Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Ooh, this is a hot topic especially in my town of Chapel Hill - a total college town with a lot of professionals as well. There are tons of great little sandwich shops and cafes, some of which get really heavy traffic for breakfast and lunch. They offer free wireless for most of the day, but turn it off during those prime busy hours. I think this is probably the best solution! Those shops are doing great business with their food customers at popular meal times, but also thrive off of students hunkering down and studying for hours at night.

The book vs. laptop argument is getting more hairy, I think, especially with all the wireless reading devices (and I work as a book publicist, so if there's anyone who wants people reading, it's me!). But, what if you're someone (no names...me....) who reads all of their newspaper subscriptions online? How is that much different than bringing a newspaper or a book in to read while you eat? Granted, I don't tote my laptop around in my purse...but if it were small enough and convenient, I probably would. And what about Kindles? IPhones? I guess the real problem is if you stay lingering at the table, obviously, and that could happen with either a book or a laptop, to be fair.

One of the saddest examples I have of this in Chapel Hill - Strong's Coffee. It was this delightful coffee shop that was frequented by students of all kinds. The shop was wonderful, but the problem is that students would set up their study stations at 8:00 am, buy a cup of coffee, get 25-cent refills, and stay there. All. Day. So the store couldn't make enough money to stay open!

All that considered, it should definitely be within the shop owner's rights to determine whatever book/laptop/study policy s/he desires - but it's a fine line between allowing your business to prosper and turning away customers who are turned off by your policies!

cw
www.dumpstersbuffet.com

Restaurants should be allowed to ban whatever they wish, just as they're allowed to enforce dress codes.

That said, I wouldn't eat alone at a restaurant that banned books. If I don't have a dining partner, I often feel awkward--even vulnerable--without a paperback to read.

Now that more libraries are providing WiFi and permitting beverages in sealed containers, I'm less grumpy about cafes banning laptops. I understand the argument that people should study or do their work at home, but I have to disagree that this is a solution for everyone. For those of us who are easily distracted, removing ourselves from the distracting environment is a necessary behavioral hack.

Banning laptops shouldn't be necessary. Those of us who work in coffee shops to have a normal level of focus should be considerate of the owners and the other patrons. It's not very polite to spend $1.59 to stake out a table, especially a large one, during busy hours.

In an ideal world, people would move on without being asked. They'd also buy a new drink every hour or so to justify their presence (yes, yes, extra calories--how about that $3 bottled water?). Maybe then, cafe and restaurant owners wouldn't feel the need to ban laptops.

If the waitstaff wants to turn over the table and you are (overly)lingering, they should tell you they need the table. But in a perfect world you should have the common courtesy to realize that you should move along when you're done eating or having a coffee. If you need an "office" outside your home or place of work, there's always the library if the cafe wants you to turn over your table. If there are customer behaviors the establishment would like to curtail, they have a right to post/enforce those rules. I don't have to eat there if I don't like those rules.

When I was a waitress many years ago, our bartender noticed that whenever he turned off the music, after a short period of silence, anyone who'd been lingering would leave! That became our regular way to turn over the tables.

I guess it wouldn't work well nowadays, with people bringing their own entertainment everywhere they go.

I miss the old days!

I walked into my neighborhood Starbucks recently and it was packed. Three groups of business types conferring over laptops and blackberries. 4 singles at the little tables by the window doing god knows what on their computers, a huge group of knitters knitting for a cause, and not a single chair for paying patrons. No one I saw had anything left in their single purchase of coffee drink. It's their business, but if it were mine, this would not happen.

I don't think this is a new problem. It's simply an issue of loitering. It doesn't really matter what you're doing: reading, surfing, filling out tax forms, painting reproductions of baroque masters... if you're doing it in someone's private establishment, you better have paid for something, and you better exit the building once you're finished that something, in a timely manner.

Every place allows for some time for patrons to finish their cup or plate, and sit around for a chat or whatever... but some laptop users seem to think a 2 dollar coffee purchase entitles them to occupy a table for hours. I don't think this is reasonable, especially if the place is busy. It's just common decency - you would be annoyed if your own friends stuck around hours after they were welcome, so why is it ok if you do it at a stranger's place of business?

