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Restaurant limits parents to one drink

By Maura Judkis, The Washington Post
Published: July 30, 2017, 6:06am

When Mommy and Daddy need a little stress relief after a long day of work and parenting, they might sit junior in his highchair with a sippy cup full of grape juice — and then pour themselves a different type of grape juice. But if it’s been a particularly hard day, and they need a second glass of grown-up juice, they won’t be able to get it at one New York restaurant.

Peddler’s Bar and Bistro in Clifton Park, N.Y., prohibits parents from ordering more than one alcoholic beverage if they are dining with children. The policy was enacted so that parents wouldn’t drink and drive with children in the back seat. Only the parent who is driving is subject to the rule, which is explained whenever guests are seated — and anyone who disagrees is asked to leave.

Servers “do get berated at the tables and some come back very upset, 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,” the restaurant’s general manager, Melissa Gravelle, said in an interview with local ABC.

“I could never live with myself knowing that I killed somebody driving… It’s a choice that you can avoid,” Gravelle said.

In certain states, restaurants can be found liable in drunken-driving accidents if they over-serve patrons who are visibly intoxicated.

The policy was also discussed on “The View.” “You needed the drinks to conceive the kid, not to raise the kid,” host Joy Behar joked. Most of the women on the show supported the policy, but Jedediah Bila, the conservative host, said that the policy was a “slippery slope” that made her uncomfortable, even though she didn’t drink.

“One drink? I mean, really?” she said. “I know a lot of people that can drink one drink, eat a full meal, and have a child there and be perfectly able to drive home.”

“You may know those people that can do that, but the bartender doesn’t know that,” Whoopi Goldberg said.

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