Sydney restaurant where mobile phones are off the menu
A SYDNEY restaurant is asking customers to hand over their mobile phone before eating and enjoy a digital-detox dinner.
NSW
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MOBILE phones are off the menu, with diners urged to check their devices at the restaurant door in a stand against digital distractions.
Etiquette experts and social researchers hailed the digital detox, which is hoped will encourage people to communicate in the old-fashioned way.
Contact Bar and Kitchen in Woolloomooloo was one of the first to ask customers to hand over their device before sitting down to dinner.
While phones are not banned, the restaurant encourages guests to talk to each other rather than post to social media and respond to emails.
“They think about it twice and feel a little bit naked in the first minutes but they get used to it really quickly,” restaurateur Markus Stauder said.
It’s part of an international backlash again mobile phones at the dining table.
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In the south of France, Petit Jardin banned phones completely, with waiters blowing a whistle and showing diners a yellow card for the first infringement — the second gets a red card and the diner is asked to leave.
Across the globe venues run Mobile Free Monday, or Reconnect Tuesday, offering diners discounts of up to 25 per cent if they leave their phones in a box.
Chapter Five Espresso in Redfern has had a no wi-fi policy for three years and Jasmine Greens cafe at Umina has a sign declaring it has no wi-fi to encourage conversation.
Contact Bar and Kitchen head chef Marco Giuliani said phone-less diners are enjoying their food.
“They’re talking about and discussing what they are actually having,” he said.
Libby Phillipps, 25, from Elizabeth Bay found that not having her device on hand allowed her to really connect with her date.
“There were a few instances where I went to show Tyler something on my phone but because I didn’t have it I had to really explain things,” she said.
“It makes you feel happy. An hour or two straight of full-on communication is really refreshing.”
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Social researcher Mark McCrindle applauds the detox-dining initiative.
“I think it is meeting a real need, we rely on these devices but they control us more than we control them,” he said.
“Spending time in a restaurant is about that social connection but screens get in the way.”
Good Manners Company expert Anna Musson said: “The temptation to use our phone even to stimulate conversation is too much for most people … we are losing the art of conversation.”
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