This was our Wednesday lunch: a date with Daddy at Chipotle. It rocked.
We beat him there by a few minutes—just long enough to run to the bathroom and wash hands after an hour of cricket-chasing at a nearby park. (Can I say how happy I was to have a warmish sunny day at last?) This is Baby A waiting patiently for his arrival:
Hope your Wednesday was this good, too.
"Look out!
We've never been big on not playing with food—within reason. Throwing it? Making intentional messes? No way. But a little thing like this? I can deal. Everyone needs a little levity.
Switching gears completely: Can I tell you how sweet things are right at this moment?
I'm sitting on our bed, listening to the rain outside (rain! in the South! the grass may yet survive!) as Baby A and The Wonderful Husband finish the second book in the My Father's Dragon series. (It's awesome for early chapter-book readers...or listeners.)
Our next baby is tumbling around inside me, managing somehow to thump me hard in the back on my left and poke out on my right side at the same time. At just twenty-one weeks along, it has already been a big mover and shaker for quite some time; TWH jokes that he or she is going to roundhouse its way out of the womb.
I'm in the last stages of a big chunk of freelance work—an annual report for an institute within a major university nearby—and the deadlines have kept me from posting here much over the past week or two. I'm looking forward to finishing. Think it will be the last big project I take on before the baby arrives around the first of July. (And that, THAT, will be the big project for at least three or four months afterwards. That and the quest for sleep.)
TWH and Baby A have finished the book now and are talking about it. There's a map inside the cover, and she's telling him which islands are which. I know from reading the earlier chapters that she has them wrong, but what does it matter? TWH lets it go. Sunday night, when we started this book, Baby A nuzzled down into my side and turned to me with an unmatched look of excitement on her face. I recognized it and something inside my chest went all warm: She was incredibly excited to be on the verge of starting a new book.
I'm so grateful she feels that, too. We do get lucky and pass on some of the good stuff, don't we?
It's amazing how many kid-development milestones just kind of happen on their own. Just when you're despairing, thinking you'll be changing diapers (or throwing away unsalvageable underwear) forever, they start using the toilet. Just when you think they'll be packing tubes of Little Bear toddler toothpaste for college, they learn to spit.
And just when you think your child won't ever lighten your day with some bathroom humor, you get a song like this: "I went some at school, and some at the Y, yeah,/ Poopy poopy, poopy, poopitypoopitypoopity POOP!" (copyright 2008, Baby A, just in case you were thinking of pirating that one).
Aaaaaaaanyway, seems it goes the same way with expanding their palates, too. Here's one writer, over at the lovely Babble site, who's taking that whole process in stride.
And that's cool. All things in time, right?
So last night we're making a forty-five-minute drive home during the second half of the Duke - Virginia Tech basketball game. I love me some Blue Devils, so I build it up really big with Baby A: "Guess what? You get to listen to the Duke game on the radio! With me! Like a big kid!"
She's all, "Mommy, you LOVE radio! Especially NPR! And you love Duke! Yay! This will be FUN!"
But here's how it actually goes, copied from a sympathy-pleading email to my husband, who often doesn't understand why I want to take a break from talking for a little while after he gets home in the evenings:
we missed the whole game, though, in no small part because a. WOULD NOT STOP TALKING as i tried to listen on the radio on the way home. here is a two-minute slice:"he's dribbling? that means bouncing the ball, right? devils scored! did the other team loss, er, loser, um, not win yet? seventy is more than fifty-five, right? duke has seventy. that's more. the man said duke THREW THE BALL AWAY? so he put it in the trash can? why would he do that? how can they play the game if the ball is thrown away? OH NO! can someone get it back? do they have extra basketballs to use? just an expression? what means an expression? does duke have the ball now? what color is the other team? is it clemson? they're orange. or is it temple? is it the grey team we saw the other day, um, um, um, gorgetown? i'll be a cheerleader! goooooo, duke! dukedukedukedukeduke duuuuuuuuukkkkke!"
i swear i've never head a person so capable of keeping up a nonstop stream-of-consciousness chatter. so then i'm Mean Mom, punching off the radio and yelling, "SHUSH! just listen!" over and over but it's like she is on speed and can't stop her mouth.
la la la la la la....
When your family road-tripped, was McDonald's your mealtime stop? And when you were a kid, was that not the most awesome thing about the trip? Somehow it made those hours of confinement, during which your little brother could not keep his BRATTY HANDS on HIS HALF of the BACK SEAT, bearable. I mean, really, what about the imaginary line down the middle of the bench seat did he not understand?
The only thing better than the set of arches on the horizon was the time we pulled over at a rest stop on the South Carolina-Georgia border and ate a surreal picnic of hard-boiled Easter Eggs. (Fortunately, this was an actual Easter trip.) What, break, peel, and eat these works of art? At a picnic table? Here?My parents must have been truly desperate for a stop.
Heather Armstrong of Dooce remembers McDonald's and road-trip details as their family sets off on an impromptu road trip to California. She's funny enough to make your latte shoot out of your nose--as you might already know--but the best part of this post for me was realizing other couples actually do fight. Badly. And get over it fast.
If McDonald's wasn't your family's regular road-trip stop, what was?
What's up with the difficulty of planning meals and shopping lists when there are little kiddos around? Grocery lists become just one more bit of proof that I can't think through anything from start to finish these days. I try, really I do, but it's just frustrating. And that's before the shopping trip, which always ends up feeling like a freakin' marathon event.
Jessica Ashley, better known around the blogging world as author of the Sassafrass blog, knows your pain. And mine. She's got a great post at Strollerderby today. It'll make you think, Okay. It's not just me. And then she links to inspirational posts from bloggers who do manage not only to get it done, but to blog about how they did it, and how we can do it, too. (Props. Mad props.) There's CityMama, and Foodmomiac, and Adventures of Bittyman, and An Ordinary Mom, and Mommy Cracked.
There's more inspiration for you here at Quick Serve Kids...scroll down and look under "More, Please" on the right-hand side.
Lately I've been using my iPhone (what is it NOT useful for?) to keep a running grocery list that I'm sure to have with me. That image above is my most recent version. (Too bad the phone can't help me make better blog graphics. Sigh....) As you can see, it's, um, pretty short. From there, I'll grab two more kinds of groceries: staples we always keep on hand (cheese, pasta sauce, fresh fruit) and things that look good at the moment or inspire some thoughts for that night's meal. The cart is never full, though. I like to keep it fresher than that.
What's your strategy for keeping the pantry and fridge reasonably stocked? Or do you let take-out take care of it?
Speaking of this whole struggle, this is probably a good time to catch up on our family's own quick-serve trend--which is sharply away from quick-serve patronage. It's not part of any kind of campaign, or really anything purposeful at all. For a while, Chick-fil-A, Panera, and a couple other concepts were figuring into our mealtimes once or twice a week. Lately, though, we're doing a lot of home cooking. I like the variety, and home is snuggly and relaxing when it's 20 degrees outside.
If we do go to a chain these days, it's Chipotle. There are more locations near us now, which makes it convenient (which, duh, is our point). The food there is fresh and delicious, the wait time is near zero, and I love love love the natural and organic consciousness that company is pushing. Go here and click on Manifesto. Note as you read that this quick-serve chain actually recommends you read Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation. How's that for confidence in its mission?
Sweet. We actually visited Chipotle two days in a row recently. But mostly, lately, we've been doing a lot of cooking at home. It just feels right.
Hmmmm, why all the pickiness? Why the strange domesticity?
Could it be...
I'm nesting?
So. It's been a while. Now I feel like I've just run into an old friend on the street.
"What's new?," she asks. And though a million things have happened in the meantime, but not knowing where to start, I say, "Nothing, really. Same old. How are you?"
I've had so many ideas for posts. Really, I have. Just haven't had the time to flesh them out and actually, uh, post them. Haven't had the energy, either, but I'll leave the juicy details on that for the next post.
Then this morning I opened my inbox to find a message from one of the Noodads, alerting me to his post about a recent family trip to Subway and his disappointment in the kids' meal toy. The picture above is his; read the whole post here. It's worth the trip over.
The amazing thing is hundreds of people have continued to visit Quick Serve Kids every week. Granted, they're staying less than a minute on average, but that's to be expected. For pete's sake, my last post was a big whine, and that was weeks ago.
This week will be different--and I have a lot to share. Stay tuned. And keep on checking back.
Last week, Baby A was "helping" me shop at Trader Joes, meaning each time I turned to focus on something she loaded up the cart with whatever caught her eye—in this case, almond biscotti, a huge package of trail mix, and a pound of French roast coffee.
As if, child. That's about the last thing she needs.
The one contribution of hers I kept in the cart was a paper bag overfilled with smallish but gorgeous red apples. But it was sort of against my better judgment because the handwritten sign above them touted how they were "treated with minimal spray"!
Now, I'm not always careful to get organic apples. Sometimes surviving the shopping experience becomes more important than making sure each item is as carefully selected as you'd wish. Know what I mean?
But somehow having the "spray," however "minimal" it might be, pointed out so plainly, as an incentive to buy, turned me off. Visions of containers of Roundup with little spray nozzles filled my head, with the nozzles pointed straight at my child. It's probably silly, I know. I wash and peel apples for Baby A (also against my better judgment) so there's little chance this one instance of "minimal spray" would get to her.
But. Still.
Then tonight I noticed that McDonald's recently sent its moms panel on a tour of one of its apple growers and processors. Take a look at their journals and video—it's pretty interesting. Of course, there's nothing negative. You wouldn't expect it. But it's a fascinating look into (1) the power the Mom Demographic wields today and (2) just how much McDonald's can influence its producers. Let's put it this way: If McDonald's suddenly came out and said it would buy only organic apples from now on, a big fraction of U.S. apple production would shift to organic.
What's your take? Let me know.
And while we're at it, here's a hypothetical: If you knew McDonald's offered organic apples, would you be more likely to buy your kids the McDonald's Apple Dipper snacks or side dish?
