If Only They Could Be This Creative For Smokers

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Sep 26, 2005 3:34PM

So Chicagoist was enjoying this peaceful Saturday afternoon reading the paper and eating Chinese food when this absolute scrub of a kid struts into the restaurant like he owns the joint yapping into his cell phone with a total disregard for the people around him. After a few too many "damn, bro's" we walked to him and politely mentioned that we weren't really interested in the killer game of pickup ball he played, the wack-ass dj at the club the night before, the dvd player he installed in his Honda Civic, or his baby mama drama. We got the stink-eye, sure, but he did take the conversation outside where he added "kicking (our) ass" to his list of talking points.

Cell phone etiquette is a touchy subject: service providers even use annoying cell phone calls in ads to sell their service plans. Few things are more annoying than having your space invaded by a an obnoxious cell-phone user, especially during quiet dinner. In 1999 twenty percent of restaurants with an average tab greater than $25 had policies regarding cell-phone use, according to the National Restaurant Association. That still doesn't stop folks from breaking those policies on a regular basis.

During the buildout of their new Halsted Street restaurant Landmark Boka co-owners Rob Katz and Kevin Boehm made a designated cell-phone nook for people who just can't pull the damned things away from their ears. They fell upon the idea by accident while opening Boka. A tiny nook in the foyer was originally earmarked as a liquor closet, but they wound up turning it into a cell phone nook instead. The Landmark cell phone nook is slightly larger, with room enough for three, or two people who just can't wait to get home.

SHHH! card courtesy of Coudal Partners and are available for download.