Nashville News Blog

I don't understand what the problem is with using your cell phone in a restaurant's dining area as long as you know how to speak in a conversational tone.

You talk to your dining partners when you're in a restaurant. Should they institute a library-like no-talking tpo your co-diners policy?

Another thing that irritates the piss out of me is when people continue to talk on cell phones while they are ordering at a walk-up counter. It's just rude.

When you're in a decent sit-down restaurant, talking on a cellphone tells your dining partner that he or she isn't worth your undivided attention for the relatively short time that it takes to order and eat your food. It tells the employees that their restaurant, for all the ambiance they've tried to create, is no different to you from a McDonalds.

THAT'S a better idea. A cell-phone jammer is currently in place in other establishments, so I can imagine a booming business for people who REALLY DO want the quiet, relaxed eating atmosphere that isn't punctuated by MP3's and other ringtones in the middle of a bite of Ladyfingers...

I have a friend that works at Starbucks that says he won't wait on people if they are talking on their cell when they get up to the counter- he tells them he will wait till they finish their call and he goes on to the next person.

When you're in a decent sit-down restaurant, talking on a cellphone tells your dining partner that he or she isn't worth your undivided attention for the relatively short time that it takes to order and eat your food.

What if you don't have a dining partner and you DO have to eat and you DO have business to conduct?

That's what takeout is for.

I can imagine very little more irritating than going out for a nice dinner with my husband or family and being seated next to a diner who "has business to conduct" on his/her cellphone and thought it would be a good idea to go to a nice restaurant alone to conduct it.

And don't get me started on crying babies.

Neighbor...They do have a room for that purpose. And, it is clearly marked with either "Men" or "Women" on the door.

I can imagine very little more irritating than going out for a nice dinner with my husband or family and being seated next to a diner who "has business to conduct" on his/her cellphone and thought it would be a good idea to go to a nice restaurant alone to conduct it.

So do you ask people seated next to you at a table to stop their conversations? What's the difference in a person in a dining room holding a conversation on a telephone versus holding one with a person at the table with them? Why does it matter to you where the person that individual is talking to is in the world?

OK, here's a modest proposal for you: When your host/hostess greets patrons at the door, he/she asks:
"smoking, non-smoking, or cellphone". The restaurant would reserve a few tables for those who wish to keep their cellphones on/use them at table. If I owned the restaurant, of course, there would be only two such tables, in the worst part of the smoking section. Those who would have to wait for those tables might perhaps do their business while waiting to be seated, then join the other list, turn the phone off, and enjoy their meal. Voila!

Mobile Talker, admit it. You have a Bluetooth headset, don't you? And I'll bet you wear it all day long.

Yes, Hater, but manners are so 1975.

It is my experience, and I realize I am generalizing, that typically people who talk on cell phones have to speak at a louder volume to be heard than normal conversational tones. I have been disturbed by people having loud conversations in restaurants as well. Obviously you think it's fine and a whole lot of other people do as well- I just think it's rude, especially when the server is trying to intereact with you.

Mobile Talker- I'm going to venture a guess- you're less than 30 years old, aren't you?

Mobile- you just sound as if you're a member of the "it's all about me" generation. Most(or at least many)people over the age of 30 or so have come to the realization that it's not all about them and they try to demonstrate a little courtesy under most circumstances. I guess you're a late bloomer. And no one is trying to ban you or any other person from restaurants -they just want you to turn your damn phone off while you're there.

Yep - when I worked retail in college, I didn't wait on people who were on their cell phones, and didn't approach them until they were finished. In fact, I was known to "not see them" when they motioned me over to them, still yapping away.

HANG UP. HANG UP!

A waitress ignored me. I was trying to pay my check so I could get out the door and talk a friend out of killing herself. A friend I happened to be trying to talk out of it while on my cell and motioning to the waitress to bring me my check.

Needless to say, I was in a hurry and I was not about to hang up on my despondent friend.

If she had gone through with it, I would have demanded the waitress be fired.

