We occasionally go to somewhere nicer then the family diner. If my kid acts up I immediately take her out of the establishment. If she calms down I take her back in, if she ever does become inconsolable we'll just take things to go and leave the other diners to their meals.
Our daughter is 1 and we would never go to a restaurant without some sort of snack for her as well as some kind of toy. -though, a spoon quickly becomes far more interesting than any toy. We have yet to have the "meltdown" happen. I'm sure as suggests, it's inevitable but so far, so good. There was a restaurant in Ann Arbor that was extremely family friendly and also had pretty good food and amazing drinks called Zingerman's Roadhouse. When we first had our daughter every other parent told us to start eating there. -How's that for marketing? When you go there prior to 8:00pm you find about 60% of the tables have a kid at them. The restaurant is always full.
I'm curious, can restaurants set a minimum age? Does any law prevent that? Infants don't belong in nice quiet restaurants and that's ok. They also don't belong in the study section of a library, or in a movie that isnt intended for them.
I remember thinking to myself, "cool, this table gets it" when I was a server and they tipped accordingly.
15% for decent service 20% for good service 20+% for outstanding service Bad service - "Is the owner in?"