Q: My husband and I were at the bar at a relatively “hot” restaurant in New York City recently. Think $15 artsy/retro drinks, everything freshly squeezed, etc. A group came in with a little girl who couldn’t have been older than 2. Their table wasn’t ready, so the maitre d’ invited them all to wait at the bar. The bartender spent time talking to the little girl (who was quiet and well-behaved) and made her lemonade from scratch. After about 15 minutes, their table was ready and they left. However, some other people sitting at the bar started complaining, saying they couldn’t believe the family would bring a toddler into a bar. They’d apparently been waiting for their check while the bartender was muddling lemons for the little kid and thought it was “uncalled for” that he paid so much attention to her. What do you think? There really would have been no other place for them to wait, except outside, and it was pouring. A: If the maitre d’ invited that party to sit at the bar, they weren’t doing anything wrong by accepting his offer. In my opinion, given how many loud, ill-behaved adults I have had the misfortune of encountering in bars, sitting near a quiet, well-behaved child would be practically refreshing. If she’d been actively bothering anybody, then I’d say one parent would have needed to take her out (just as they would if she started bothering anybody in the restaurant). And obviously, nobody should embark on a hard-core pub crawl with a toddler in tow! Letting a kid sit quietly at the bar while her party’s waiting for the table, though, sounds perfectly reasonable to me.
As for the bartender ignoring other patrons to serve her, I wasn’t there, so I don’t know how long he made other customers wait. But if I know the kind of NYC bar/restaurant you’re talking about, pretty much every mixed drink is an elaborate production. If it took about the same time to make her lemonade as it would have taken to make a Tom Collins for an adult, I don’t think anyone should be mad. A paying customer’s a paying customer.
Q: I just got my belly button pierced. I have to fly soon and am afraid it will set off the metal detector, but I can’t take it out yet. What should I do?
A: You can either tell a Transportation Security Administration agent up front that you have a body piercing (which will probably mean you’ll get additional screening) or you can go through the line and hope for the best. If it’s small, it might not set off the metal detector. Either way, make sure you allow plenty of extra time to go through security.