I guess I don't see the big deal about taking the call outside the dining room. When my stepdaughter called me back that night, I answered by saying "Hold on," walked outside and then talked to her. We had the phone on vibrate on the table so we could see it if it rang and was the kids. And just like that, everybody's happy.

Of course, there are extraordinary circumstances and emergencies with cell phones- but they are few and far between. And if a server is blatantly ignoring me and I want to leave, by the way, I've found that standing up and putting on my coat has an amazing way of bringing him/her over with the check...

I work at Starbucks and nothing is more irritating than people who won't get off their cell phones to place their order. They don't realize tht while they are preoccupied and talking away there is a line of people to the door. RUDE RUDE RUDE!

And, regarding people who are rude to customer service people, because "that's their job and they have to just deal with"...I'm not buying it. A restaurant has every right to refuse service to someone who is rude, and I hope they do. I certainly wouldn't put up with it.

To me, it all comes down to manners. I don't want to deal with ringing cell phones and loud cell phone conversations while I'm enjoying a meal and conversation. If your phone is set on "vibrate"... AND you are dining alone, AND you are able to have your conversation quietly, at the same level that you'd speak to a dining companion...fine. If you want to allow your food to grow cold (because you certainly would not eat or drink while on the phone!!!) while you have a quiet conversation, fine. But if you are with others, it's rude to talk on the phone while at the table with them. It's rude to force me to listen to you shouting to be heard over cell phone static. It's rude to force me to listen to your ridiculous "personalized" cell phone ring.

When I was a kid and there was an emergency, the sitter could call the restaurant. If someone called during dinner, my mother would answer the phone and politely say "we're at dinner right now. May I have son/daughter/husband call you back please?"

If you're on call to a client, you excuse yourself and go somewhere else to speak to the client where he or she is not having to listen to the ambient restaurant noise, and your companions at dinner don't have to stop their conversation while you are on the phone (or shout over you).

It's a matter of courtesy, and being aware of others...not just the "others" around you, but also the "others" on the other end of the phone. If you call me, I will either put down my fork/turn off my TV/ pull over my shopping cart or my car/excuse myself from my dining companions/whatever and devote my attention to you...or I will ask you if I can call you back when it's a better time. (Suicidal friends would be an exception to the "may I call you back" rule...but I would hope such things are rare and truly exceptional).

To me, it all comes down to manners. I don't want to deal with ringing cell phones and loud cell phone conversations while I'm enjoying a meal and conversation. If your phone is set on "vibrate"... AND you are dining alone, AND you are able to have your conversation quietly, at the same level that you'd speak to a dining companion...fine.

Hey, guess what? I went out to eat tonight. A man at the table beside me was talking really, really loud. I mean so loud that tables on the other side of the restaurant were looking at him. I mean he was LOUD. It was so rude?

Did I mention he was talking to his dining companions and not on his cell phone?

I guess rudeness isn't the cell phone's fault.

There are lots of things you can do in a restaurant to be rude.

Exactly. But you don't see restaurants banning them.

Uh, ever heard of "No shirt, no shoes, no service?"

Ever heard of "no loud talking with your dining companions?" I didn't think so.

To the person who said

"The customer is always right"

You have never worked customer service before have you?

If you had, you would know that it should be

"The customer is sometimes right, more often an entitlement whore"

You have never worked customer service before have you?

No, and if you can't take it that the customer is always right, then you shouldn't be working there either.

I had breakfast this morning in a restaurant in a city bigger than Nashville. There were several people talking on their cell phones. No one was bothered by it. Not even the wait staff. The use of mobile phones as assistants to conducting day-to-day business is a simple fact of life now.

I guess Nashville will always be backwards.

It totally depends what kind of restaurant you're in-- If you're in a casual, business district restaurant with lots of solo diners stopping to eat on their way to work, it's probably not that big of a deal.

If you're in a restaurant with couples on dates and a quiet, cozy atmosphere, it's totally rude and unacceptable.

I read somewhere in many cases, when you see somone yammering away there is NO ONE at the other end. Much easier to do that than interact with the public. Now that is disturbing.