more than likely there was no immediate danger to your kid; i think the guy behind the counter was just tirading against something, but no need for him to make such sweeping statements like that

I will jump with two feet into the fray... -

Regarding Mike G's link in the upthread. Which BTW I read twice in it's entirety for those keeping score at home . And taking the facts as presented therein. I don't think the owner did anything that egregious.

Whether it's a child jumping/standing on a booth/seat, someone drunk off their ass falling down, a patron making loud noises, someone smoking where they shouldn't, etc. - I generally admire an owner taking some degree of assertive action to preserve some modicum(sp?) of decorum in their establishment. And, quite frankly, embarassment has a funny way of highlighting and correcting irritating transgressions, whether involving a child or not, that merely pointing out said transgressions fails to achieve.

I also know that there are a number of parents out there (not making any statement on our Mike G. BTW) who fail to properly supervise their children on a regular basis, thereby negatively affecting other patrons' enjoyment of their dining experience - much like any of the other examples of rude behavior noted above. If a parent cannot have a certain level of comfort that their child will behave for 2 minutes whilst the parent places an order or takes care of some other business than perhaps it's better to stick to drive-thrus or plalces catering specifically to children like Chuck e' Cheese, etc. where a bit of child horse-play is expected and welcomed. Just a thought.

Bster

Do we know for sure that Mike's child was, in fact, drunk?

There's another place I used to go, near a certain large teenaged educational institution. Not surprisingly, at lunchtime it's full of said teenagers, and on more than one occasion the owner would order them aside and let me and my kids order first. He would also monitor the kids pretty closely, and bark at them over various infractions.

Now, even though I was the beneficiary of this, and some of it had to be done, the point eventually came where I just couldn't stand to go there any more, and don't. He crossed the line into abuse of the kids, who were forced to go there in large numbers simply because there aren't that many choices. And even if they needed some corraling now and then, it was just too unpleasant to hear him reaming them out day after day for the high crime of being 16.

I think there is a certain minimum of decency I expect from any shopkeeper, and whoever you choose to insult, and no matter if there are some crabs who will cheer you on among your steady patrons, the fact that you do it at all means I don't want to give you my money.

In Hot Dog Island's case, there were other ways in which it was a family-unfriendly institution and helped create the situation in which I had to separate my children in order to order at all. But if that makes it more appealing to you, then by all means go there, comfortable in the knowledge that I and my kids will not be there-- as we have never been since.

I'm more concerned about the swerving across four lanes of traffic on Golf Road with two kids in the car. Just kidding. Speaking of weiners, had a wonderful char Polish at Murphy's on Belmont near Racine on Saturday. Turano roll, walk in the garden, yum. That owner is a character too.

or plalces catering specifically to children like Chuck e' Cheese

As opposed to a place called HOT DOG ISLAND?

Here's the offensive thing though, the owner of this joint didn't simply address the parent of the child in question who was standing right in front of him, and instead took the opportunity to single him out and shame him in front of a bunch of strangers.

It seems to me that it may really be a matter if intolerance regarding children in public places, period. It's a hotdog stand in question here, not a fine dining restaurant for crying out loud.

After reading MikeG's post about this place, I am certain that I will never darken the door of Hot Dog Island, with kids or without.

Quote:
or plalces catering specifically to children like Chuck e' Cheese


As opposed to a place called HOT DOG ISLAND?

Well, no. I don't believe a parent should bring their children to any place, including a place called HOT DOG ISLAND, if their children can't behave for the most minimal amount of time. Just as I don't think someone sh*tfaced drunk, an unwelcome smoking patron, or one beratingly loud customer should go there either.

"a family-unfriendly institution"
puh-leeze

Just because every table wasn't
fully equipped with a high chair,
Old "Nick" now "hates families",
(and puppies and grandmas, too,
right)?

If only this WORLD would revolve
around ME! MEEEE!

that's not the point. the point is the guy pretty much called mike a bad parent to his face. if he wants to help out, help out; don't go and call the guy a bad parent because he was ordering something at your restaurant and had his back turned to his kid for a few seconds... come on now.

SCUBAchef wrote:"a family-unfriendly institution"
puh-leeze

Just because every table wasn't
fully equipped with a high chair,
Old "Nick" now "hates families",
(and puppies and grandmas, too,
right)?

If only this WORLD would revolve
around ME! MEEEE!

Where did the "hates families" quote come from? I didn't see anyone in this thead use that phrase.

