[UPDATE BELOW] Here's another one for Brooklyn imbibers unwilling to mix their drinks with diaper bags: Clinton Hill bar Hot Bird has banned babies from the premises, meaning the wail of an angry child will never again prematurely abort pre-coital small talk.
The bar, which abuts Atlantic Avenue, posted a sign stating that "Children are not allowed" after employees began noticing a deluge of pint-sized patrons. "There was a time when there were too many people bringing small children here,” one bartender told the Post. “It became an issue. So we put up the sign.”
The news was broadcast via a parenting message board, with one mother posting that she and her son were kicked off the property, with a bonus follow-up warning that "they weren't leaving fast enough."
The topic of keeping kids out of bars has been hotly contested in the past, though a growing number of drinking spots are getting aboard the Banned Baby Train. Hot Bird joins the Double Windsor, Union Hall, Greenwood Park and, inshallah, several others in prohibiting the prepubescent from perturbing the peace.
As one sagacious scribe wrote in a Facebook post: "People don't stumble into gymboree half in the bag and try to take it over."
Update 6:51 p.m.: Hot Bird owner Frank Moe has issued this statement about the no-kids rule:
The New York Post story about Hot Bird banning kids from the bar doesn’t reflect my decision as an owner. We were not swamped by families, and never said they created a ruckus. The quote from the bartender (“There was a time when there were too many people bringing small children here,” one bartender said. “It became an issue. So we put up the sign.”) also doesn’t reflect my decision, which by the way was taken and posted at the beginning of last summer, not last week as is been reported.
Ultimately, a lot of comments are from people who simply use harsh words to describe parents who bring their kids to a bar. At my age, most of my friends are actually parents. The problem I find is that there is only a little minority of parents who have a sense of entitlement, and it’s been easier for us to ask everyone not to bring their children to the bar, rather than to get into occasionally uncomfortable confrontations with certain parents.
When children are left unattended, which happens constantly because parents treat Hot Bird like a playground, kids run around, play with balls sometimes, go up to patrons who smile because it’s a child but are in fact annoyed. I don’t see why I should allow this when I don’t allow this behavior from my older patrons.
We are legally liable for people injuring themselves at the bar. Unattended children fall, climb on stools, etc. The first year we were open, a dog bit a little girl. The dog owner fled, and all of a sudden the bartend was responsible for the dog bite and the girl petting the dog on her own. Where were the parents?
Some parents have a sense of entitlement when they come to the bar, like asking us to turn down the music because their 5 month old baby was trying to sleep. Again, something we wouldn’t do for anyone else.
We are a fairly busy place and my staff is there to serve drinks, not to watch over children and deal with unreasonable demands from the parents. It’s sometimes difficult to turn away responsible parents that we wished were welcome as customers, but it’s easier just to ask everyone not to come in with their kids, and avoid the headache of selecting who is well behaved and who is not.
