When a French bistro called Petits Plats de Mamama banned smartphones at table last year, its owners wondered how diners would respond.
Twelve months later, Sandra and Olivier Holtzmann, who run the restaurant in the Alsatian village of Rothau, have their answer. Not only are they still full, but they are serving more desserts than ever as customers linger over their meals to finish the conversations they never used to have.
“It’s worked out brilliantly,” Olivier Holtzmann said. “It intrigues people and it gets them talking and that is great because if only for that reason, they have a subject to discuss. Some people are in favour [of the ban], and others are against.”
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The Holtzmanns are by no means the only French restaurant owners to grow fed up with smartphone use by customers and waiters. Chefs often complain that they destroy the atmosphere in dining rooms, ending conversations and appreciation of their dishes.
But most have been at a loss to know how to respond. A debate got under way a few years ago on the possible installation of jammers in restaurants but it was short lived. Lawyers noted that they were illegal and that owners faced six months in prison if they did so.
CHR, a specialist restaurant website, said diners risked fleeing establishments that prevented them from using their smartphones
ALAMY
There has been regular talk of smartphone bans too but in practice only a handful of restaurants have dared to implement them for fear of losing custom. One, the restaurant at Royat Chamalières casino in central France, for instance, introduced the no-phone policy for a week this spring, but only as a recommendation and even then with an incentive. Diners got casino chips worth 30 per cent of the bill if they put their smartphones in a box whilst they ate.
In Italy, the Al Condominio restaurant in Verona is also bribing diners to go digital-free. They get a bottle of wine if return for putting their telephones to one side.
CHR, a specialist restaurant website, said diners risked fleeing establishments that prevented them from using their smartphones. Other experts say that restaurants would be well advised to encourage phone use, given that the habit of posting photos of dishes on Instagram is a bottomless source of free publicity for them.
Café de Flore in Paris is an iconic destination, yet some customers are keener on their smartphones
OLYMPIA DE MAISMONT/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Yet the consensus that it is impossible wean diners off their digital devices may shift in the wake of the success of the move in Rothau, where 95 per cent of Mamama’s customers approve of the ban, according to a survey undertaken by the Holtzmanns. They add that dessert orders have increased by about 30 per cent since the ban came into force.
They first took a stand against smartphones on Valentine’s Day six years ago. “We had seven couples that evening and 100 per cent of them were on the telephone,” Olivier Holtzmann told France 3, the state broadcaster. “At one point, I went into the middle of the dining room and I told them it was the last time I would open my restaurant for Valentine’s Day.”
He kept his word, but his wife said it was not only on Valentine’s Day that smartphones were causing trouble. “It was becoming disturbing. When you took orders, you’d have to go back two or three times because the person was on the phone or checking an email,” she said. “It was a problem.”
The bistro’s owners say they long battled to convince customers to abandon their telephones while sampling dishes such as jugged rabbit with turnips, onions, new potatoes, lardons and mushrooms, or farmhouse Munster cheese with cumin and salad.
“We tried kindness, blackmail and strictness,” said Holtzmann. “That didn’t work so we decided upon a ban.”
The restaurant has a sign outside telling customers that mobile phones should be left “in the pocket or on the bag but not on the table”. The restaurant owners remind diners of the rule when they call to book a table.
Holtzmann added: “People have started talking to each other again. One Sunday, a customer started playing the accordion. Another time, people at two different tables began a conversation and then they came back [to the restaurant] together.”
He said the ban was widely accepted, except by the over-65s. “At that age, they tell you that they are not going to be told what to do. So two left, very politely when they understood I would not give way and two others, well, I kicked them out.”