Posted on 04/19/2026 2:44:43 AM PDT by Libloather
Diners at a growing number of restaurants and bars are being asked to stash away their phones — or even lock them up — as part of a push for more memorable nights out.
The trend is gaining traction across the U.S., with more spots experimenting with restrictions, incentives or locked pouches, Fox News Digital recently reported.
Charlotte cocktail bar Antagonist places guests' phones in locked pouches for about two hours, while Delilah, an upscale supper club with locations across the country, has a no-phones, no-posting policy, according to Axios.
Even Chick-fil-A has tested the tactic with a Maryland location offering free ice cream to families who keep phones off the table.
The trend is especially common at high-end, curated spots like listening bars, supper clubs, cocktail lounges and restaurants offering tasting menus, said Ben Tannenbaum, New York-based vice president of partnerships at nightlife company LineLeap.
"The driver isn't really an anti-phone sentiment," he told Fox News Digital. "It's that guests are going out less often than they used to and spending more per visit when they do, so operators are trying to make sure the visit delivers."
The trend has been building for years, experts say, and it's picked up steam as more people recognize the downsides of constant screen time.
"The phone-free dining trend began prior to COVID, but it's increased in momentum in recent years, especially as people have come to understand the negative impacts of overuse of personal devices," Amanda Belarmino, a hospitality professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, told Fox News Digital.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
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Also, ban those obnoxious book and magazine readers.
LOL, no you suck.
Asinine response. Just repaint your interior with radio blocking paint. Readily available. Then, post a sign: “no phone, no WiFi. If your feeling important is more important than sitting with your family, go eat elsewhere.”
It’s well past time to legalize phone signal jammers. Think how nice it would be if schools, churches, restaurants and businesses could scramble phone signals within their boundaries.
Bring back pagers.
They don’t need to jam them which will interfere with other radio services like police and fire. They would just make the restaurant a faraday cage and no signals would get out. I went to an hospital ER that had a faraday cage so you couldn’t use radio electronics. I had to go outside to get a signal. It stops patients from looking up on the web or calling k00ky med quacks for advice.
"We're jammin' in the name of the Lord!"
I agree with that. I meant at our table and should’ve said so. What other people do that doesn’t harm me or others matters nothing to me. Not my business.
I agree with that. I meant at our table and should’ve said so. What other people do that doesn’t harm me or others matters nothing to me. Not my business.
ROFL!!!
If it is really "dreck" and is "overpriced" to boot ... only an idiot would go there in the first place.
Are you an idiot?
Yup, you are right, right along with the cigarette smokers that whined when smoking became unwanted in restaurants. It’s an addiction, no two ways about it.
If it's truly "slop", only an idiot would go there in the first place.
Are you an idiot.
BTW, most "food critics" are pretentious jerks with delusions of competence.
I'd much rather the patrons all have pistols ... and know how to use them ... than to be so engrossed in their mobile brain-rot devices that they don't even notice the tranny gun-thing until they get hit.
The banning of Jarts was a warning sign ... but very few people paid any attention.
...but what if some tranny gunman breaks in and opens fire on the joint.
“What’s Fonzie like, Yolanda?”
That table exists for the proprietor to make money.
You sitting there, drinking, reading, and TIPPING GENEROUSLY, makes money.
Well, no.
But imho most restaurant offerings are mediocre at best. Sometimes you don’t know until you taste it.
Hence, I don’t go out much...would rather cook my own meals.
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