I would.
Oh, the minimally sprayed apples? They're crispy, sweet, and delicious. But I think we'll buy our next batch from the local farmer's market, where I can ask the grower how they're grown. We get some awesome Pink Lady apples around here.
I really should apologize for that headline. But at least you're still reading.
Passing along a news release from Dunkin' Donuts...if you've bought a dozen donuts or a box of Munchkins and got a Halloween glow stick as a prize, you'll want to keep it away from young children. Here's the word straight from the company:
Dunkin' Donuts Announces Withdrawal of Glow Sticks
CANTON, Mass., Oct. 5—Dunkin' Donuts LLC is voluntarily withdrawing approximately 1,000,000 pink and orange Glow Sticks. Dunkin' Donuts has determined that the glow sticks distributed were not labeled properly to warn customers that the cap and lanyard, when dislodged from the glow stick, pose a choking hazard for children under the age of three (3) years old. The company has not received any complaints or reports of personal injury.
Dunkin' Donuts distributed the glow sticks free with every purchase of a dozen donuts or 25- or 50-count box of Munchkins donut hole treats beginning the week of September 24, 2007, at participating restaurants nationwide.
Consumers who have received a glow stick should take them away from children and discard them immediately. For more information, call Dunkin' Donuts Consumer Care at (800) 859-5339. Consumers also can visit the firm's Web site.
Want to see the cutest bib and burp cloth sets on earth? Mostess Creations has launched online sales of its unique sets for the littlest Quicksies.
And the fact that my friend and fellow blogger Mary Michele, she of One Chic Mama, designs and creates them just makes them even cooler. She knows from stylish. She shops for unusual (sometimes one-of-a-kind) fabrics everywhere from the streets of New York to the big shows in Las Vegas to the flea markets in Paris. And as the mom of two children, she gets the details right—for instance, she uses Velcro closures for one-handed release and makes all her goods machine washable.
Got a baby in your life? One on the way? Go now! Shop! It's Friday!
Use this tool to find out which restaurants have kids-eat-free nights and when.
Confession: I know our locally owned Fresh Mex chain feeds kids for free every Monday night. I just can't manage to remember to go there that night.
Can someone make a site that sends this info directly to my iCal, then automatically sends me email reminders?
I love my daughter deeply. Don't get me wrong. But our constant time together was making both of us a little loco. Baby A isn't one of those kids who play alone, nor is she content to sit down with a puzzle or some crayons. Like, EVER. Believe me, I've tried to help her learn to enjoy focused, quiet activities. She's not having it.
No, she's into elaborate make-believe scenes, requiring tons of dressing up (we're talking layers), long-spun storylines, and the construction of props—horse-drawn carriages, palaces, doctor's offices, you name it—using furniture and accessories from all around the house. Of course, all of these stories require additional characters, namely me and TWH if he's home, and extensive dialog. She is a creator, a collaborator. It's how she rolls.
And of course I love it. She awes me. But, good lord, it wears me out, if only from finding new ways to gently say no to my latest role in the latest story. There are things a mom's got to get done during the day.
So when the first days of school rolled around last week, I was a bit relieved—and I think she was, too. Her new preschool teaches through dance, chorus, drama, and art, and with all those props and plenty of kids and teachers into the same things she is, Baby A is very happy there:
** Excited? You think? **
Yes, those are sparkly silver slippers. She wears either those or soccer cleats every day. At least I'm saving money. Right?
** Check the upraised hand: "C'mon! Follow me!" **
Schoolday bonus: going to lunch afterwards with her friends and their mom. We hit a Brueggers for bagels, cream cheese, and delicious fruit cups, with grapes and balls of watermelon, cantaloupe, and honeydew. My sandwich didn't work out so well—chicken salad just doesn't stay between bagel slices. (Be warned.) But for a mom-and-kids afterschool adventure, it was yummy, easy, and a great experience.
The table tents will never be the same, though. Sorry, Brueggers.
** "I am Table Tent Monster!" **
How's your first week of back-to-school been? Anyone else secretly relieved, too?
Burger King today said it will revamp its kids' meals to bring them more in line with kids' nutritional needs. The new offerings—from flame-broiled Chicken Tenders to apple slices cut to resemble french fries—should be available in Burger King units late next year.
At the same time, BK announced a set of guidelines, approved by the Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB), for kids' meal nutrition and its corporate advertising for them. The company publicly pledged that by December 2008 such advertising will be limited to kids' meals that provide:
• No more than 560 calories per meal
• Less than 30 percent of calories from fat
• Less than 10 percent of calories from saturated fat
• No added trans fats
• No more than 10 percent of calories from added sugars
CNN reports that BK has not yet set prices for the new kids' items because food and paper costs have not yet been determined. Here's hoping they're affordable so they're in reach for ALL parents—not just the ones who depend on the dollar menus.
Once the new kids' choices are on the menu, BK will join other major brands, like McDonald's, Subway, Wendy's, and Panera, by offering kids (and adults) some better-for-you options. Put this together with the company's announcement in July that it will roll out transfat-free oil nationwide by the end of 2008 (sooner if supplies allow), and it's clear the King is taking some big steps towards expanding its options.
My take after the jump!
...
Continue reading "The King Steps Up to the (Kid-Sized) Plate" »
So recently we were making a five-hour car trip home from Charleston, South Carolina, and dinner time rolled around. Where to stop?
At a drive-in. But of course. And in moments, through the magic of Interstate 95 as it wends through back-country North Carolina, appeared a Sonic Drive-in on the exit horizon.
The Wonderful Husband pointed and said, "Ehh?" I shrugged and said, "Sure. It beats the Lung Wah Chinese Buffet." That is the actual name of a place in that area, and it turns my stomach every time. Note: Don't include body parts in your restaurant name. Mmmmm, let's to go the Leg & Thighery! No! The Spleen Smorgasbord!
We headed toward the Sonic, and Baby A piped, "Is there a playground?" Sure enough, there's an enormous outdoor playground—the kind that sucks your child in for an hour and leads to parents having to inch up a three-story-tall, kid-sized tunnel and pull the child out by the ankle. Yes, I have done that, and I didn't want to do it this evening.
The situation called for a major distraction technique, so we parked in a drive-up slot, turned off the car, opened and sunroof, and let A. violate a big family rule. We let her into the front seat with us. Not only that, we let her stand up and poke her head out of the sunroof.
** FREEDOM! **
Then we set about ordering, and that went pretty easily. TWH had been craving a burger, so he knew what to get right away. The menuboard reminded me about Sonic's Santa Fe Grilled Chicken Salad, with lettuce, carrots, Colby Jack cheese, grape tomatoes, red cabbage, and croutons, topped with grilled chicken and a black bean and corn salsa and a lone onion ring. I got that, gave Baby A some chicken, tomatoes, and croutons. Then I squeezed on some ranch dressing, and went to town. And you know? It was really good. There was not a brown bit of lettuce. The black beans and corn were great. And I love me some red cabbage.
** Looks good, no? **
** Yeah. Yum. **
** Yes, we ate dinner in this redneck fashion. **
Not exactly Emily Post, but it got the job done.
Strange newly realized fact: Baby A does not like tater tots or French fries. She'll gnaw on a fry or two, but, really, she doesn't care for anything made with potatoes—even my delicious (if I do say so myself) homemade mashed potatoes. For a kid who ate many a sweet potato as a toddler, she sure won't touch one now.
What did she like? The cherry limeade. Is this not pure kid ecstasy?
And, afterwards, contentedness:
That smile says it all: I'd call our stop at Sonic a success. The only real challenge was distracting Baby A after dinner as we drove away past the humongous playground. But we pulled it off: Holy cow, do you see that convertible? Over there? It's so cool!
If this roadfood experience sounds like one that might work for your family, it looks like there will be more Sonics on the horizon. The company recently announced (PDF) that as of the end of its fiscal year on August 31, 2007, it has posted 21 consecutive years of positive same-store sales. Not a bad streak. During the financial year just begun, Sonic plans on opening between 180 and 200 new drive-ins.
Baby A does pretty well in restaurants most of the time. I won't promise quietude, or lack of motion, because that never happens (unless she's sleeping, and that doesn't happen much, either). But she can usually manage to keep her little hurricane of activity going within the horizontal and vertical space of her chair, or—even better for us—her allotted space in the booth. She never stops talking and laughing, but she rarely shouts these days.
Yet, the usual things restaurants offer to keep kids quiet don't work for Baby A. I'm sure there are many kids who will sit and color with crayons. Mine is not one of them, even at three years old. Seems it's just not tactile enough for her. We read the little placemat cartoon-y things to her, but that takes, what, less than a minute, and it's over.
This post at Foodmomiac mentions one great solution: a small ball of pizza dough, handed out at their local pizza place. We had a similar experience at a nearby Fresh Mex place, part of a small chain that makes tortillas fresh to order. The cooks there handed A. a little ball of tortilla dough, and it was miraculous. She stayed in the booth and worked it and worked it until our food was ready, and even while we ate she took little breaks to smoosh the dough another time.
Of course, it looked like a disgusting ball of fuzz and crumbs before long, and she tried to take a bite once (looking all the while at me like, is this okay? Cause I know it isn't and I'm seeing if you're going to react...).
A simple ball of dough does it for us, and costs the restaurant very little. Or, I'm thinking, if we know it won't harm the table at the place we're going, maybe we could even pack one of those mini-cans of Play-Doh. What are other solutions that help keep your kids seated until the food comes?
You know what's funny—not funny ha ha, but funny sighhhh?
Yesterday morning I posted about meaning to cook more. Local ingredients, best of the season, blah blah blah. Ten hours later, I picked up a cheese pizza and house salad for our dinner. Brought it home and served it on china plates like I had cooked it or something.