I think this may be cultural. Many Americans, including myself, have not seen that picture because the press as a whole have refrained from printing graphic photos as far back as I can remember. If you didn't see this on the day it occurred, it is unlikely you saw it printed later in the mainstream press. The press in other countries I have visited (including England) do not have such sensitivity towards victims and their families. Therefore, more people outside of the US have seen this picture and consider it "iconic," than those living here. It is shocking to see it for the first time in this context.

Vicious comments really. Completely over the top.
I suppose you felt that way about the writer Tom Junod writing about this image.
This image is iconic. Horrible. Of course I am aware of this man's terrible choice.
What about famous photographs of other wars?
And actually many Americans have celebrated British civilian deaths as a result of terrorism, when they contributed to Noraid.
In fact the only good thing to come out of 9/11 is that now Americans are aware of what it feels like to have civilians targetted in a guerrilla war.
Perhaps the only other good thing to come out of it is that people everywhere are a lot less trusting in the establishment.

@msmarmitelover
You thought it would be more disrespectful to ignore 9/11 than to exploit the most horrific terrorist attack on U.S soil for your own perverse benefit? I read your post and I'm still gobsmacked that you claim, in the same breath, to be honoring the memory of those who were murdered while making snarky references to crack-pot conspiracy theorists.
And could you possibly be any more condescending with "Americans might do well to remember that we have suffered an enormous amount of terrorism in Britain." WE ARE AWARE. Will you feel better about our criticism if a restaurant in NYC has a "London Bombing Buffet" with fish & chip subs? Pretty repugnant right? But it's okay, I'm being ironic and referential and the British might do well to remember that Americans have suffered too, so we shouldn't be held accountable for being repulsive for profit and attention.
9/11 is still very present to many Americans. I don't mean to be so heated, especially on such a website, but this really takes the cake. One of my close friends lost his father when the South Tower collapsed. And every on 9/11 we all try to hang out with him and make the day as easy for him as possible. So your sickeningly inappropriate meal strikes a pretty damn big chord with me. And probably for any American who watched the live feed of people throwing themselves to their deaths. You must be out of your mind.

Personally it made me just want to weep. What if that poor man was your friend, husband, or father? How would that make you feel? Certainly not like eating a bagel.

An Aga is a cast iron oven that is on all the time.
The picture, yes I see what you mean, but apparently the guy was actually jumping from the restaurant Windows on the World so is sickeningly appropriate.
Never forget.

It would have been good if some of your readers had actually read my post on this subject. If you have read it and still take offence then I apologize.
No disrespect is intended.
My cousin was heavily involved with the rescue effort on 9/11.
I happened to be opening up again on this date, and I feel it would have been more disrespectful to ignore the significance of the date.
My menu is guided by the fact that I am cooking for a large amount of people on an Aga, which favours slow cooking methods.
I discussed the menu with a New Yorker. She suggested the dishes.
I'm also a non meat eater which was a factor.
Americans might do well to remember that we have suffered an enormous amount of terrorism in Britain.
I do know an awful lot of people who are cynical about the official story of 9/11 and I also wanted to acknowledge that.

thank god, more pampered, "anarcho," hipsters being crass about tragic deaths and calling people fascists when they speak out against it. It must be very nice to sit on your throne of smugness and look down on everyone because they find your exploitation of the deaths of other people's family members as the basis for an exceptionally uninspired menu to be offensive.

As someone who sits as far to the opposite end of the playing field as bush and cheney, loathes the kind of cut throat capitalism that occurred at the WTC, and has an appreciation for offensive humor, even I find this in poor taste.

And incidentally, douche bag is, in fact, two words. Although I'm sure in your world urban dictionary is an extremely reliable and creditable source for being rude on the internet.

Insofar as the food goes I don't really see the point of the menu either, the only thing that is, "typically New York," about that menu is the lox and cream cheese, the rest could be found commonly anywhere in the states.