The Rise of Children

A host of Bay Area parents and restaurants—including Michael Mina, Lark Creek Steak and Foreign Cinema—chime in on the growing preponderance of children in restaurants. Two basic upshots of the article: pork-loving children roam Oakland's streets and lonely bloggers hate kids: "'We find that some of our best diners are kids,' says Rich Wood, owner Wood Tavern in Oakland, who estimates children are 5 per cent of his clientele. 'One kid from the neighborhood walks by the restaurant and checks that the pork belly is on the menu. He comes in and wolfs down the pork belly.' Such displays of culinary precociousness aren't as common among the preschool set, who are more likely to order the spaghetti with butter and cheese ... It's these knee-high patrons that most seem to bother childless diners, who complain bitterly about them in the food blogosphere." [Chron]