Nothing like a melting-down kid to bring an inspired cook back down to earth. This is when I love having a fast, friendly pizza shop nearby—one that's dedicated to hormone-free cheese and naturally raised meats. It's not a chain, but I sure wish it were. Hint to chains: Parents want speed AND good ingredients. Hop on the train, okay?
We fed Baby A (who is immensely proud to eat "big triangles" of pizza and munch on carrot sticks "just like Ollie the Bunny from 'Wonder Pets' ") and put her to bed, where she stayed, without a peep, for twelve hours, GLORY HALLELUJAH, and emerged her happy and hyper self this morning.
After that kind of good sleep, I'm in a great mood for some Friday Fun. Let's get started.
Each day lately I look forward to the sliver of time between when I stop working, around 11 P.M., and can no longer stay awake, around, oh, midnight.
It's the only time I have for reading, which has finally, FINALLY, re-entered my life after a nearly year of pregnancy insomnia (all right, getting up all night to pee) followed by three years with a child who has deep disregard for anyone's need for sleep, including her own. It took thirty-eight months, but at last Baby A has started sleeping for long stretches, even (gasp!) all night long. That kind of sleep deprivation? It's enough to make you collapse into bed once the work and housework are done. Or cry. Or both. Reading? Not so much an option for eyes that can't stay open.
What a treat, then, what a LUXURY to crawl into our lovely bed, nestle down, tune in to the song of the katydids and crickets and cicadas outside, and open Barbara Kingsolver's memoir Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. She and her family moved to a farm in the Virginia mountains and agreed to eat only locally raised foods for a year, excepting only a tiny handful of ingredients, such as flour, which they couldn't source. They raised poultry, grew a variety of vegetables, and shopped nearby farmer's markets for nearly everything the family consumed. Kingsolver journals that year with an easy, humorous tone. Her husband, a college professor, contributes short pieces throughout, and her older daughter Camille, a student at Duke (YEAH!), writes essays and recipes to close each chapter.
Kingsolver's got me thinking...
Now, this is interesting, and complicated, news. And if I weren't up to my virtual ears in Internet connection problems, and facing a day of travel tomorrow (pleasure, but with a three-year-old, so, you know) and a magazine story deadline on Wednesday, I'd be right here propounding about it.
But it'll have to wait a day or two. In the meantime, feel free to share your thoughts.
All I can say is this: Now I know why I find everything I taste from Trader Joe's delicious, with the notable exception of the bottle of wine pictured here. Two-buck Chuck shiraz? More like two-buck YUCK. I would've paid two bucks NOT to have to drink it.
Update: Salon's Broadsheet blog put it well:
The real solution may lie in figuring out ways to make healthy choices profitable and appealing, so that companies want to produce them, and consumers want to eat them. That will certainly be difficult, given that many Americans are always going to pick French fries over carrot sticks. But it's an effort worth supporting.
My thoughts exactly! It's what I'm supporting here. But how to get from A to B? Thoughts, anyone?
Lots of Quicksies around here started the new school year yesterday. And as the kids go back, the debate goes on about what public schools ought to serve for lunch. Ten years ago, school lunches were the vast, unexplored frontier to the nation's largest quick-serve chains, and today there are rumblings again in the industry about the promises of the school lunch market.
Me, I didn't like it, and I had trouble at the time publishing stories about how quick-serve companies could exploit (take that word as positively or negatively as you'd like) the school lunch market. Now that I have a small child, I feel even more strongly about it.
Of course, that position assumes that quick-serve meals are inherently bad, and that is less the case now than ten years ago. What if Panera put its Panera Kids menu, with organic and all-natural ingredients and no trans fats, into schools? Good by me. Or how about Subway's FreshFit menu of sandwiches and sides for kids? I could be happy with Baby A's school serving that.
Here's a pretty balanced look at U.S. school lunch reform efforts. And take a look at the efforts of Two Angry Moms, who have made a movie and started a movement to better U.S. school lunches. And the TreeHugger site has visited this topic regularly.
These reform efforts (and the underlying problems) aren't particular to the United States. Take, for instance, celebrity chef Jamie Oliver's attempts to better the lunch programs in England, which have met with mixed success.
As your Quicksies head back to school, is the lunch program on you mind? How would you feel if a quick-serve chain won the rights to run your local schools' lunch programs? What standards would you want them to adhere to?
Oh yes, well, let's just count them: twelve days since my last post. There are some technical changes in the works here—a switch to a new host and software—but I haven't finished those yet. Stay tuned. You will find an updated and expanded list of links. Look to the right-hand column for an array of wonderful parent bloggers and restaurant resources. Meanwhile, stopping at chain restaurants hasn't been a big part of our summer. There's probably meaning in that, but I'll leave that exploration for another post.
So here's what we have done, lately.
We went to my family's lake house on Lake Murray in South Carolina, a lovely place I've visited my whole life. I re-introduced Baby A to the culinary wonder of warm boiled peanuts. At three, she's able to open the shell and work out those salty, earthy treasures—and work it she did. (That's a peanut she's showing you in the picture above.) She bogarted almost the whole bag.
And we swam and skiied and floated and got ridiculously tan. No restaurant tie-ins here. We had local tomatoes, butter beans, barbecue, all consumed as quickly as possible so mom could get back into the lakewater I love so much. We did have one big Sunday dinner during which Baby A tore into a dinner roll like a Viking, as if she had never seen spherical bread before.
Which, dinner rolls? She really hadn't seen them much, so I hadn't had a chance to teach her the tear-butter-bite routine. I have a feeling adults would eat dinner rolls in a Viking way, too, given the chance. It would be a lot more fun.
We also spent a week with friends in a large house on the intracoastal waterway. Only-child Baby A swam and played happily with their four children, and we parents put them to bed early and pounded a night's worth of wine and poker into the two hours we could manage to stay awake ourselves.
We then followed The Wonderful Husband down to Greenville, South Carolina (yes, there's a theme here), where he was consulting on quality assurance for a manufacturer. ("Daddy helps make engines, only better!," Baby A will tell you.) What a great little city, Greenville, full of parks and fountains and a zoo and a river running down a rocky waterfall right there in the middle of it. Again, no chain restaurant tie-ins here. Main Street in Greenville is lined with little eateries, all with cafe-style streetside dining. Baby A and I had homemade Mexican one day for lunch. After forgoing it for more than a year, A. ate a whole bowl of salsa ("SHALSHAAAAA!" was actually one of her earliest words, she loved it that much early on) and made her own guacamole burrito. The next day, we shared red-curry beef in a lovely little Thai place. Simply awesome. Both of those days, I felt like I was hanging out with the Future A, getting glimpses into what it'll be like when she's five and eight and ten. She wasn't my little baby.
Until, of course, I looked over and saw she was pulling her underwear out from under her dress, right there in the street-facing picture window of the Port City Java we'd ducked into when a thunderstorm rolled up. "BUT I HAVE A WEDGIE!," she protested. Note to self: Wait until child has develped a sense of propriety before introducing words like "wedgie."
I'll have more posts soon, plus more good technical changes and podcasts and some really good reads—interviews, book reviews, that kind of stuff. But for today? I'll throw in another picture or two and call it a summer day.
Maybe it's the warm memories I have from visits to San Francisco. Or maybe it's the warmth spreading through me fron this early-Friday-afternoon Tanqueray and tonic and Trader Joe's Blackberry Crush blend I'm sipping up.
But this story got me, and even though it's not restaurant related, I'm posting about it. And don't ever tell me today's Quicksies aren't as thoughtful as any other generation. All that "it was better in my day" booshiznit...I'm not having it.
A fifth-grade class at Mangum Elementary in Durham, North Carolina, led the way with fundraising to send the school's 71-year-old custodian and his wife on a trip to San Francisco. Mr. Venable, pictured above, said his lifelong dream had been to see the Golden Gate Bridge, and thanks to those fifth-graders, along with faculty, other students, and local churches, his dream is coming true right now.
What a great note to end a hard week on. This is the best kind of Friday Fun I can think of.
[Shout-out to Wade: How much for the bridge?]
[Picture via WRAL-TV]
Whoa, horrible dining experience related by a blogger at the San Francisco Chronicle. And they they left the Burger King bags on the table? How would you have reacted, if at all?
Closest we've come to this is getting Chick-fil-A for Baby A and burgers from Five Guys for us, then eating outside at a cafe table between the two restaurants. Do you ever take other kinds of food along for your kids? On my Parenting Scale of Things, that is overindulgent. How about you?
When I was a kid, we'd go to Captain D's (or the similar Long John Silver's) maybe every couple of months. Mmmmmmmm, malt vinegar on bready things—and what kid could resist that treasure chest full of free toys and prizes at the exit? I think I even signed up for the birthday club, which is now called the Aqua Kids program.
Now, the Captain is steering for a new course. Yesterday the company opened a new pilot restaurant in Clarksville, Tennessee, featuring a new menu and look. Over the summer, the other two Clarksville locations will be converted to the new paradigm. From there, it's on to Nashville and, I assume, the rest of the system.
What's changed? The pilot store offers an array of grilled items, including wild Alaskan salmon, tilapia, mahi mahi, deep sea flounder, and shrimp skewers. (A piece of cooking equipment called a clamshell grill makes the grilling possible.) And there are new pasta selections, like shrimp scampi, creamy shrimp alfredo, and chicken parmesan. Many of the old favorites are still on the menu.
[Aside: Wonder how the FDA's recent ban on seafood imports from China is affecting Captain D's and other quick-serve seafood menus?]
Looks-wise, the revamped Captain D's restaurant aims to create a more welcoming and laid-back atmosphere. There's also a new logo, shown above. Sounds like the company is going for the full-on fast casual strategy, leaving its fast-food days behind.
From my point of view, that's a smart approach to the future—a comfy interior, a menu with more variety, which makes it even easier for families. What do you think? If you haven't been to a Captain D's in a while, would this new menu convince you to give it another try?
