Restaurant cuts parents off after one alcoholic drink
An upstate eatery is not budging from its longtime rule about booze: If you’re driving your kids later, you can only have one alcoholic drink.
Melissa Gravelle, general manager of Peddlers Bar & Bistro in Clifton Park, about 12 miles north of Albany, told ABC News 10 that as her restaurant prepares for a busy summer season, she’s holding the policy very close to her heart.
“We love children,” she told the station. “Everybody loves children and children don’t have a voice.”
The policy has been in effect since 2010, and Gravelle said it’s not expected to change anytime soon.
“I could never live with myself knowing that I killed somebody driving,” Gravelle added. “I could never do that…and it’s a choice that you can avoid.”
Though the policy is usually easy to enforce, those who refuse to abide by it are asked to leave, she told the station.
“[Wait staff] do get berated at the tables and some come back very upset,” Gravelle said. “But the managers go to the table and they explain, ‘We’re not picking on parents, it’s just something that we feel in our hearts is something that we can do in order to help.'”
Diner Barb Buckley told the station that she completely approves of the rule.
“I’m a former educator and I think it’s a great policy,” she said. “When you think about the responsibility that a parent has to protect their children, I think it’s a great policy. I’m behind them 100 percent.”
Customer Greg Culver agreed.
“Why take the chance?” he told ABC. “Definitely doesn’t make any sense. That way you keep those people off the road.”