to have created a scene in Chez Gerard

on a positive note can i say that yesterday i took my 2 DDs to Red Peppers in Ted**ton on my own [brave emoticon]....
the staff were fantastic
DD2 wouldn't stay in her highchair, they weren't bothered. gave them crayons and colouring sheets the minute we walked in, and a balloon, their food arrived in less than 10 minutes.

Sorry forgot to add that at my old GPs the baby clinic was up two flights of stairs and you had to leave buggies outside locked with padlock.

I think it's sad I really do and reflects the perceived low status of mothers. It's about time that more pressure was put on these people to think about how to make things easier.

Why do we tolerate this type of child apartheid in this country. It's as if children or babies or families are second class citizens.

I will boycott Chez Gerard and All Bar One (whose under 21 policy I detest). Do they not realise that mothers (and fathers) can also be purchasers of corporate hospitality potential customers when without their children etc.

I used to be turned off buses that sucks too. or asked to fold buggies when I had baby, shopping and toddler in tow.

Also when travelling on public transport at the rush hour met with looks - I sometimes used to say yes I am going to work too!!

It really doesn't seem to be so evident in Europe, all appear to coexist happily.

amidaiwish I have twins and came across a similar thing at the doctor's on baby clinic day - 'you can't bring that buggy in here you knwo its not allowed' oh right, which one would you like me to leave outside then?[anger] they let me in the end

When this started I thought it was a swanky place, then discovered it's a chain. It sounds the kind of place I'd take my 3 kids on a trip to London. Now it is in my head as not a small child friendly place (I have big grumpy ones). By upsetting a customer you risk losing a lot of potential custom. (I boycott a local coffee chain because it has a no buggy policy). Buses where I live in Ireland have priority spaces - if a wheelchair needs a space, the buggy has to be folded. But most buses aren't wheelchair accessible which solves that most of the time.

my friend has twins
she went to get on a (empty) bus. The bus driver told her she had to fold the buggy. She said "how do i take out two sleeping babies? where do i put them? on the floor? so i can fold up the buggy. then how do i hold them on the bus.

anyway, he didn't let her on the bus

she went to the local bus garage with her husband. complained. no joy "it's policy".
then went to the local paper.
still no progress.

better get back in our 4 x 4s then.

I agree about the whole service and repeat custom thing. Whilst I've never been able to fault PE we have a lovely Italian next door to our PE, run by Italians who do it all brilliantly. they genuinely love kids and fall over themselves to be helpful - and I bet they've never had a minute's "training". And the food is fantastic. dds love it and constantly hassle us to go there.

Hate hate hate this kind of rigid mean attitude. I think you were right to complain, definitely. I still vividly remember being forbidden from getting on an empty bus (one of the ones that is spacious enough for wheelchairs and buggies) unless I took two sleeping 3 month old babies out of their buggy and folded it up. I can't remember why but it was the last straw and I burst into tears.

Swifterealla isn't that the point ?
I often read that restaurants die with appalling frequency, yet your DH survives (and I hope prospers) in this very hostile environment.

In nearly all restaurants repeat custom is critical, and service is something you can make much worse or much better.

I eat at Pizza Express with my kids even though I don't personally like their pizzas much. Even in the PE that's actually attached to a bank in the City they are like something out of a child-friendly training video of how it should be done. The one in Covent Garden coped with extreme professionalism with DS throwing up.

As some might have noticed from other threads, I'm a bit of a grouch when it comes to poor service, but PE are brilliant.

good on you for kicking up s stink, bloody jobsworth. My DP runs restaurants for a living and is always so accomodating its untrue. I'd write a letter to head office and get some free vouchers!

Pizza Express are always excellent with children, I agree.

sounds awful, am v glad chez gerard hasn't made it this far north! Pizza Express on the other hand have always been great when we've been with the DTs, even in Harrogate where we could barely get through the door for all the buggies parked

I've had this exact thing - being asked to fold pram with sleeping baby in in a half-empty restaurant where by no stretch of the imagination was it an obstruction. and even a promise to move it should it start being an obstruction wasn't enough. I wish I could remember where it was (wasn't Chez Gerard). I found myself taking the piss rather than getting angry - it was so ludicrous all I could do was laugh. and leave.

lol at cloak and daggerness of somewhereinmiddlesexwithalock plac

I'm with everyone, this sounds mad. Gosh, if I was Chez Gerard I'd be apologising pdq before most of Mumsnet boycott them. Or maybe that's the idea?

Must be said that I don't see any moral obligation for a restaurant to take kids, especially if they fear that that it will drive away other customers. It doesn't even have to be a reasonable fear of screaming.
I don't see eating at CG as some sort of human right.

However I don't think that's the Chez Gerard position, but instead a failure in their quality control in selecting and training staff.
Things that piss off paying customers aren't "wrong", they are stupid. Of course what is good for CG shareholders is not the same as what makes an overpromoted "manager" happy.

But economics tells us of agency theory. This is the difference between what you pay people for, and what they actually do.
CG shareholders just want the cash, and don't care if they sell wine at 10 quid a glass or chips at a pound a bag, as long as that makes more money.
The manager on the other hand may well be "proud" of a quiet restaurant that has a few beautiful people in it. It is of course possible to make good money that way but although CG is a bit upmarket, it's not so pricey so that it can get by with tiny numbers of customers. The manager's bonus should be set to reflect this.

A trick in management is to set the right
incentives, as well as picking good staff.

Chez Gerard have screwed up big time in this case. That doesn't make them bad people of course, but bad senior managers tend to have shorter less lucrative careers...

I've been refused entry twice to Ask restaurants - in different parts of the country - when we wanted to eat in the early evening. My children were of secondary school age! I'm sure that going to a pizza restaurant with a teenager must be very offputting for the adults!

Yes i agree, if i go into a restaurant and its full then i would prefer to go somewhere quieter anyway.
If they can accommodate you then they should.
My dh used to go on about units and covers, shop talk just bores me.

btw
i went for a meal there with dh the other evening
had a lovely meal
expensive though! £8.60 for a glass of wine ...

it is fine for restaurants to not want kids...
but then don't have a children's menu
don't have highchairs
etc...

I do have some sympathy with a restaurant who space for buggies/prams is already full, but Chez Gerard does rather seem as if it has a culture of not wanting kids.
As such it is not surprising that although Chez Gerard now know about the problems people are having with them they have chosen not to respond.

We tried to go to Chex G in Ted*ton the first weekend it was open with dd (4) and ds (7 wks) - first we were told there were no high chairs available (what a nice welcome!) but then told no buggies allowed in the restaurant when I said we didn't need a high chair, just room to put the buggy.

Even if I had been able to leave the buggy outside I'm not sure where exactly they expected me to put it - there were already 2 either side of the doorway!

DH wrote to their head office to complain the next day, but we've had no response yet and that was a couple of weeks ago now.

margoandjerry
you should e-mail them a link to this thread.