A few weeks ago, Noah's New York Bagels rolled out all natural, grilled salmon sandwiches, salads, and new low fat drink selections for the hot summer months. There really are some interesting flavors here: miso, lemon-caper sauce, Thai chili lime. And Challah bread? That's a nice alternative to fluffy white buns.
Who says fast menus (or, in this case, fast-casual menus) can't be creative? Remember, especially for smaller kids, it's easy to order a premium salad and give your little Quicksie some of the meat or fish and fruit and vegetable toppings. (You'll want to do that before adding the dressing, if your Quicksie is like Baby A. I don't get it—I loved salad dressing as a kid. Maybe that comes later.)
Here are the details on those new options...
* Grilled Blackened Salmon Sandwich: Made with 100 percent wild Alaskan Pink salmon, this hot grilled fillet with a lemon caper sauce, lettuce, cucumber and red onion is served on an onion Challah roll
* Grilled Miso Salmon—Miso flavoring is baked into this hot grilled salmon fillet, served on a Challah roll and topped with lettuce, cucumber, and red onion.
* Blackened Salmon Caesar Salad—Noah's tops off their signature Caesar salad with a blackened salmon fillet.
* Miso Salmon Salad—This Thai-inspired salad offers mixed greens, Asian cabbage, cucumbers, peanuts and chow mein noodles. The is topped with a piping-hot salmon fillet flavored with miso and served with a signature Thai chili lime dressing.
Guests at Noah's Bagels can also cool down this summer with one of the two new low-fat blended drinks, Guava Banana or Papaya Yogurt. Or, there's Noah's Strawberry, Vanilla or Cookies & Cream frozen drink, also available with caramel, cappuccino, or Mocha flavors.
The Einstein Noah Restaurant Group has about 600 restaurants in 36 states and the District of Columbia.
Ooooh, the butterflies. I think my heart actually skipped a beat. Two of our friends—a couple, actually—both got iPhones last night, and I got to play with one this morning.
In the wake of all the hype, I half-expected something to go wrong. It sounded too good to be true. Surely the buble would burst. But? The iPhone did everything the commercials promised. It really is amazing—sleek, light, so very fast, and capable.
A Boston Herald reviewer says:
For it's not just cool; this phone is important, in the same way that Apple's first Macintosh computer was important. The Mac showed us a better way to interact with computers, and forced the entire industry to follow its lead. Here we go again. (Read full review.)
I had the same feeling, and after playing with one, for ever so short a time, I can say: It's true. It's all true. And all over again, I'm all giddy for the beauty and vision that Apple manages to attach to everyday tech tools.
This from a kid who was raised on MS-DOS and PCs. My dad had the foresight to insist that I learn to
Question: How many of you read the BabyCenter site pretty much weekly while you were pregnant and the first few months after the baby came along? Yep, I did, from the due-date calculator to the nursing and first-foods advice and developmental milestones lists. (Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems Baby Center was one of the first comprehensive parenting web sites, and one of the first to feature popular parenting blogs.)
Then Baby A started crawling, and "Lord, what is she into NOW?" became much more pressing than "Wonder what developmental stage is next?"
So yesterday I found this intriguing BabyCenter page of parents' comments on families and fast food. There was one especially good tip:
We've also found that if you ask nicely, most places will put your order in the special box with a toy, and the kids are really happy then!
That's a good one. Have you ever tried it? What other good tips have you come across lately? Comment and share.
And by that I mean environmentally friendly cleaners, equipment, and supplies.
Each year the National Restaurant Association holds a huge show in Chicago for restaurants and hotel companies. The most recent show featured plenty of new green-focused exhibitors, multiple green education sessions, and a well-attended special demonstration of new environmentally friendly products and ideas.
Cleaners so safe the demonstrator squirts them straight into his mouth? Furnishings made from recycled materials? High-voulme composting methods? Sounds great to me—anything to keep this place in better shape for our Quicksies and their kids. Here's hoping the interest at the show carries over into actual orders.
[Photo thanks to the National Restaurant Association's show news site, at the link above.]
A friend—okay, a barista at my favorite coffee shop, and anyone who serves me espresso is a friend—passed along a great article from the New York Times. It's called "Don't Point That Menu at My Child, Please," linked here.
Please read the article (even if you have to register) rather than accept my little summary. It's worth it. But...basically the writer decries the fact that restaurants everywhere, along with grocery stores, approach our kids with the expectation they'd rather eat the usual kid's menu of chicken fingers, mac and cheese, cheese pizza, grilled cheese (pattern here?), and fries, rather than smaller versions of what's on the regular menu:
"In short, I came to the realization that America is in the grips of a nefarious chicken-finger pandemic, in which a blandly tasty foodstuff has somehow become the de facto official nibble of our young. [...] It pains me that many children now grow up eating little besides golden-brown logs of kid food, especially in a time when the quality, variety and availability of good ingredients is better than ever."
Righteous.
Now I'd like to offer some hints on avoiding the usual kid's menu, even in the fast-food or casual dining setting. 'Cause sometimes you just want something different for your kids—you know?
• Try the unusual fruit bowls for kids at California Pizza Kitchen. Then share some of your own, grown-up pizza with your child. Presto: yummy, solid lunch for cheap.
• Visit Chipotle, where there is no kid's menu, and share a Burrito Bol and some of their unstoppable guacamole and chips with your kids. Again: yummy, nutritious, cheap. In the picture above, Baby A is proudly making her own "baby burrito" at Chipotle, spreading guacamole (ours) on a plain tortilla (hers). It cost, like, 50 cents.
• Go to Wendy's or McDonald's and get one of their premium salads—the ones with diced chicken, pecans, and fresh fruit, like mandarin oranges. Give some of the toppings to your kids, even the really young ones. Baby A loved those things when she was just over a year old. Add a fruit and granola parfait and it's an inexpensive, healthy meal.
• Try smaller versions of regular menu items, like the Bambino Burgers at Good Times or the simple taco at a place like Taco Bell or Del Taco. They're ideal for the three-to-ten age range.
• Go to a Thai, Chinese, or Japanese quick-serve place, like Pei Wei or Panda Express, and make a small plate for your child from yours, with rice or noodles, meat or tofu, and veggies. We've been doing this with Baby A for, gosh, two years now. And she just turned three.
In short, think about how you can adapt the regular menu items for your kids. The choices
And, restaurants? Get ahead of the curve on changing kids' meals. I think you'll find plenty of support.
Just found this Family Matters site and an interesting podcast on managing kids' behavior in restaurants. I'm getting ready to listen to the podcast—listen here if you're feeling the need to regulate the kiddos in restaurants. Here's a summary:
Kids in restaurants? Should they stay or should they go? It's a topic that generates a lot of heat from diners. Caroline and Jacquie talk with Cleveland Plain Dealer food and restaurants editor Joe Crea. He offers some suggestions on what parents can do and what restaurants can do to include children and make it a pleasant and rewarding experience for all parties.
Based on our experience at Chipotle at lunch today, I'm willing to visit the topic myself. Yes, we took four trips outside to stop Baby A's whining, bossing, and loud conniving.
Used to be that everyone expected some unruly kid behavior at fast-food restaurants. Today, though? Quick-serves are installing carpeting, padded seats, cool sound systems, even televisions. The bar has been raised a little, and, well, it's never too early to talk about respecting others and the meal table.
Remember, you can listen to Quick Serve Kids podcasts here. Sheesh, it's time to do a new one....
How cool would it be if your mom owned an ice-cream franchise?
First-time business owners Ann Kelly and Nicole Reinhart bought into a Dippin' Dots franchise in Tampa and opened a few weeks ago. With three children of her own, Kelly says she knows what kinds of products kids look for. "Dippin' Dots is an interesting and fun way to serve up ice cream," she says, "and my children and I have loved the little round dots since the first time we tried them. My kids were hooked instantly and will always choose Dippin' Dots Ice Cream over conventional ice cream any day."
Not me. The one time I tried Dippin' Dots, they were too cold and got all stuck on my tongue. It hurt. Give me the real stuff, preferably with chocolate gemmies, any day. Still, the ten-year-old in me says these kids have it made.
Shrek is getting ready to shill for Happy Meals—but for the kind with apple slices and salads, not fries.
Read that whole link. This is an interesting development, the first of its kind, far as I know, where a major motion-picture tie-in promotes a healthier option. My favorite part? "While the apples, milk, salads and other featured products have been on McDonald's menu for more than a year, chief marketing officer Mary Dillon said the company still had 'opportunities to drive awareness both with parents and kids about these offerings.' "
Pssssst, Mary! Advertise here! We're driving awareness!
At any rate, there's no doubt about the selling power of Shrek. Just the other day, Baby A declared she wanted to take a mud bath and brush her teeth with worms—in homage (ograge?) to Shrek, of course. I am sure she'd eat what Shrek says he likes, in a heartbeat. What's your take? Is Shrek's repping happier Happy Meals acceptable? Or not?
Please comment and, er, weigh in.
[Shrek is a copyright of DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. This might be a Reuters image, too, but it looks like thousands of others floating out there with no attribution.]
So, a couple of weekends ago, Baby A finally ate some hamburger. Granted, she's a long way from picking up and chomping a real hamburger. No, because that would be too easy. But she did eat five or six bites of a cut-up home-grilled burger. "No, I don't like beef," she said when I put the plate in front of her. I ignored her. Three minutes later: "Mmmmmm, I LIKE this BEEF!" she was exclaiming.
And there she was, one baby-step closer to leaving for college. *sniff*
But even when kids do start eating burgers, it seems they don't have many choices to fit their smaller hands and appetites. But here's an idea. Today Good Times Burgers & Frozen Custard announced a new hamburger offering called Bambino Burgers. The company says they're designed to appeal to the value-conscious consumer—but looks to me like they'd be the perfect size for kids. Better yet, the meat is something I actually would feed my kid: they're made from 100 percent all-natural Coleman beef, then served on a toasted dinner roll with Good Times' special sauce and pickle.