On the other hand......I was in Potbellys yesterday and a boy around 3 was running around the store, climbing on the chair and standing/dancing on the table while mom was paying. She was watching him but never said a word or told him to get down. When she got to the table, she wouldnt let him onto the table (he might step on her sandwich), but she let him stand/jump on the chair and run around, bumping into people. I saw the manager watching, but he never said a word, though some of the customers were commenting loud enough for the mom to hear. While the owner at HDI was pretty clearly a dick in Mike's case, someone has to draw the line when parents, including myself, dont.

-Will

The situation by the guy behind the cash register was handled very poorly.

He should have stopped with asking the boy to sit down so he didnt hurt himself. That was appropriate, correct, and well intentioned.

His rude, sweeping comment about parents was uncalled for. If it was me & he talked like that to me, I would have walked out, and hit any of the other 100+ or so hot dog stands in the city and suburbs.

It would be his loss, not mine.

With the above said, I am the type of parent who goes out to eat at off hours just because we have an 11 month old baby, simply not to "offend" the kid/baby haters out there. Having an early dinner or late lunch exposes you to fellow diners who seem more forgiving of god forbid a baby crying, or trying to talk. I also am the type of parent where if our baby does start to cry, I excuse myself from the table, and take her away from the dining area until things calm down.

You wanna talk dysfunctional order-takers, to the point of bad theatre?

During high school (early 1970's), we had a makeshift 16" softball team that, since we were too young to play in any of the leagues, would challenge other neighborhoods, more for bragging rights than anything else.

And after the games, we'd ritually visit Sherm's Hot Dogs, which was on Bryn Mawr, either at California or Kimball, can't remember which. No longer there.

Sherm & his mom ran the place. When he wasn't screaming at us for some tomfoolery or hijinks, he & his mom were screaming at each other, mostly about family issues. It was better than a TV show. But boy, could he do a mean Vienna dog. It rivaled Fluky's or Wolfy's in their heyday.

Rumor has it that he was also a bookie, got caught & went off to 'university' for awhile.

Awful lot of conclusions being jumped to, here.

Nobody knows if Mike's kid was making a huge ruckus or, say, something caught his eye and for a moment he stood on a seat to get a better look.

Of course any parent should keep the former in check, and those who don't are being irresponsible and rude. But as for the latter, I don't care how much of a superparent you are, your kid will occasionally spontaneously do something on this level of misbehavior no matter how carefully you watch and instruct him. Nobody involved in this conversation other than Mike was there, and it seems to me that without knowing the context of the situation, nobody should be throwing stones.

Besides which, the point, and one that I think remains valid unless Mike's kids were unholy terrors who were pillaging the place (which I doubt), is that it's one thing for the proprietor of a store to ask a kid to please not stand on the seat if his parent happens to be turned around ordering at that moment. It's another thing entirely for said proprietor, based on this momentary glimpse of kid and parent, to then feel its his place to snidely mask a direct insult as a conversationally stated generality. Even if he's right (which I doubt, but I wasn't there), that still makes him an ass.

Did he have one of these up too?

Heh.

SCUBAchef wrote:Did he have one of these up too?

Heh.

Talk about pouring gasoline on a fire.

Please, lets take it down a notch or two.

Want to hear my kid pet peeve, it's not the occasional restaurant patron child that occasionally acts like a child, because he/she is a child, they are customers and most likely will not be there next time you are in the restaurant. What irks me is restaurants, and I am thinking of a few specific examples, where young kids have the run of the restaurant.

Now I am not talking about quietly doing homework, watching tv and generally hanging out with mom and dad while they work, but in the most egregious incident to date, a 5-year-old on a little tricycle riding through the tables and screaming gleefully in a nails on chalkboard high pitched wail that would put a city fire truck to shame.

Ok, there's my kid pet peeve, have at me.

Enjoy,
Gary

Well, I really didn't intend to give such new life to this 4-year-old incident, and resisted even Stevez hinting at it early in the thread, but if some good can come from it, it will be to any other restaurant owners who realize that in the Internet age, your lousy customer service can live forever-- and such immortality can be avoided if, when you see a parent struggling with two kids, two interlocked high chairs and your glass door which you've stupidly placed them behind, you GET OFF YOUR BUTT AND HELP YOUR CUSTOMER. The entire incident, not to mention the attitudes on display here, would have been avoided if the kid who was "misbehaving" had been strapped in the high chair "provided," but to all intents and purposes unattainable, by the restaurant. (Again, the point is not the specific details-- but the overall principle.)

