L.A. restaurant: Ditch your phone, get a discount
The FCC announced new rules for telemarketers on Feb. 15, 2012. / Getty Images
(CBS/AP) BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - A Los Angeles restaurant is offering a deal to customers who agree to look at their fellow diners instead of their phone screens.
Eva Restaurant is giving a 5 percent discount to customers who will leave their cellphones with staff when they are seated.
Owner Mark Gold told KPCC radio on Tuesday that the policy isn't about other diners who might be annoyed by cellphone chatter or the glow of smartphone screens, but an attempt to create an environment where diners connect to each other instead of to technology.
"I'm guilty of it as well," Gold told the station. "When [my wife and I] go to dinner it seems like the cell phone is part of the table setting now. Every table you look at, it's a wine glass, the silverware and the cell phone."
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Servers make the offer to diners when they introduce themselves.
Gold says nearly half take advantage of the discount, and many express gratitude at the opportunity to let go of their devices for a while.
Eva Restaurant describes itself as modern American cuisine with French flair and a touch of Japanese flavor.
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it's pretty pathetic when people place a higher priority on 'those that are calling' over those who are right in front of them.
it's actually totally insulting for one to consider 'the call' more important than the fact that the person their standing or sitting with ... actually stopped whatever they were doing to be there talking to them.
the 'opportunity' to let your device go in certain instances should not have to be 'presented' ... or rewarded with a discount ... it's right there for everyone to exercise as part of a reasonable level of common sense etiquette that's rooted in something other than what's good for 'you'.
Its well worth it, and if you can't talk to the person sitting right in front of you, you need to reconsider your decision making :)