Nicole Coffin
5/1/2009
Dining out with a family of young children requires strategy to curtail cost and avoid chaos. Consider the following six tactics. As a mother of two (with a third on the way), I draw on restaurant examples not far from my own Oak Grove vicinity, so use these spots as jumping-off ideas for destinations in your own community.
» For persnickety eaters, head to the local pasta joint. With more than a dozen pasta shapes and as many sauces, Figo—with four outposts around the metro area—is flexible and safe. If someone doesn’t want pasta, try a chicken panini. Motivate your offspring by dangling crespelle for dessert: These microcrepes are folded around Nutella or vanilla bean cream. Multiple locations, figopasta.com.
» Thai restaurants, such as Top Spice in Toco Hills, are deceptively kid friendly. When the signature Thai Salad arrives, point out its peanut dressing and distribute some sliced cucumber, boiled egg, or tomato for dipping. Thai chicken fried rice delivers kids softer flavors than the familiar, soy-soaked Chinese version. Look for pad prik pork, which offers gentle sweetness and only a hint of garlic. 3007 North Druid Hills Road, 404-728-0588, topspiceatlanta.com.
» Novelty (and pot stickers) goes a long way: Think weekend dim sum. Oriental Pearl offers the pageantry of clanging carts and choose-your-own eating. My four-year-old enjoyed unwrapping a lotus leaf packet to find white sticky rice studded with sweet sausage circles and niblets of pork. Encourage experimentation, even if all they eat is the jiggly mango pudding. 5399 New Peachtree Road, Chamblee, 770-986-9866.
» Don’t forget that eating out can also be your night off. Find a place that welcomes children but also offers enticements for adults—such as the wordly beer selection at Decatur’s Brick Store Pub. The whole family can appreciate the jumbo Bavarian pretzels, which double as vessels for the house-made mustard. The kids can eat fish and chips. An additional half order of fish extends this basket beyond one child, so you can spend the saved loot on a second Weihenstephaner. 125 East Court Square, Decatur, 404-687-0990, brickstore-pub.com.
» Ask around and see where other parents are flocking. In our neighborhood, it’s Shorty’s, a wood-fire pizza joint. Shorty’s antipasto includes thick hummus that gives my kids something to scoop and munch. The restaurant offers thin pizzas perfectly proportioned with cheese and a fresh tomato sauce. 2884-B North Druid Hills Road, 404-315-6262, shortys-pizza.com.
» Don’t assume that because half-pints are welcome, chicken fingers are the only options on kids menus. Decatur’s El Tesoro created an area where children can run around like chickens in the yard—literally. Introduce kids to empanadas, the original Hot Pockets. And everyone falls for the chubby, cinnamon-sugar-caked churros. When leaving El Tesoro, my two-year-old declared, “Mommy, that restaurant was fantastically!” 129 Church Street, Decatur, 404-377-9797, eltesorodecatur.com.
Originally published in the May 2009 issue
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