Restaurants and Kids

I really hate to complain about stuff. Seriously. I'd like to only say good things about people and places, even if I have to leave out the other 99.9% of the truth sometimes. So that's why I'm going to tell you about two restaurants tonight, instead of just the one bad one. It's not a bad restaurant actually. Just not good for kids. Fairly recently, Fresno got a Cheesecake Factory. I had heard good things before and since they opened, and since the family was shopping nearby this afternoon, so we decided to have a nice dinner there instead of fighting the mall food court crowd. The hostess seated us and handed us our menus. Four identical menus for my husband, two-year-old son, one-year-old daughter, and myself. I asked the hostess if they had a children's menu. No, she said, but assured us we would find many kid selections on the regular menu, especially in the appetizer section, since the portions are smaller. A quick glance at the appetizers revealed eggrolls, spicy quesadillas, and buffalo wings. Those all sounded great to me but there was no way my son would eat any of those. The server came to take our drink orders. We asked if they had any kind of juice for the boy, apple perhaps. We have apple cider, she said. My husband then commented, You guys just don't like kids around here, do you? It's not that we don't like kids, she started. She pointed us to the appetizer menu and concluded by saying that, no, they're not kid-friendly. She left and the woman at the table next to us leaned over and said they were having the same problem. I started looking around the restaurant. We were sitting near the entrance so I saw every party the came in and went out. It would be conservative to say half of them included children. And, in case you are not familiar with The Cheesecake Factory, this is not the sort of restaurant one would consider "fine dining". (Restaurants that have ads in their menus rarely are.) When we were done eating, the server came with the cheesecake menu, which, at this point we had no interest in. She feigned interest in my daughter and then asked if we wanted some cheesecake. Upon our declination of her offer, she tried to help justify our answer by saying that our daughter was being a little fussy. First of all, we can just not want cheesecake. Second, don't tell someone their baby is being fussy--especially when she is presently quiet and smiling. So in conclusion, don't bother trying to take your young children to The Cheesecake Factory. (The food was great, just go alone.) If you really want to take your kids to a popular chain restaurant (also fairly new to Fresno) take them to Claim Jumper. This place (like most normal family restaurants) has a great kids' menu, that is made of paper and comes with a few crayons and pack of oyster crackers. Not only that, but for babies, they have a FREE snack plate with two kinds of cheese, a generous slice of turkey, mandarin oranges, and applesauce. They even have a special plastic placemat they adhere to the table in front of the high chair. Last time we were there, our daughter was occasionally squealing happily despite our best efforts to quiet her. We were sitting near the kitchen and I saw one of the server (not ours) walking our way with a blueberry muffin. He smiled at our girl as he approached and sat the muffin on our table. After we mentioned that we had not ordered a blueberry muffin, no matter how large and delicious it looked, he explained that the manager sent it over because she thought our daughter was cute. I'll never know if "cute" meant "loud", but it doesn't matter. They were more than accomodating and we will go back.