Fettuccine with cheese sauce was too complicated, we found, but spaghetti with meat sauce worked. Just don't call it marinara. Listing ingredients on the menu helps parents order for kids with allergies. The staff at Phillips Crab House restaurants in Ocean City, Md., will do anything to grab kids' attention, according to Vice President Paul R. Wall. Off-duty employees for the three restaurants along the Maryland shore volunteer to be Captain Phil, the restaurant's handshaking costumed mascot.
Every kid gets a balloon and a menu they can wear as a hat, an ideal take-away souvenir.
They're so successful that grandparents request the cardboard menus to wear as sun visors. To enhance and reinforce a kid-friendly reputation, Peter Piper's Selby advises operators to involve the restaurant in the community. Encourage student and team functions, PTA meetings, award nights and Little League team meetings. And have fun. John Barnet, corporate chef for Unique Restaurant Corp. in Bingham Farms, Mich., says that at several of the company's seafood concepts, kids are invited to hold a live lobster from the lobster tank in the dining room.