Price is right, too: The Bambino Burgers sell for just $.75 as a single, in a 3-pack for $2.25 and a 5-pack mini-suitcase for $3.75.
"We anticipate that this will become a great complement to our Mighty Deluxe and other premium burgers," says Bob Turrill, vice president of marketing, "for those looking for a smaller meal or as an addition to other combo meals." On May 14, Good Times will launch a television advertising campaign to promote the new Bambino Burgers combined with a new late-night message that will run throughout the summer. Late night? I'm thinking more like "after pick-up time at Mom's Morning Out."
QSK readers in Colorado—and I know there are a bunch of you!—this news is mostly to your advantage. Good Times Burgers & Frozen Custard has 52 restaurants, mostly in Colorado. But more chains should add small burger and chicken sandwich choices, ones that fit small hands and appetites, but that reflect the regular menu items, unlike a kid's meal choice.
Spotted in the news this morning that VeriFone has released a new version of self-ordering stations. The iOrder Food Service Kiosk, pictured here, is a self-service station designed especially for quick-serve restaurant (QSR) and convenience store food service operations.
The kiosk trend has been around for more than ten years, but it's been slower-moving than many people anticipated—at least, than the kiosk developers anticipated, anyway. The idea is that customers feel more of a sense of control over the ordering experience, and that fewer mistakes might be made if you eliminate that communications gulf between customer and order-taker.
I once saw kiosks in action at a Sheetz convenience store in North Carolina. I thought the experience was okay, but I didn't have Baby A with me. Had I been trying to control her, it might have been harder to follow the directions. And one elderly woman who ordered after me was clearly uncomfortable with the kiosk experience.
What do you think—Would self-ordering be easier for you? What about when you've got kids in tow? Or would you prefer to have the help of a human being? Comment and let me know.
A friend who's a vegetarian recently emailed me about Burger King's move to improve animal welfare. "This sort of move," she wrote, "would prompt me to choose BK over other fast food joints for road trip fare..."
Increasingly, parents and families are paying attention to corporate social responsibility and letting those impressions shape their spending decisions. Is your family among them? If so, you're certainly not alone.
Technomic, Inc., a respected restaurant consulting and research company, recently studied which restaurant companies consumers think are most socially responsible. And guess what? Four of the top five companies consumers named are quick-serves.
The chains consumers view as being most socially responsible are McDonald’s, Chick-fil-A, Subway, Starbucks, and Applebee’s. (Well, okay, Starbucks might send me a nastygram for lumping them into quick service. But they are competing with quick-serves in many areas. So, Starbucks, no nastygrams, please. Oh, and I love your M&M snickerdoodles.)
Looking at U.S. consumer attitudes toward corporate social responsibility in foodservice, Technomic found that restaurant users rated health insurance coverage, living wages, and animal welfare as their top three concerns, when asked to select among fourteen different issues.
Technomic found that, in general, consumers believe restaurant chains could do more to address their high priority social issues.
“Corporate social responsibility is becoming increasingly important for consumers in general and restaurant users specifically,” said Bob Goldin, executive vice president of Technomic, when the report was released. “The foodservice industry should identify and proactively address those social issues most important to their customer base. There is big payback for companies that are able to connect with consumers in this way and major downside risk for those fail to do so.” (Emphasis mine.)
Do you talk with your kids about how companies can give back to society? Does your family tend to shop or eat with companies you think are more socially responsible? Comment and tell us about it. The corporations are reading. :)
Thanks to The Wonderful Husband's recent retail therapy, we have a fancy new digital cable system that lets us record programs automatically. So, like any decent parents would, we immediately filled the hard drive with children's programs—the gentle new "Curious George" on PBS, plenty of Sesame Street, and the one Disney show I like (really like): "Little Einsteins."
Trouble is, "Little Einsteins" comes on the Disney Channel, and there are commercials—or, as I'm sure Disney would prefer me to call them, "corporate mentions." This morning, I let her watch a new "Little Einsteins," and the introductory montage included a spot with the Chuck E Cheese mascot playing basketball with kids and encouraging exercise...because "it's not only fun, it's healthy, too!," or something to that effect.
That message, of course, is lost on a two-year-old. Her thinking went more like, "Chuck E Cheese! I went to a birthday party there a few months ago. There was pizza and candy and cake and games! I want to go again!" Which then became all she talked about for the next five minutes, until Leo and the rest of the Little Einsteins crew headed to Rocket and her mind moved on.
This annoyance isn't limited to Disney. Even PBS, sadly, has corporate mentions—again, Chuck E Cheese, for our local PBS channel. I hate that.
So what's to do?
Last month Elaine Kolish, pictured here, became director of the Council of Better Business Bureau's Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative. She will monitor and enforce the pledges made last November by 11 major food advertisers to devote half their advertising aimed at kids to the promotion of healthy diet and fitness choices.
Those advertisers include quick-serve companies and suppliers like McDonald's, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Cadbury Schweppes, Campbell Soup, General Mills, Hershey, Kellogg, Kraft, Masterfoods, and Unilever.
All have pledged to reduce their use of licensed characters, product placement, and advertising in schools, and to follow the existing guidelines of the BBB's Children's Advertising Review Unit.
As this interview makes clear, though, the pledges are just that right now. Kolish will spend this spring and summer encouraging those advertisers to put some teeth in those promises. Here's an exceprt:
"[...] We're planning on announcing pledges between May and August this year. I'm not saying everything's going to be implemented between May and August—the pledges are supposed to explain how the company is going to meet the principles they signed onto last fall, to devote at least 50% of their advertising aimed directly at children 12-and-under to healthier diet choices and healthier lifestyles.
That all sounds good—really good, and best of luck to you, Elaine—but I keep thinking back to that Chuck E Cheese spot from this morning: just the mention of the name is annoying enough.
What's your take? Do you mind when your kids are exposed to advertising? Do you intentionally shield them from it? Or do you take it all in stride? Comment and let me know.
You've seen a number of posts here about Chick-fil-A. We usually have good experiences there, and while fried chicken isn't something I want Baby A having every day, by any means, it's good to be able to get us some meat and fruit at a decent price. And mmmmmm it tastes good.
So I was glad to read this morning that the company is expanding its Kid's Meal menu, starting today. New choices will include items both new to the chain and those added from the regular menu. For one thing, Baby A prefers the chicken strips to the nuggets (me, too). The strips are dunked in a different marinade from the nuggets, according to our local Chick-fil-A opearator, and the shape is easier for little hands. Now I can order her two- or three-count Chick-n-Strips.
She also loves the lemonade (and gets mad at me when I ask the server to dilute it a little!), so the addition of lemonade to the kid's menu is nice.
Other new items include Milk Chugs (plain and chocolate) and Minute Maid® Apple Juice.
Other kids and family marketing initiatives launched recently by Chick-fil-A include offering a free Table Topper® stick-in-place plastic placemat for infants and installing special dispensers of individual PURELL® Sanitizing Hand Wipe packets at participating restaurants for parents to help their children clean their hands. I've posted about those before.
Chick-fil-A says its Kid's Meal menu will continue to offer Chick-fil-A Nuggets (four- or six-count) as an entree option, waffle fries, kid's size beverage, and a unique premium. Customers may opt for a 3 oz. fruit cup instead of the fries (for an additional 40 cents) and can choose a number of drink options as a Kid's Meal beverage.
Interesting note: Based on sales, Chick-fil-A is now the nation's second-largest quick-service chicken restaurant chain, with more than 1,300 restaurants in 37 states and Washington D.C. In 2006, Chick-fil-A produced record sales of $2.275 billion. Wow. Never thought my little home-town chain would get so big. And it's still private, and it's getting those sales even though it still closes on Sundays.
Look for new signs at your local Subway restaurants today. The chain that brought you the highly successful Jared campaign (which I always thought was a little strange...who could eat only plain sandwiches for two out of three meals each day?) is taking menu fitness a step farther.
Today Subway introduces its new "Subway Fresh Fit" menu nationwide, a full line of better-for-you adult and kid menu items. The company says it's the first in the quick-serve industry to introduce a healthier menu on such a large scale—and specifically to kids.
But while I applaud Subway's stated intentions, I'm not sure this approach sits right with me. What's wrong with healthier choices just being part of the regular menu? Why a whole separate menu? "Because then you can't build a PR campaign around it," the cynic in me answers.
Here's the thing: I'm not looking for low-fat options for my daughter, who turns three this summer. Maybe that changes with older kids.
Older version of Baby A: "Mom, I'd like the six-inch turkey and swiss."
Me: "How about the Fresh Fit version instead?"
Preadolescent Baby A: "What, do you think I'm not fit?" [ensuing negative body thoughts...]
Sure, many kids wouldn't think twice about the reference—it would slide right off of their backs. But I was one of those kids who did think into it. This is one of those cases where I really wish the company would consult more with parents.
Saying the company "has long been committed to promoting 'better for you' eating among children and adults," Subway says the meals "have been developed to satisfy the communities' [sic] desire to lead a better and more active lifestyle. The new menu also reflects SUBWAY® Restaurants' commitment to help in the fight against childhood obesity." The new menu options are aimed at providing adults and kids with better, on-the-go meals that complement living a busy and active lifestyle, the company says. And those are all good intentions.
But by creating a new, separate menu, is the company sending the wrong message, or an unintended one?
Here are more details. The Subway Fresh Fit For Kids(TM) meal consists of a low-fat, 4-inch sandwich and "fit" sides and beverages. New "fit" products being introduced include sliced apples, raisins, and 1-percent white milk. Subway says the meals are based on sensible serving sizes, are low in total fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol, and are a good source of essential nutrients such as vitamin C, calcium, and iron.
See, I don't give Baby A 1-percent milk. She still gets whole milk, or 2 percent if we're out of whole or I just grab the wrong jug. I feel her brain and nervous system are still developing rapidly and need that nutrition. Granted, that might change when she's eight or nine or ten. Again, parents, please fill me in on what you do for older kids. And apples, raisins, things like that are just normal, everday noshes. They aren't part of some special, other group of foods—with "diet" written on it.
