic crisis in the 1970s, many restaurants found that
they were having to incur costs from having to reprint the menu as
inflation caused prices to increase. Economists noted this transaction
cost, and it has become part of economic theory, under the term "menu costs."

Dustin Buss

If this is what I think it might be, then it's quite clever, really. It could just be a marketing strategy to get free press (done) and prime people to think about checking in on Facebook/Foursquare/etc.

Paul

That really only helps if water drips to the phone area, but that doesn't help if a waiter pours water onto the phone itself - which I hope happens often, because that's the diner's fault for leaving it there.

mallhonitor

And what about a plate to smash over the head of anyone who actually gets a plate for their phone?

Peanut_Butter

And what about one to cover up what an embarrassingly old phone I have

bophisto

Yeah true it is sad, but i am guilty of the same thing (playing with cell phone in restaurant) It's kind of a weird idea...but in L.A I could see this catching
on...people will soon be going to restaurants based on how hip the "cell
phone plates" are. I think that the best thing might be to leave the phone in the car (not in plain view of course)...if it's in your pocket it's way too tempting to take it out.

Terrence Ashwill

Unfortunately, this is nothing new. It is just another step down the road to the collapse of society. The reality is that it is rude to be on your cell at dinner because you should be focusing on the people you are with and courteous to the other diners. There is also an important distinction between what is right (put your cell phone away) and what is popular (playing words with friends).

westlafadeaway

I can think of many things that were once considered rude at the dinner table that we've since "gotten over" including proper attire. I'm sure folks fifty years ago thought it was the collapse of society to see someone show up at a restaurant in a t-shirt. I'm not saying cell phone use at dinner isn't rude but a total "collapse"?

bophisto

Well..perhaps it is the WAY in which people use the cell phone. With the popularity of texting across all different age ranges/demographics,etc...it seems more people are talking less on their phones versus several years ago?

In terms of being rude or annoying to other people dining in the same establishment.. I think texting or using the phone in a non verbal way is a lot less annoying.

Not to say that people don't obnoxiously talk loudly on their phones while having dinner anymore.