Facebook | Frankie & Benny's

Family Restaurant Tempting Fate By Trying 'No Phone Zones'

Updated September 6, 2021

A quiet dinner together as a family, where everyone can catch up with each other over a nice, warm meal, has slowly become a rarity. Lives are just busy — fitting the time in to prep a meal, let alone eat it, is sometimes just not possible. And then there are the distractions of TV and screens.

Families looking to rekindle the intimacy of an evening meal often have to resort to eating out, but the screens usually come along, too. They're everywhere!

But one chain in Britain is trying to reduce the distractions by asking folks to give up their phones when they're at the table.

Frankie & Benny's, a British chain of Italian-American restaurants, is giving "No Phone Zones" a try.

Facebook | Frankie & Benny's

They're asking diners to hand over their phones, which they will store in a box, while they eat so they can have uninterrupted, distraction-free family time.

It's worth emphasizing that they're _asking_, not demanding, as many media outlets have portrayed it.

It's not a phone ban. As their Twitter account pointed out, they can't force anybody to give up their device. But they can offer up rewards for doing so — for customers who surrender their phones, kids eat free.

Anticipating that families might have some trouble adjusting to a screen-free meal, servers will provide things like coloring books and games for families to do together.

Instagram | @frankienbennys

Which should help that awkward period after the menus have been taken away but before the food has arrived. And for the time being, the "No Phone Zones" are just a one-week trial to see how it goes.

Funny enough, this wasn't a directive aimed at getting kids to put their screens away, but their parents.

Instagram | @frankienbennys

The idea came from a British poll, which found that 56% of kids want to have more conversations with their parents, and 46% want their parents to put their phones down during meals. It also found that one in 10 kids had actually hidden their parent's phone to get attention.

And it seems like a good idea to encourage fewer screens at the table, because the same poll found 77% of British parents felt guilty about how much time they spend on their phones.

And a full two-thirds admitted that their phone had come between them and their families. So at least kids and parents alike can recognize there might be a problem here.

That said, reaction to Frankie and Benny's trial hasn't been a complete hit with parents so far.

As one Twitter user ranted, it's simply not easy to hand over an expensive phone to a stranger in a restaurant, and often times, parents are trying to squeeze a meal in while they're still technically working.

And, as should be obvious, telling parents they're doing parenting wrong doesn't always go over very well.

"People need to stop policing parents," the same Twitter user wrote. "And doing so as a marketing gimmick when you are a family restaurant is just the pits."

Still, other parents were enthusiastic about the idea of a phone-free meal with their kids.

"Great to learn Frankie & Benny's restaurants have banned mobile phones to give a better dining experience for all and, most importantly, focus on conversation for families when out together," wrote another Twitter user.

It's not like Frankie & Benny's has this all figured out either.

Instagram | @frankienbennys

They say that if their week-long trail goes well enough, the "No Phone Zones" could become permanent. But they're also a chain that offers free wifi and encourages customers to pay through their app, so it's not like they're completely anti-phone.

Either way, Frankie & Benny's no-phone promotion does bring up a good question about where we draw the line with phones in our lives.

We know it's rude to have our phones on and be scrolling through our feeds in a movie theater, and it's obviously the height of disrespect to text through class or church, but what about at the dinner table? Is it actually desirable, or even possible, to make phones at the table social taboo?

This is the future we live in!

h/t Daily Mail

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