That's a word I don't want her to ever feel any affinity to.
What do you think? Am I reading too much into this? (Granted, I'm bringing a lot of baggage.) Comment and let me know.
Here's one thing I didn't realize until I started reading parenting blogs by the hundreds: Brooklyn is chock-full of young families. Take, for example, a site like Babble'sStrollerderby, where four staffers and at least one prolific parenting blogger are Brooklynites.
Bear with me as I tie my Southerner's growing familiarity with Brooklyn in with this news from Subway, which recently opened a fully kosher location in Brooklyn, allowing many customers their first taste of traditional American-style fast food. Whew. It tired me even to type that sentence. But it's the best I've got in the two minutes before I have to go pick up Baby A from preschool.
Okay. So.
Subway recently opened this fully kosher restaurant in Brooklyn, marking the sandwich franchise's second North American kosher restaurant and the first of its kind on the East Coast.
The restaurant, which opened on January 2, is located in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn. Owned and operated by three Sephardic Jewish business partners from the community, the restaurant is primarily a family affair with wives, mothers, and other relatives taking turns baking bread, prepping ingredients, and making sandwiches. The restaurant is under the rabbinical supervision of Rabbi Gornish.
In keeping with Jewish tradition the restaurant closes on Friday at sundown and reopens for business one hour after nightfall on Saturday. With slight modifications, such as no cheese or pork products, the majority of the menu is almost identical to that of any other SUBWAY® restaurant.
The first kosher Subway location opened at a Jewish Community Center in a Cleveland suburb last year. The company says it's received many inquiries from prospective franchisees around the country who wanted to know how they can open their own kosher SUBWAY® restaurant, too.
Subway, which already has some 27,000 units, clearly sees big growth opportunities in this niche.
McDonald's UK had a swift retort for Britain's Prince Charles after the prince made remarks about banning the company's food.
During a visit earlier this week to the Imperial College London Diabetes Center in Abu Dhabi, Prince Charles suggested that McDonald's, often criticized over its high-fat menu choices, should be banned.
Reuters quotes Prince Charles as saying, "Have you got anywhere with McDonald's? Have you tried getting it banned? That's the key," to a nutritionist at the center.
To which a spokesman for McDonald's UK business said, in an e-mailed statement, "The comment made by the Prince of Wales appears to be an off-the-cuff remark that, in our opinion, does not reflect either our menu or where we are at as a business." McDonald's emphasized its addition of choices like fruit, carrot sticks, salads, and organic milk, and said it has made strides in supporting sustainable agriculture.
To which a spokesman for Prince Charles said he "was keen to emphasize the need for children to enjoy the widest variety of food and not to eat any particular sort of food to excess."
What do you make of the exchange?
Baby A's favorite preschool teacher gave her a sweet Valentine's card that's also a coupon for a free doughnut at Krispy Kreme.
It's one of those moments I was glad she can't read yet. (Well, she can read her name, "Mommy," "Daddy," and "Yaya," her babysitter, and "Chick-fil-A" and "Armadillo Grill"...bragbragbrag.) Not because doughnuts are completely forbidden or anything—and there are new options like the whole wheat doughnut, pictured above. Made with 100 percent whole wheat, it's got a sweet caramel flavoring covered in Krispy Kreme's Original Glaze that flakes yummily like no other. And for those of you who pay attention to such things, it's got just 180 calories.
No, we won't be heading to Krispy Kreme only because once Baby A learns about a new treat, she asks for it nonstop for days on end. I'm talking like one hundred times. Over and over. Here's an example: We've had PEZ in the house for six months. They used to be the potty reward, but now they're after-dinner treats. Same with ginger men cookies, which have been around since Christmas. But what did she fuss about this morning? "Mommy, can I please have a PEZ? Okay. May I please have a ginger cookie?" She knows the answer. Yet she asks. Over and over.
In a way, I'd like to be able to take Baby A for an occasional Krispy Kreme. I like them, too, and have since I was a little kid growing up near Atlanta. (It's amused me to no end to see lines around the block in Los Angeles and Boston when new KK stores open...we've had them in Georgia and North Carolina for evah.) And we have an awesome, old-school KK store a few blocks away, HOT sign and all. But the incessant asking...I can't take the asking and the begging. Once we do it, she'll ask nonSTOP and I'll teeter on the edge of insanity, or at least risk yelling at her. Hate when I get frustrated and yell.
Has anyone else had a child who asks nonstop for treats? Does it go away after a while? How did you handle it?
Today at lunchtime, Baby A asked for some sweet-potato fries. She's been sick, so I didn't mind heating the oven up to 450 degrees on this, the first warmish day in weeks. She deserved a small pleasure.
I took the bag out of the freezer and poured some fries onto a baking sheet. They were covered in ice crystals. "Those need to be slaked," I thought. Slaked? Where did that come from? Remember...remember...oh, yeah, from an interview ten years ago with Wendy's founder Dave Thomas.
When I was editing QSR magazine, I had the chance to interview Thomas on two occasions. The first was for the cover of the premier issue—somehow, and I'll never be sure quite how, I got one of America's best-known faces to grant an interview for a new magazine that had no sample issue, nothing but a four-page media brochure and a lot of big ideas to speak for it. I called, I wrote letters, I played up the Duke connection (I'd gone to graduate and undergraduate schools there, he'd given a ton of money to the Fuqua business school). And somehow it worked.
Thomas talked with me for more than an hour, though I'd asked for only twenty minutes. He told me what he valued most in the kitchen—like taking a moment to shake the ice crystals and moisture off of the fries before plunging them into the oil. That's what he called slaking, and he insisted that small detail made his fries better than anyone else's.
What struck me most about that interview was Thomas's completely unpretentious personality. Success had not changed him. This multi-millionaire chief executive pronounced "specifically" as "pacifically," and "spaghetti" as "p-sgetti," and it did not matter. I went on to interview many more CEOs, most of them business-school stars who had fast-tracked to leadership roles at big corporations, names you'd recognize. But Dave Thomas taught me to listen for true talents—not book smarts, but the ability to motivate all kinds of people, to be relentless about the details, to persevere and earn success, rather than have the role handed to you.
As I put the fries into the oven, I made a mental note to talk with Baby A later on about these qualities. Of course, I want her to excel in school, but I also want her to value the qualities that made Dave Thomas successful.
I also remembered that for all the criticism of quick-serve food and companies—and some of that is certainly deserved—there are also hardworking people like Dave Thomas who pursued good principles.
There's a neat Flash-based biography here if you'd like to learn more about Dave Thomas's legacy.
This post brought to you by the sweet potato...and a mom who's been stuck home with a sick kid and thinking a lot. I'm sure you've been there.
UPDATE: Dave Thomas's original Wendy's location in Columbus, Ohio, will soon be closed because of lagging sales.
For Valentine's, I'm departing from restaurants for a moment to ask: Why is it that candy holidays —Valentine's, Easter, Halloween—are so much cooler when you're a kid? And not so cool when you're the parent of a kid who goes absolutely freaking out of her mind when there's a lot of candy around?
Oh. That's why.
On days like this, would it shock you to learn that the average American child ate 25 pounds of candy last year? Read more statistics at that link if you really want to be shocked. (Three to four hours of TV a day??)
I don't have a big problem with giving Baby A candy sometimes. In fact, we used PEZ candy as a reward during potty-training. What annoys me is her attitude about it—bossy, whiny, commanding. Ugh. It so annoys me, to the point that the holiday is less enjoyable.
We insist on good manners, limit the candy to small amounts (without making a big deal about it), and try to counteract the sugar with lots of protein—peanut butter, meats, milk to drink. How do you handle the candy question in your family? Comment and let me know.
[thanks to reader Michelle T. for the tip! photo sorta kinda thanks to the USPS]
...I'd have Baby A inside this dreamy Starbucks for Kids in a heartbeat. Think it would provide childcare? Or would they just hang mattresses on the wall and let 'em have at it?
Either one's okay by me. Pardon the overly handy caption, but she's had the energy of two kids the past few days. Help.
I enjoyed this article from the WaPo, about childhood power-struggles over food can continue into adulthood.
Don't miss the last paragraph, about a woman who grew up sharing an apple with her dad every evening after dinner as they reviewed their days together. It's touching. The point she makes is important: We teach our kids best by being close to them and modeling positive behaviors.
Did you have any traditions like that growing up? Have you started one in your family?
And do you remember coming up with creative ways to skirt the dinner-table rules? I remember swallowing the required two bites of yellow squash whole. (Strangely, today I love it.)
Interested in helping make sure a measure of clean water, good soil, and quality foods are around when your Quicksie has kids of his or her own?
Consider buying a calendar for five bucks at Chipotle. Proceeds from calendar sales will be divided among two organizations that reflect Chipotle’s mission of Food With Integrity: The Land Institute and the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture. If all available calendars are sold, Chipotle will raise about $100,000 for these organizations.
I talk way too much about Chipotle, don't I? Oh, well.
More importantly: Wouldn't you want to?
This news really tees me off: Meat from cloned animals won't be labeled clearly as such.
Shoppers who want to be sure they're not getting cloned meat will have to look for the green labels indicating organic standards on meat in stores. The FDA says the government can't tell a difference between clones and conventional cows, pigs, or goats.
As for ordering in restaurants, who knows?
Thing is, truly organic meats (as opposed to naturally raised meats) are very expensive. Bill Niman, founder of the Niman Ranch Cooperative, told me that raising organic livestock is often prohibitively expensive and difficult for today's farmers, meaning the small amount of organic meat on the market comes at a high premium.
The AP article I linked to doesn't say whether or not naturally raised meats will be guaranteed not to contain cloned meat or milk products. Given the muddling of organic and naturally raised standards now that big retailers like Wal Mart, Target, and Costco are offering them, I don't trust the system so much anymore.
