Olive et Gourmando...

[Simon Patrice]

I would like to go out for lunch at Olive et Gourmando on thursday or friday. The thing is we were thinking of bringing our son with us since my wife is breastfeeding him. Does anybody know if that would be a problem?

I know the place is pretty packed at lunchtime so until what time shoud I wait so we won't be too much of a burden for the staff and the customers?

I thought about going to Club chasse et pêche but I think we'll wait for our son to be older. We might try Les Chèvres when his around 8 months though.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Patrice

[Kouign Aman]

Dont know the restaurant. Do know eating out with nursing baby. My advice may come out sounding bossy - please remember this is just my opinion based on relatively recent experience.

1)No one else is paying to hear the kid make noise. Be fully prepared to pick your son up and exit the restaurant at high speed, possibly not returning if his nibs doesnt calm down or doesnt like the environment. This would be you, not your wife. Your wife needs the lunch. You are gambling. Sometimes gamblers lose. This may be one of those times. Be ready to accept and act on that. Of course, mom wont enjoy a leisurely lunch under those circumstances, so she'll probably bolt it down, pay the bill and schedaddle. If so, everyone should laugh. Otherwise its WAY too annoying.

2) plan around baby's schedule. When is your son noisy? Dont go then. Can your wife nurse in the car immediately before you head into the restaurant? Will your son then gurgle quietly and contentedly before eventually falling asleep? Will he nurse in the restaurant, thus amusing himself while menus are read, etc, or does he demand silence?

3) go really early and leave before peak crowds or before your son gets noisy. Or go really late - ditto. If I could choose, I'd go late, so that I had happy wellfed kid at the times of maximum craziness, and that the restaurant was quieting down as my kid was getting ready to snooze.

4) call the restaurant. Ask them. Ask them how they feel about nursing in the dining room. If your wife likes a bit of seclusion, ask if there is an outof the way corner table you can have. San Diego restaurants were very understanding tho we stuck to 'family' restaurants.Ask them what time of day works best. Tell them why you want to come to lunch (you are an old regular and cant give it up, whatever....)

5) Im thinking at 4 months, he's probably eating about every 3 hours?

Is he happy in his carseat, placed on the chair next to one of you? Because if the restaurant has a tendency to get busy, the pushchair wont be popular with the waitstaff. And 4 months is a bit young for highchairs on average.

I wish you luck and a wonderful lunch.

BTW - for us, it started getting harder to eat out around 4 months (that being awake longer thing), got progressively more difficult to ~1 year, and didnt get easier until 18 months (that self-feeding throw stuff on the floor thing). Plus, anytime we had limited options, the munchkin would deviate from standard patterns of behaviour.

Edited June 14, 2006 by Kouign Aman (log)

[identifiler]

Simon, zero problem for lunch at Olive. It is a rush zone though and the space is limited, leave the Pliko at home. Feed the tube before going in or your buddy should get a feeding bra and blanket and voila. I would try to go later if possible.

New borns are much easier than 1 year old IMO. I take three kids there no problem, now I will take four there. Tip well, have plenty of booze and buy lots of bread as you pay.

It's loud in there, a crying newborn shouldn't be too loud against that noise, hopefully he has learned not too sleep in complete silence.

I never dinned out more than when we had our first kid cause he was a sleeper. I'm a bit more militant about kids in restos, I am going to have four and I'll be damned if I can't take them out. I ask that they not make noise, I do not ask for miracles and don't get offended. My kids also like to go to Lemeac, that would also be a good place to have lunch. If you do not take the kids out, they will not learn to go out.

[wizpers]

Kids are welcome almost everywhere beetween rush hours... fair enough

[iharrison]

I see kids at O+G all the time ... the vibe is super casual.

Try the new Mr. Fancy Pants sandwich ... awesome.

[Kouign Aman]

And dont forget to report back !

[fireweed]

No worries, Simon.

Hey moms have to get out too! A while back I took my 6-week-old and met my sister and her 7-month-old there for lunch . The staff were most accommodating. Were they holding their breath? I don't know, but we had a great time. We both breastfed during our lunch and it didn't raise any eyebrows, nor should it!

There's babies everywhere you look now. If everyone stopped eating out for the first few years of their child's life, what a shame that would be!

Enjoy yourselves.

[Simon Patrice]

Since it was really nice outside, we changed our plans a bit. We did go to Olive & Gourmando (I had the usual Cubain and a brownie, would have tried Mister Fancy Pants but they were sold out) but we asked for take-out and went for a picnic in the Old Port. So, we'll have to go back and figure out how easy it is to eat there with a young child.

What a difficult mission!