This past weekend, my wife and I (sans kids) celebrated our 11th anniversary at a nice restaurant (Navio at the Ritz Half Moon Bay). Three tables away, there was a family with a baby (my guess is about 2 mos.). The baby cried. Cried some more. Kept crying. Over a span of about two hours, the baby cried about a hour. Nonetheless, the baby never left the table.

There were some very unhappy people nearby. The couple one table away from the baby moved to another table. The pair of ladies next to us stayed, but were quite unhappy. My wife and I had enough sparkling wine to just laugh and shake our heads.

I'd be curious to know what people think Navio should have done here. It strikes me that after a couple of minutes of crying, they should have asked the family to take the baby out of the restaurant until the crying stops. Even though I think they should have done this, I felt sorry for the staff -- they were put in a tough spot.