Rostock - A restaurant on the German tourist island of
Ruegen in the Baltic Sea has raised eyebrows with an evening ban on
children.
"We have been gestating this idea for a very long time now," the
manager of Omas Kueche (Grandma's Kitchen) in the town of Binz on the
island, Rudolf Markl, said on Friday.
Guests under 14 years of age have been barred from Grandma's Kitchen
since this week, he said, basing the decision on bad behaviour and
lack of parental control.
It's about children who annoy customers at the neighbouring table,
who tug on tablecloths and knock over red wine glasses - plus parents
who don't step in, Markl said.
"They [the parents] acknowledge it with a smile, carry on eating, and
are no longer interested at all in what is going on," Markl said.
The child ban from 5pm is intended to give guests an "oasis of
peace," Markl said.
The president of the Hotel and Restaurant Association of the state of
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in which Ruegen is located, Lars Schwarz, was
not happy about the restaurant's move, but stressed the freedom of
any business to make such decisions.
"But [Mecklenburg-Vorpommern] we aim to be child-friendly,"
Schwarz said.