Disturbing thought of the day: Will the average quick-serve hamburger soon contain cloned beef? I hope not. We're just back from a yummy late lunch at Five Guys. We don't go out for burgers often—that's one thing TWH and I can cook really well—but I'd hate to think that all restaurant burgers might one day be off our menu. Cloned and genetically engineered stuff are not something I want my little Quicksie eating.
A much brighter thought: Will the next quick-serve beef craze, after Angus beef, be naturally raised meat? Let's hope so. Homemade burgers are the best, but once in a while I'd like for someone else to do the work. :)
What do you think? Is cloned meat something to worry about? I'm not asking about the technology, because it's out there—and it can have plenty of good uses, such as in health care. But would you want to eat it? Feed it to your family?
[photo from here]
As a parent, where do you stand on the whole snacking thing?
Depending on which book you read / what your pediatrician says / what works for your family, you might do square meals or more frequent, smaller meals. One famous pediatrician even recommends leaving out an array of snacks out for a toddler, say, in a muffin tin, so that she can eat on the go all day.
But that wouldn't work for us. First, we're rarely inside the house for long periods of time. And I never wanted to be one of those parents whose cars and sofas are full of crushed Cheerios and crackers. (Not that that's awful. And not that our house and car are clean. But anyway.)
So while I'm not militant about it, we're a three-meals-and-afternoon-snack kind of family. That works for us, but it seems we're going against the trend. This news release from McDonald's says snacking occasions are forecast to increase 3.6 percent in the United States, compared to overall eating occasions from 2004 to 2008, according to a recent report by Business Insights. The same report says fully 10 percent of Americans forgo regular meals in favor of grazing.
McDonald's is catering to the trend by introducing several new Snack Wrap varieties. Pleased with the results of its summer 2006 launch of the Ranch Snack Wrap, McDonald's today started rolling out more snacking options for customers with the new Honey Mustard Snack Wrap. In addition to the new flavor, the popular portable snacks now are available in both grilled and crispy choices.
The grilled version of the Honey Mustard wrap is pictured above. It's got chicken breast meat, cheddar jack cheese, lettuce, and a sweet and tangy Honey Mustard sauce, wrapped inside a flour tortilla. It's offered for a promotional period at $1.29 at participating McDonald's restaurants nationwide.
McDonald's already had other snack items on the menu, including the Snack Size Fruit & Walnut Salad, Fruit 'N Yogurt Parfait, and Apple Dippers, among others.
Consumers will the have the opportunity to try the new Honey Mustard Snack Wrap at sampling and trial promoting events throughout the country including NBA All-Star Weekend in Las Vegas, the CIAA Basketball Tournament in Charlotte, the Mexican National Team soccer clinic and kick off game in San Diego, Chinese New Year Parade and Festival in San Francisco, and at Spring Break activities in Panama City Beach.
You know, these snack-sized adult items might make decent substitutes for kids' meals. What do you think?
Let's get this out of the way, before the e-mails start rolling in from corporate: I'm aware that Red Robin is not a quick-serve chain. It's more like casual dining. But the company does something I'm hoping more chains, including quick-serves and even general retail chains, will emulate.
Go read here about Red Robin's Unbridled Acts of Kindness program. But make sure you have fifteen minutes to spend reading because you'll get caught up in the mini-profiles of kind gestures performed by Red Robin employees, with the encouragement and full backing of their managers. And you'll leave the page feeling better about our society.
Props to Red Robin. And props to nine-year-old Adrianna Montgomery, pictured left, who recently won a national contest to create Red Robin's newest burger.
I'm looking forward to trying her recipe for a Spicy Asian Burger.
Back when fast food meant primary-colored plastic tables and chairs bolted to the floor, noisy kids weren't so out of place. It was understood: fast food was for kids, while casual dining on up was for adults...and the occasional, extremely well-behaved child.
Today it's safe to say fast-food—ahem, quick-serve—restaurants are somewhat more adult places. Most chains have seriously stepped up their decor, daring even to put fabric upholstery and flat-screen TVs in the dining rooms.
All of which make the environment a bit less forgiving to food-tossing, loud-talking kids.
Raise your hand if you've struggled to enforce good behavior from your kids in restaurants. Oh, you, too? Uh huh. We've been there, over and over.
In the ongoing search for effective discipline methods, we've been happiest with the Love and Logic series. Have you heard of it? It's not perfect—no "method" applies perfectly to every family—but I love its no-yelling, no-lecturing, consequences-driven approach.
Love and Logic sends a weekly enewsletter. Thought you might enjoy reading this snippet from a recent one:
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Manners MatterMaybe you’ve also noticed that manners seem to be a rare commodity these days. What a great opportunity for your kids! Since the rarer the commodity the more valuable it becomes, we can give our children a powerful advantage in the workforce...and in life...if we teach them. Listed below are some tips:
Model good manners.
What a bummer. This is the hardest part for me!
Set enforceable limits on behavior by describing what you will do or allow.
"We will stay at the restaurant as long as you guys can sit in your chairs, use quiet voices, and follow directions," is an example of an enforceable limit.
Follow through with empathy and logical consequences.
One mother wasn’t afraid to get serious:
I’d been practicing table manners with my three ADHD boys, and I decided to take them out for a practice session. As soon as we ordered our meals, they started acting horrible. I guess they didn’t believe I’d do anything about it. I said, "How sad, we need to go," and I took them right home. Now they get frequent compliments from others when we go out in public. The cost of that uneaten meal was sure worth it!
— Dr. Charles Fay
Love & Logic
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Rumor has it that by the third or fourth kid, you give up worrying about perfectly clean hands. Now that Baby A is two and a half, I can understand. At some point, safety becomes more about making sure the child hasn't run out into the parking lot and less about keeping those little fingers sanitized.
No kidding. We recently installed a slide-lock way up high inside our front door because Baby A was opting to go on walks outside by herself. Scary, huh? And to think a (childless) friend asked me recently whether I thought breastfeeding had made Baby A less independent. Um? My child, who has never given a second thought to taking off?
Anyway.
For those of us with the luxury of focusing our cleanliness obsession on only one child, restaurants still seem like repositories of ick. That's why it was great to hear Chick-fil-A launched a program January 3 to put complimentary hand-sanitizer wipes and disposable placemats in Chick-fil-A restaurants.
The Chick-fil-A Children’s Placemat is a disposable sanitary eating surface designed to help babies and toddlers eat finger foods safely. It's ideal for kids who are using tray-less high chairs. (The official announcement specified "kids three and under," but Baby A and many of her friends gave up high chairs a long time ago, before age two.) The placemat also features educational games that parents can play with children while eating, as well as information on Chick-fil-A’s Kid’s Meal options
The placemat is supplied by Neat Solutions, Inc., which was founded by a mom trying to clean up her own kids' dining experiences.
Chick-fil-A partnered with GOJO, inventors of Purell, to offer co-branded sanitizing hand wipes at participating Chick-fil-A locations to encourage customers to clean and sanitize their hands before eating. Chick-fil-A franchisees operating stand-alone restaurants now have the option of installing a special dispenser adjacent to their playground areas that has individual Purell hand wipe packets for parents to help their children to use to clean their hands after playing.
Restaurants also will offer the wipes to on-the-go customers ordering through the drive-thru, as well as hand them out to customers in the dining rooms. The wipes also will be available at the chain’s mall locations, where it is more difficult for customers to wash their hands before eating in food courts that no longer have easy access to restroom facilities.
Amen, amen, and AMEN. Our whole family used a Purell station inside the playground at a Chick-fil-A just last week. (That was after I had to climb twenty-five feet up inside said playground to convice A. it really, truly was time to leave. But that's for another post.)
Just the other day, Baby A decided to explore the underside of our table in the food court at the mall. "What's that, Mommy?," she asked, picking at a wad of dried-up chewing gum. "Is that a treat?"
Nope, honey. But restaurant chains paying attention to what parents want? That's a big treat.
Here's some news that caught my eye this morning...
* Los Angeles mulls a ban on trans fats. Will it go the way of New York (passed) or Chicago (failed)? Good Times Burgers & Custard is also trying to go trans-fat-free. "This is the right thing to do," says president and CEO Boyd Hoback.
* This study turns the usual point-of-view upside down: How do children's eating habits affect those of the adults in their households? Turns out the answer is "not so well," and busy schedules plus the convenience of fast food might be partly to blame.
* Snacking might be the next frontier for quick-serves. A new study from Technomic Inc. found that consumers' snacking behavior is evolving, and there is stronger interest in more and healthier options. Restaurants, however, have only had limited success so far in attracting this business, says Technomic.
"We view this as an excellent but underdeveloped opportunity for many chains," says Darren Tristano, executive vice president of Technomic Information Services. "By analyzing their current offerings from a fresh perspective and offering new options that appeal to the snacking consumer, chains could make a measurable impact on same-store sales and add business during what are frequently off-peak hours."
Go here to view the breakdown of reasons Americans give for their snacking.
Come to think of it, healthy snack options are PERFECT mealtime options for little kids.
Hey, chains, you have two strong markets here!
Hey, everyone, sorry for the extended posting break. We sorely needed some vacation around QSK HQ, also known as The Bungalow (scroll down). I hope your holidays were as wonderful as ours—full of happiness, family, and good food.
It's hard to believe the holiday season is over. I have to admit it's nice to have Baby A back in nursery school several mornings a week. (Sorry, honey, whenever you get old enough to read that. One day, when you have a wild two-year-old of your own, you'll understand.) And I'm enjoying a renewed focus on work.
A look around the industry as 2007 gets underway sees—surprise!—lots of chains playing to our New Year's resolutions. You can't swing a stick around the restaurant news section without hitting a health-focused announcement. Here are a few:
Starbucks shuns trans fats: Saying it's been working behind the scenes for a couple of years, Starbucks announced it will drop trans fats in foods in some locations. As of yesterday, company-owned Starbucks stores in Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Portland were tol have zero trans fats in their food.
