Exploring Pizza Oven Options

Creating a kid's menu is an important first step towards making your restaurant more family-friendly like National Coney Island. However, it is only the first step. If you want your restaurant to be a place where families with kids feel welcome and at ease, you will also want to take the following steps.

Create a kid-friendly playlist.

Background music is a great idea in a family restaurant. It helps drown out some of the noise and can also set a calm mood. However, you'll want to pay close attention to the songs you include on the playlist. You don't want to play anything that a parent might find inappropriate. If you use a music subscription service, they should have some family-friendly, child-appropriate playlists that are still hip and modern. Play one of these.

Purchase kid-size dishes.

Kids will have an easier time eating off of small plates and out of smaller bowls. You'll also want to invest in some child-size silverware, along with cups with lids. If you're worried about kids breaking plates, which does happen accidentally from time to time, then you may want to serve your kids' meals on plastic or disposable dinnerware. Just keep some standard kids' dinnerware on hand, too, in case a parent requests it.

Put placemats and crayons on the tables.

Parents will really appreciate having something to entertain their kids while they are dining out. Paper placemats with crayons are the perfect thing! You can purchase some placemats that have pictures for the kids to color, or just use plain, white paper so they can let their creativity run wild. It's usually easier to just give a small packet of crayons to each child rather than trying to sanitize shared crayons between customers. Luckily, you can buy bulk quantities of 4-packs of crayons rather inexpensively.

Talk to your servers about protocols with kids.

Set some standards for servers when they are taking orders from and serving kids. Do you want them to ask the kids for their orders, or rely on the parents? Would you rather they provide kids' menus by default or wait until parents ask for them? If you set some protocols regarding kids' service, you'll make sure your servers work consistently, which parents will appreciate.

If your restaurant has a welcoming, family-friendly vibe, parents will bring kids back again and again. Implement some or all of the tips above, and you should be on the right track.