Step away from the Facebook feed, let the zombies actually eat the plants on their own and check out of Instagram, because one Iowa restaurant is joining the "no-phone" craze.
The Des Moines Register (h/t Eater) reports Sneaky's Chicken is offering its customers a 10 percent discount if they give up their phones for the duration of the meal. We will leave you to gasp wildly and faint from the mere thought now.
The report states Dave Ferris and daughter Christy Wright, who both serve as owner and general manager respectively, came up with the idea when they, "noticed a decline in conversation among customers who seemed preoccupied with their cellphones."
Funny, because the only way most would notice such a thing is by reading a story about a decline in conversations coming up in an alert on said smartphones. But we digress.
Wright offered the following on the discount, "It was just something that we just wanted to see if we could stop for a little bit and have people enjoy each other's company more than their cellphones."
Wright also told reporters that "nearly all their customers" have given up the phone to the box that is passed around, submitting to old-school diner entertainment: thinking up amusing anecdotes from the day that don't revolve around the "crazy weather we are having."
Local Greta Siebersma seems to enjoy the measure, "I've (seen) it too, where a couple is out to dinner together and they may both be on their cellphone. You say, 'What's the point? Why are you even bothering to go out?'"
Now the obvious question has to be, if a meal isn't Instagrammed and posted, does it actually exist?
Eater's Khushbu Shah reports there are other diners that have offered similar deals before Sneaky's Chicken: "A restaurant in Beirut also offers guests a 10 percent discount on their checks if they leave phones in the restaurant's possession and 'socialize.'" Shah continues, "Other restaurants such as Bucato in Los Angeles have created 'designated cell phone areas,' while others have flat out banned phones all together."
This of course ignores the countless people one encounters at parties who are, "totally going to start a phone box during dinner time, because these phones are crazy."
For most, dinner will continue on at full price, featuring Facebook baby picture posts and the next episode of Parks and Rec on Netflix.
For those lucky few who can find it, there are restaurants popping up around the nation incentivizing human contact. Although we hear that kind of stuff is overrated.
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