Saying everyone who resolved to eat more salads in 2007 just "caught a lucky break," Carl's Jr. announced it would add a Chipotle Chicken Salad, a blend of charbroiled chicken, fresh salsa, parmesan cheese, and zesty chipotle dressing over a bed of shredded lettuce and piled into a crispy tortilla shell bowl. "It's technically a salad," says the company, "but it's so big on taste you'll feel as though you're breaking your resolution early." Hmmmmmmm.
Speaking of salads, Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp., parent company of Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes restaurants, unveiled a contest offering guests an opportunity to—quoting them, not me—"ride the fitness freeway and fulfill their New Year's resolutions."
The contest prizes will be provided by Healthyroads, Inc., a national provider of telephone- and Web-based coaching programs that help people reach their health goals. Interested? Learn more at any Souplantation/Sweet Tomatoes restaurant or online here.
Organic To Go says it's expanding quickly in California and the Pacific Northwest, driven by consumer demand for convenience, speed, and, of course, organic foods. Saying it is the nation's first fast-casual cafe to be certified as an organic retailer, the company announced it ended 2006 with $10 million in sales. On tap for early 2007 are new retail, corporate, and university locations in Southern California and Washington state.
That's it for now. Check back soon for more kid- and family-friendly restaurant news.
When some high-school-aged Quicksies got out of control at their local McDonald's, the restaurant closed its doors to all students from the nearby school.
An employee at the restaurant, who identified herself in the news as a manager but would not give her name, told the Greely Tribune the students would be allowed back in the restaurant when they could learn to act like respectful young adults—as early as next week.
Reportedly, the teenagers have shut off the restaurant's water, cut holes in the walls, and pushed pregnant women around.
Three cheers to that restaurant's management from QSK!
We stopped into Chick-fil-A for lunch. It was one of those last-minute decisions. I was in a bad mood because we unexpectedly had to get two new (large, expensive, ugh!) tires, just in time for the holidays. Let's just say the other driver in the household did something really, um, silly.
So we dropped off the car and went to eat. My mood was not so good. We nestled into a booth and served Baby A her usual (chicken strips, fruit cup), then tucked into our own usuals (classic Chick-fil-A sandwiches) when I realized I wanted a packet of buffalo sauce. Lately I can't get enough of the stuff. Strange. And, no, there's no "Baby B" on the way. It's just a thang.
I jumped up out of my seat and turned to head for the counter—and nearly crashed into an older woman with a gentle demeanor and a nametag that said HOSTESS.
She said, sweetly, "Hi, what would you like? I'll get it for you." Immediately, my mood softened.
"I'd like a packet of buffalo sauce, please."
"I'll be right back with it." And she was. "Thanks," I said. "My pleasure," she said.
What an awesome thing, especially when you're the sole adult eating with young children. It is such a pain to gather up babies and toddlers just to go twenty feet away for the spoon you forgot. Even older kids can get in trouble (or just be obnoxious to other tables) in a matter of seconds.
I'd like to claim this is Southern hospitality, but it's not. If I remember right, it was So Cal–based Carl's Jr. that first put hostesses in its dining rooms—employees, most often women, who were there solely to refill your drink, grab the napkins you forgot, or just ask how your meal is. When Carl's Jr. bought the Hardee's chain, it started putting hostesses in those dining rooms, too. I believe Long John Silver's tried it seven or eight years ago. Now, clearly, Chick-fil-A has picked up on the concept.
And what a great thing. As a parent, I'd love to see more of this.
Have you seen a host or hostess recently in a quick-serve dining room? In what brand?
There's a good story in the Orange County Register about the recent opening of McDonald's second R-Gym, this one in Santa Ana. Check out the video for a look inside the gym!
Quick Serve Kids reported the opening of the first location last June. (That's the location pictured to the right.) The company says it plans to open twenty locations over the next year.
Has your family tried one of the Mongolian grill concepts? We visited our local Crazy Fire (no website—how strange!) restaurant today for lunch, and it was perfect.
If you're not familiar with the Mongolian grill thang, you grab a bowl and fill it with your choice of raw ingredients, everything from meats and tofu and veggies to noodles, eggs, ground peanuts, and cilantro. Next, you add a couple of ladles of sauce—I like a mix of ginger-lime and soy, along with a few shakes of dried red peppers.
Then you walk to the open kitchen and hand your bowl to cook who stir-fries your custom meal on a big, hot stone and hands it back to you on a plate with sticky rice. Yummmmy, and healthy.
Baby A liked making her own choices and watching her creation get cooked. I liked that she ate grilled chicken, broccoli, and steamed rice for lunch. And my own stir-fry was delicious.
Give one of these places a try at lunch or dinner. They're reasonably priced, too—our lunch was $10 for two adults and Baby A. Other similar concepts are Genghis Grill and Mongolian Grillle.
On a related note, how cute and kid-appealing are these clothespin chopsticks (above right) from CB2? You can buy them here.
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In today's advertising news: Why?
Warning: If you're not a parent, or haven't otherwise raised a toddler, don't read any farther. This post contains graphic potty-training scenes.
I mean it.
Okay, you're on board? Here we go. The scene opens in a hip, urban coffee shop. The lights are low. A DJ spins ambient and house tunes as the cool (read: non-parental) clientele hang out before hitting the club and bar scene.
Baby A and I are hunkered down at a corner table, enjoying a rare late-night (read: 8 P.M.) date, munching on biscotti and drinking milk. Suddenly, above the blissed-out music and hushed conversations, A. shouts, in that ear-shattering squeak only little girls can muster,
"Mommy, I have to POOP! Right now! I'm going to go poop! Here I go!"
All eyes turn to our table as A. hops down and sets off running for the restroom. I, of course, follow behind her just as fast as I can, relatively unfazed because, you know, this is just how life is now. It takes a lot to faze me, child-scatological-wise. And, in the big picture, this only makes the bedtime routine easier.
So while I'm squatting in front of her, helping her balance while she sits on the potty, I distract myself by thinking of things I'm grateful for in restaurant bathrooms, now that this is, you know, part of my job.
Cleanliness. Enough said. Little kids wait until the last, harrowing moments before notifying you they need a potty. There's generally not much time to locate and use seat covers. Please, restaurant industry, if you're not keeping your bathrooms sanitary for us adults, do it for kids—and those of us helping the kids.
Gimme room, lotsa room. Until kids are old enough to sit without falling in, we parents must practice a particular type of yoga aimed at keeping the child perched in place without offending the child's No, Mommy, I do it myself sensibilities. It is a delicate balancing act, and we need space in which to perform it, even if it means providing one less toilet. (I know, there are buidling codes and stuff. I'm just sayin'.)
Keep it stocked. It's a huge bummer for an adult with any sense of hygiene to find an empty soap dispenser or paper towel box. It's awfulawfulawful when you can't wash your child's hands after the potty. You have no idea the things they touch.
A stepstool at the sink. Have I not gone on about this enough already?
Thankfully, A. declared herself finished at that point, and shortly thereafter we rejoined the world of the cool with nary a red face. (Amazing how parenting changes you.)
What can you add to my list of restaurant restroom must-haves? Comment and let me know.
There's a good post over at Blogging Baby about how retailers are increasingly catering to kids—and making it easier for parents to shop and eat in their stores.
Case in point: TWH is out of town, so Baby A and I headed over a local, funky quick-serve pizza shop for dinner. While she was ringing up our order, the cashier pointed out there was a supply of kid-entertaining things in a cabinet under the flatware and condiments. We checked it out, and sure enough, there were crayons and paper, some little books, and a few stuffed animals and dolls. Baby A got to pick out a few thing to take to our table, and it was enough to keep her relatively still and quiet until our slices and salads came.
Whew. Any little help, I'll gladly take.
The Blogging Baby piece notes that kids' spending now totals $700 billion annually. Sure, but who's driving the car? (smile)
This is just plain wrong. A drink called Cocaine? Aimed at the teen and young adult markets?
Not funny.
Yesterday I got to speak with Shirlene Lopez, who last week was named president of Del Taco, the California-based quick-serve Mexican chain.
Get this: Lopez has been with the company for 27 years. At age 14, she started mopping floors and cleaning tables at her local Del Taco. Those were the only tasks state law would allow her to perform at that age. She moved on through cashier, company operations, marketing, human resources—you name it, she's done it for Del Taco. (Well, except for accounting, she said.)
And today? She's president of a company that's preparing to expand nationwide.
So to all those parents worried that their Quicksies' lowly restaurant job won't lead anywhere: Here's a good example of just where that job might lead.
Talking with Lopez made me think back on my early jobs. Lifeguard: great work environment, low pay, no future. Law clerk: horrible. I put thousands of canceled checks in numerical order. No joke. It wasn't until my internship/work study job at Duke Magazine that I found some direction. And here I am.
How about you? Which early jobs most influenced what you do today?
And can any of you top Lopez for longevity with a company?
What are Quicksies, you ask? It's what I'm calling the Quick Serve Kids—our kids who are growing up in the age of the chain restaurant. Because we're raising Quicksies, it's our job to help them learn to make smart decisions in this age of readily available, not always good-for-ya food. That's what Quick Serve Kids is all about.
I spotted a notable Quicksie in the news.
Check out how this eighth-grade girl found E. coli last year in bagged spinach.
In her experiement, which she designed for the science fair, she also found a correlation between the iron content of the greens and the amount of bacteria growing on the leaves. Pretty cool.
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First came the job: founding editor of a magazine for fast-food industry executives. Then came marriage.
Then came the baby in the baby carriage—and a new perspective on the world in which that baby will grow up.
Now I'm using my fast-food (quick-serve) industry expertise to filter restaurant news and information to other parents. Join me and other parents as we figure out how to raise our Quicksies to make good choices in a world where fast food is part of life.
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