Likewise, you just don't trash talk a customer. Ever. Period. In front of him or in front of your regulars. If you're that casual in front of your regulars, you've forgotten that you're running a business and deserve whatever the free market deals you.

Such as losing your location to a Walgreen's.

* * *

To end on a more pleasant note, here's a different tale of dining with my kids at around the same time. This is why I don't only take them to Chuck E. Cheese.

Mike G wrote:you've forgotten that you're running a business and deserve whatever the free market deals you.

Such as losing your location to a Walgreen's.

It is just completely cold-hearted
to take glee in the misery of
someone else like this.
(ducks)
heh

Funny "Authentic Immigrant
Restaurant Experience"
Checklist

we've got more walgreens than mcdonald's in that area

kuhdo wrote:Based on Mike G's post it seems likely that something may indeed be amiss at HDI. While it's true that you can tell alot about a person by the way they treat those they are not obliged to respect, it's also true that much is revealed about the character of a business owner by the way he treats his customers. It may well be the case that the bird giver who so offended the OP may just have been reflecting a culture of disrespect fostered by the actions of the owner.

Leave it to me to throw a monkey wrench into the proceedings---- I believe that HDI changed ownership last year and therefore, "the disrespect fostered by the actions of the owner" cannot be attributed to ONE person.

cito wrote:Leave it to me to throw a monkey wrench into the proceedings---- I believe that HDI changed ownership last year and therefore, "the disrespect fostered by the actions of the owner" cannot be attributed to ONE person.

And, in fairness, Mike G.'s diss occurred under the old ownership.

This is clearly a troll post and I'm surprised one of the trigger-happy moderators hasn't deleted it.

riddlemay wrote:Maybe you will take comfort from the fact that this reader would never have opened a thread simply titled "Hot Dog Island in Skokie," because I don't live in Skokie and am not that into hot dog stands, but was compelled to open "STAY AWAY from Hot Dog Island in Skokie" because I just had to find out what was so awful about it, upon which I learned that Hot Dog Island is a great place which I now have on my radar as a place to visit whenever I'm on that stretch of Dempster. If I'm typical, the existing thread title is the best thing that has happened to Hot Dog Island since the invention of mustard.

I'm not positive that your response is typical, but yes, I can take comfort from it.

eatchicago wrote:If the subject of this thread isn't changing, then you can bet that the barrier to entry on a subject change is pretty high.

Excellent point.

Bill wrote:This is clearly a troll post and I'm surprised one of the trigger-happy moderators hasn't deleted it.

Maybe your confusing LTH Forum with Chowhound.

nr706 wrote:

riddlemay wrote:Maybe you will take comfort from the fact that this reader would never have opened a thread simply titled "Hot Dog Island in Skokie," because I don't live in Skokie and am not that into hot dog stands, but was compelled to open "STAY AWAY from Hot Dog Island in Skokie" because I just had to find out what was so awful about it, upon which I learned that Hot Dog Island is a great place which I now have on my radar as a place to visit whenever I'm on that stretch of Dempster. If I'm typical, the existing thread title is the best thing that has happened to Hot Dog Island since the invention of mustard.

I'm not positive that your response is typical, but yes, I can take comfort from it.

Just for the record, I'm a little more ambivalent about HDI now. I wrote the above before Mike posted the link to his Chowhound post, a post which influences me to give HDI a wide berth. But then, there are posts saying that there's a whole new owner now, and/or that the Dempster location is friendlier than the Golf-Mil location, so I don't know how much to hold Mike's experience against the existing HDI. On the third hand, still other reports indicate there may be a "corporate culture," a legacy of unfriendliness at HDI that transcends specific owners or locations. So I'm left thinking that HDI might be fine, but that there are plenty of other places I haven't tried that I could go first.

I pass by the original location (Central-Crawford-Gross Point in Evanston) that gave HDI its name every week and I admire the pluckiness of a business that can make a go of it stranded in the middle of a three-way intersection like that. It feels as perilous to me as if I were standing stock still in the center of Milwaukee-Ashland-Division when the light is about to change. There's a somewhat favorable post about the current occupant ("The Little Island") here.

I'm sad to report that Hot Dog Island has gone out of business. A closed sign on the door thanks everybody for their business.

Hope it wasn't because of Hot Diggety's crusade lol.

PortPkPaul wrote:Hope it wasn't because of Hot Diggety's crusade lol.

Or MikeG's handiwork.

Big D wrote:I'm sad to report that Hot Dog Island has gone out of business. A closed sign on the door thanks everybody for their business.

Yet again, the profound force of LTH thread titles rears its head.